ABSTRACT
Throughout our discussion of poetic meter and the beat–offbeat method of scansion, we have principally used labels like "four-beat line" or "five-beat line." The reason for this is probably clear. Since the rule for meter in English is that rhythm in English poetry is realized by the alternation of beats and offbeats, we wished to use labels that would continually reinforce this basic understanding. You have probably noticed, though, that from time to time the label "iambic pentameter" has slipped in during discussions of the kinds of five-beat lines to which we have paid considerable attention, as in Shakespeare's and Browning's sonnets.
