Live Life Team
Meter in poetry refers to the cadence and syllabification of the writing. There are some poets who emulate the meter of past writers. There are also some who have their own meters so as to have their works labelled as originals. However, there are bad things as well as good things to all metering .
Metering can be good because the process of matching text to meter may add structure, especially to the work of the beginner. Metering one’s work also provides a framework for one’s work. Having a meter for one’s work can also enable the poet to think more about his choice of words and their order. Furthermore, metering one’s work is said to be the practice of literary masters of long ago, especially of those poets that are often considered as the only true writers of poetry.
However, there are also reasons why metering of poems should be avoided. Among them is that metering one’s work adds predictability to the poem. It can also prevent a writer from including the most relevant words or phrases for the benefit of using a word that fits the meter. Furthermore, metering usually demands that a poet use ‘padding’ words just to complete a line or phrase. So while metering has much to add to the beauty and appeal of poetry, its automatic employment can lead to dull, uninspired writing whose only merit is faithful adherence to iambic pentameter.
