Jeffrey Wainwright defines metre as follows:

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“A specific, recurring pattern of poetic rhythm. Typically in English a metred line will have a set number of syllables, or stresses, or a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables, i.e. accentual/ stress-syllabic metre”

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The first thing to do when trying to identify the metre is to break the words in your sentence up into separate syllables. So the line (following our ‘tool’ theme)

The knitting needles loudly clicked and clacked.

becomes

The   knit   ting   nee   dles   loud     ly        clicked        and   clacked.

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Next, we need to identify the stressed and unstressed syllables. The stressed syllable is the one which has the most emphasis on it. It is often the core of a word or an important word. The unstressed syllables are usually small words (the, a, in, to etc.) or prefixes and suffixes (sur-, un-, -ing, -y, etc.).

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The   knit   ting   nee   dles   loud     ly        clicked        and   clacked.

U      S       U       S       U       S          U         S                 U      S

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This metre is called iambic. It is the most frequently occurring metre in English poetry.

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If we swap the pattern round so that an unstressed (U) syllable follows a stressed (S) syllable, it is called trochaic. Let’s adjust our sentence:

Knitting needles click and clack too loudly.

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This time, you may be able to see, the line begins with a stressed (S) syllable. Can you divide it into syllables and find the rest of the stress pattern? It should look like this:

Knit    ting     nee      dles     click     and    clack     too     loud    ly. (10)

S        U         S          U         S          U       S           U        S        U

 

Here the smallest repeated unit is trochaic: stressed (S) followed by unstressed (U).

Knit    ting     nee      dles     click     and    clack     too     loud    ly. (10)

S         U         S          U         S          U        S          U        S         U

 

The other two main metrical patterns are anapaestic and dactylic. Here, each metrical unit uses three syllables.

If you read the line out loud, you will recognise a more pronounced rhythm:

With a click and a clack quiet needles they knit.

You can see that the sentence had to be changed more substantially too, because extra syllables had to be added. Have you tried finding the stress pattern?

With   a   click    and    a    clack    qui   et    nee   dles    they    knit. (12)

U        U   S          U       U    S          U     U     S       U        U        S

 

This pattern, unstressed (U) unstressed (U) stressed (S), is called anapaestic.

If we swap it round again we need to create a very different sentence:

Clickety clackety needles knit noisily.

Can you spot the pattern?

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Click   et   y    clack    e   ty    nee   dles   knit    noi    si    ly.

S         U    U    S         U   U     S       U       U        S      U     U

This is called dactylic: stressed (S) unstressed (U) unstressed (U).

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(text taken from the course)

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