Latin Meters

The following meters are the most common ones used in Greek and Latin poetry. In English, we talk about long and short syllables. In Greek and Latin verse, the syllables were stressed or unstressed. The slash represents a stressed syllable and the tilde an unstressed syllable. (Elsewhere you may find the stressed syllable represented by a dash and the unstressed syllable by the letter u.)

• Iam - Iambic Meter~ / (unstressed, stressed)
• Trochee - Trochaic Meter /~ (stressed, unstressed)
• Anapest -Anapestic Meter ~ ~ / (unstressed, unstressed, stressed)
• Dactyl - Dactylic Meter / ~ ~ (stressed, stressed, unstressed)
• Spondee - Spondaic Meter / / (stressed, stressed)

Also see Some Greek and Latin Meters for the Glyconic, Alcaic, Sapphic, and Asclepeadean meters.