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Meter is the structured rhythm of a line of poetry, determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is one of the fundamental elements of poetic form and contributes to a poem’s musicality, emotional tone, and pacing. Different metrical patterns, such as iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic, describe the arrangement of syllables within each metrical foot. The number of metrical feet in a line also matters; there is pentameter (five feet), tetrameter (four feet), hexameter (six feet), and so on. The epic poetry of Homer and Virgil uses dactylic hexameter: Each dactyl comprises one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables; hexameter means that there are six metrical feet per line. This meter creates a stately, expansive rhythm suited for epic storytelling.
Walcott’s Omeros draws from this epic tradition by using a modern form of hexameter. His adaptation gives the poem a sweeping, lyrical flow that echoes the grandeur of Homeric verse while remaining accessible and grounded in Caribbean speech rhythms. The opening line, for example, is in exact dactylic hexameter: “This is how, one sunrise, we cut down them canoes”; however, the phrase “them canoes” localizes the Homeric meter in a Saint Lucian
By Derek Walcott
Afro-Caribbean Literature
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Colonialism & Postcolonialism
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