Tetrameter
Quick answer: Tetrameter is a four foot verse line, one of the most common metres in English poetry. See iambic and trochaic examples and learn to write it well.
Tetrameter is a line of verse containing four metrical feet, which gives it four main beats. It is arguably the most natural line length in English: songs, chants, hymns, nursery rhymes and a huge share of the metrical canon all move in four-beat lines. Where pentameter approximates speech, tetrameter approximates song, and the ear recognises it instantly.
The line comes in several flavours. Iambic tetrameter (da-DUM four times) is smooth and swift. Trochaic tetrameter (DUM-da four times) is insistent and chant-like. Anapestic tetrameter gallops. Poets have used the four-beat line for seduction, satire, storytelling and spellcraft, and if you have ever had a poem stuck in your head, odds are it was tetrameter.
How It Works
Four feet, four stresses, usually eight syllables in the iambic form. An original example: 'The morning train pulls out at eight.' The beats land on mor, train, out and eight. Trochaic tetrameter reverses the rhythm and is often catalectic, dropping the final unstressed syllable to end on a beat: 'Every candle burns alone' has that shape. The four-beat line divides naturally into two halves of two beats each, which is why it chants so easily, and why poets fight that tendency by running sentences across lines and varying the feet.
Where You Will See It
Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' shows iambic tetrameter's speed and wit; the short line makes the poem's urgent argument feel breathless. Blake's 'The Tyger' burns in trochaic tetrameter, mostly catalectic, its hammering beats matching the forge imagery. Longfellow borrowed the trochaic version from the Finnish Kalevala for 'The Song of Hiawatha'. Milton's 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso' pivot between tetrameter lines with astonishing lightness, and Coleridge's 'Christabel' loosened the line into four accents with variable syllables, a small revolution in English rhythm.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Reach for tetrameter when you want momentum, memorability or song. Its danger is the jingle: four regular beats with end rhyme can tip into greeting-card rhythm within a stanza. Counter that by enjambing lines, substituting feet at turns of thought, and mixing full rhyme with slant rhyme. If a poem in pentameter feels baggy, recasting it in tetrameter is a classic revision trick; the shorter line forces every phrase to justify itself.
What poets can take from this
- Enjamb freely; end-stopped tetrameter turns into a jingle fast.
- Choose iambic tetrameter for speed and argument, trochaic for chant and spell.
- Substitute a foot where the poem's thought turns, so rhythm marks meaning.
- Pair with trimeter for ballad stanzas, or run whole poems in four-beat couplets.
- Cut adjectives ruthlessly; eight syllables reward verbs and nouns.
Try it yourself
Write a persuasion poem in iambic tetrameter couplets, in the spirit of a speaker talking someone into a midnight swim, and let the short quick lines do the persuading.
Questions
What is the difference between tetrameter and pentameter?
Tetrameter has four feet per line and pentameter has five. Beyond the count, they differ in character: four-beat lines feel like song and divide neatly in half, while five-beat lines resist that split and sound closer to natural speech.
What famous poems are written in tetrameter?
Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' is iambic tetrameter, Blake's 'The Tyger' is largely trochaic tetrameter, and Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' runs on unrhymed trochaic tetrameter throughout.
How many syllables is a tetrameter line?
Eight in iambic or trochaic tetrameter, twelve in anapestic or dactylic. Catalectic lines drop a final syllable, so trochaic tetrameter often runs to seven.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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