Try the Test-Yourself Quiz on Prosody
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1. Read the poem aloud. As you read, listen for a natural emphasis in the rhythm of the line. The syllables you emphasize will be those that you'll mark with a / (indicating a stressed syllable).
2. As you read the poem aloud, try tapping your foot or pounding your hand on a desk when you hear the accented syllables. This will help you to hear the rhythm.
If you can't hear the rhythm, try reading the words into a tape recorder and listening to them. You can also try reading the lines to someone and asking that person to mark the stressed syllables, or, conversely, ask someone to read the poem and mark the lines as you listen to them.
3. Read more than one line. Sometimes the first line of a poem may have spondees or other types of feet that will throw off your reading. Remember, you are looking for the predominant metrical pattern of the piece.
4. Mark the stressed syllables first, and then go back and mark the unstressed syllables. The mark for these is a breve, which looks like a sideways parenthesis mark or shallow "u."
5. If you are not sure which syllables should be stressed, look for two- and three-syllable words in a line and pronounce them as you would normally pronounce them. These will help you to determine the stressed syllables in a line. For example, you'd say aBOVE, not Above, MURmuring, not murMURing or murmurING.
6. Try typing out the lines and breaking the words into syllables so that you can see them individually instead of as part of a word.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day
The cur few tolls the knell of part ing day
This will make the process of finding the stressed syllables easier.
7. Once you have marked the lines for stressed and unstressed syllables, divide the lines according to the kinds of feet. (Use a larger / slash mark or circle the feet.):
unstressed STRESSED = iambic (sounds like da-DUM: aBOVE, beLOW)
Example: The CURfew TOLLS the KNELL of PARTing DAY
STRESSED unstressed = trochaic (sounds like DA-dum: CAREless CHILDren)
unstressed unstressed STRESSED = anapestic (galloping meter; sounds like da-da-DUM: by reQUEST )
STRESSED unstressed unstressed = dactylic (DA-dum-dum: MUR-mur-ing A-li-en; JU-li-et CAP-u-let )
8. Count up the number of feet.
Monometer = one foot
Dimeter = two feet
Trimeter = three feet
Tetrameter = four feet
Pentameter = five feet
Hexameter = six feet
Heptameter or the septenary = seven feet
Octameter = eight feet
9. Put the type of foot (iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic) together with the number of feet, and you've identified the meter.