Poetic measure

Poetic measure is the concrete realisation of metre, defined by the type of foot and the number of its repetitions in the line. If metre indicates the character of the foot (iamb, trochee, dactyl), the measure specifies its length: iambic tetrameter, dactylic hexameter, amphibrachic trimeter. The choice of measure substantially affects the intonation and generic colouring of a work: short measures sound livelier, long ones more expansive and solemn. Within a single poem the measure is usually constant, but a deliberate combination of different measures is also possible (variable-foot verse, the free iambic verse of the fable with lines of varying length in one metre). Determining the measure is an obligatory step of versification analysis that precedes the description of rhythmic deviations.