#common meter

Wonderful suggestion!

– ◡ / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – Under / a sprea/ding chest/nut-tree ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ –     ⁠The vil/lage smi/thy stands; ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – The smith, / a migh/ty man / is he, ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ ◡ –     With large / and si/newy hands; ◡ ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – And the mus/cles of / his braw/ny arms ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ –     Are strong / as i/ron bands.

Metrical form: each stanza is 3 couplets of tetrameter + trimeter, mostly iambic but with some anapests. This kind of couplet is sometimes called ballad meter, or a looser form of common hymn meter. But it feels pretty different with 3 couplets per stanza! There are also some line-initial trochaic inversions, like in line 1.

Rhyme scheme: ABABCB

i used to be afraid of death

i was an anxious little kid

i'd check my pulse with bated breath

and try to keep it hid

i don't worry anymore

because i know his name

you never speak the name, of course

but you breathe it just the same

Source: @jstrongbad on tiktok

A common meter rhyme is fun,

But means so many things

In music it is 4/4 time

And often how one sings

If you do know the melody

Amazing Grace does use

You'll notice what I'm writing here

Does fit that song of booze

(I say "that song of booze" because

The melody was first

In use for drinking purposes

You'd sing and quench your thirst)

But back to common meters now,

Some other ones might be

In music called 3/4, 6/8,

4/4 as here you see.

But meters' names in poetry

By different names do go

Iambic in tetrameter

Are half of these, you know!

The anapestic feet are good

(Syllabic stress they tell)

Combine it with pentameter

Or trimeter as well.

So there you have some meter names

The common ones to find

In music and in poetry

That saved a wretch like me,

And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy,

Was blind but now I see

Through many dangers toils and snares

Death kindly stopped for me

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to bear,

And immortality

When we’ve been here ten thousand years

They call it the rising sun,

We’ve no less ways to sing God’s grace