Meaning & use
metrical pattern
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
The regular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a line of poetry its rhythm.
Grammar: Countable: you can talk about one pattern or several patterns in a poem.
Patterns
- the metrical pattern of a poem
- follow a metrical pattern
- break the metrical pattern
Students marked the metrical pattern of each line with stressed and unstressed symbols.
The poem keeps a steady metrical pattern until the final stanza, where it deliberately breaks down.
Different languages produce different metrical patterns because stress and length work differently.
nouncountabletechnical
A repeated arrangement of beats or units in music or in any rhythmic sequence.
Grammar: Countable and often used with 'a': a metrical pattern; the plural is metrical patterns.
Patterns
- a metrical pattern in music
- recognize a metrical pattern
The drummer repeats a simple metrical pattern under the melody.
Listeners notice when a familiar metrical pattern is interrupted.
Word forms
| plural | metrical patterns |
|---|
Common combinations
- a regular metrical pattern
- The sonnet has a regular metrical pattern of five stresses per line.
- scan a metrical pattern
- In class we learned to scan a metrical pattern by marking each foot.
- break the metrical pattern
- The poet breaks the metrical pattern to draw attention to the last word.
- the metrical pattern of a line
- Can you describe the metrical pattern of a line in this poem?
- fit a metrical pattern
- The composer made every phrase fit a metrical pattern of four beats.
Synonyms and how they differ
- meter
- The usual shorter term for the same idea in poetry; 'metrical pattern' spells out that you mean the arrangement itself.
- rhythm
- A broader word for any felt beat, including free verse; a metrical pattern is a specific, describable arrangement.
- measure
- Used in music for a unit of beats; it names a section rather than the whole recurring design.
Word family
Commonly confused: metrical pattern or rhyme scheme?
metrical pattern vs rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of end sounds (ABAB); a metrical pattern is the pattern of stresses, so a poem can have one without the other.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'metrical pattern' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A metrical pattern is the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, so option 2 fits. Option 1 describes rhyme, not stress, and options 3 and 4 use the phrase where no rhythm or verse is involved.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “metrical pattern”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.