Pentameter, Poetry, and Poe
By Matthew Cox

Most forms of poetry have used iambic meters, various pieces of Edgar Allan Poe’s writings used unconventional ways of using syllable beats. The rhythm in poems have used patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables for artistic effect. The most common form of meters is the iambic pentameter. It used five stressed and five unstressed syllables in the same line. Poems by Poe including “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” used the trochaic meter. The metric scheme involved one stressed syllable followed by and unstressed one in the same line. Children’s poems have used beats like these to engage readers. These writing techniques captured the dark tone of Poe’s works. Various writings of Edgar Allan Poe use the trochaic meter for artistic effect.

An iamb has been a metrical unit or foot used to measure the beat of stressed and unstressed syllables in poems (Baldick, p. 120). Stressed syllables have followed unstressed syllables. Works including sonnets or heroic couples were measured in iambic pentameter. It had five stressed syllables and five unstressed ones, with a total of ten beats. For example, the line “Oft she rejects, but never offends” by Alexander Pope showed an iambic pentameter (120). The iambic tetrameter involved used eight syllables on each line. Half were stressed and the others were unstressed. For example, “Come live with me, and be my love” by Christopher Marlowe used this pattern. Iambic tetrameter was often used in Greek dramas and Renaissance poetry. The least often used pattern has been the iambic hexameter. It referred to a line with three stressed syllables and three unstressed ones.

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” differed from poems by using the trochaic meter. It used one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (Gioia). Such a pattern was more commonly found in children’s nursery rhymes. For example, the beat of “Nevermore” has been “Nev” (stressed), “er” (unstressed), and “more” (stressed). A pattern such as this caught the reader’s attention with an internal rhyme. Overall, the narrative poem told a story of a person shut in a room with "Darkness there, and nothing more" on New Year’s Eve. The speaker whispered the name of his dead girlfriend. He heard a scratching at the door and hoped that it was her ghost. The sound came from the window next. When the narrator opened the window, a raven flew in and landed on the bust of Pallas Athena. The raven has traditionally symbolized death. Landing on a white marble state represented the contrast between light and dark, or life and death. Much of the effect came from the trochaic meter. It gave the poem a songlike quality.

Themes of death and depression were common in Poe’s work. His last published poem “Annabel Lee” dealt with the same idea with various writing effects. The idea behind the writing was a man longing for a woman who died. He used her death as a metaphor of knowing her in “a kingdom by the sea” (123helpme.com). Many literary experts have agreed that Poe wrote “Annabel Lee” in memory of Virginia Clemm, his dead wife. Others speculated that it was an original idea. The depressing tone of the piece was created by iambic and anapestic feet, alternating between tetrameter and trimeter. An anapestic beat was a metrical foot made up by two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one. For example, the word “interrupt” has broken down as follows:”in” (unstressed), “ter” (unstressed), and “rupt” (stressed).

Various writings of Edgar Allan Poe use the trochaic meter for artistic effect. Many poems in various generas have used iambic meters including the iambic pentameter. This writing technique involved five stressed and unstressed syllables in the same line. Different poems have various numbers of syllables. Poe showed this by writing “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” with the trochaic meter. This technique included one stressed syllable following an unstressed syllable. Writing techniques including these have captured the reader’s attention. Although many children’s rhymes have used the trochaic meter, Poe incorporated it into his macabre writings.



Works Cited:

"An Analysis of Annabel Lee." 123HelpMe.com. 08 Feb 2008
http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=4160>.

Baldick, Chris. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
“On Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven.’” Dana Gioia Online. 08 February 2008
http://www/danagioia.net/essays/epoe.htm