ABSTRACT
Jesper Kruse’s introduction to poetic metre is divided into two main sections, the first of which explains the basic concepts and terms necessary for metrical analysis in the accentual-syllabic tradition: syllables, stress, feet and lines. The other main section applies these concepts to English verse and outlines a five-step procedure for scansion that combines traditional prosodic considerations with linguistic analysis. Throughout the chapter, the main focus is on iambic verse, and the chapter concludes with a discussion of why iambic verse is the most widely used metre in English, and how metrical conventions inform, and sometimes challenge, poetic meaning.
