William Wordsworth's "Lucy Gray" contains the following meter: alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.
An iamb (or iambic when placed with the number of feet) is a singular metric foot containing an unstressed syllable and then a stressed syllable. Tetrameter refers to the existence of four poetic feet (iambs), and trimeter refers to three poetic feet (also iambs).
A tetrameter "looks" like this (u=unstressed and /= stressed): u/ u/ u/ u/
A trimeter "looks" like this: u/ u/ u/
Here are the first two lines of the poem marked for stress.
Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray,
u / u / u / u /
And when I cross'd the Wild,
u / u / u /
Here it is again with non-bolded letters signalling the unstressed words and bolded letters signalling the stressed syllables:
Oft I had heard of Lucy
Gray,
And when I cross'd the
Wild,
One can see how four pairs of feet exist in the first line: "Oft I," "had heard," "of Lu," cy Gray."
Three exist within the second: "and when," "I cross'd," "the wild."
This alternation of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter extends throughout the poem.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.