Poetry in practice
Doris Corti explains how to keep a tight rein on your free verse
There are different ways to structure a poem and sometimes these will arise quite instinctively. For instance, the metre known as the iambic pentameter (an iamb is a metrical foot of two syllables with the first unstressed and the second stressed), is the nearest to the stress patterns that we use in the English language and will come naturally as we compose. Our lines will be regulated by the metre. A rhyme pattern might also arise instinctively as it creates rhythms that structure our words and lines.