common meter
1
8.5
- noun
- /ˈkɒmən ˈmiːtər/
- Literature
:
medida común
- Many traditional ballads are written in common meter, allowing for a rhythmic storytelling style.
Examples
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To say the least, the common meter of the hymn found in Dickinson's early bound poems has not survived this latest flight.
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He drifted along until a kind of balance downshifted, returning him to common meter, then got up to stretch his back.
Fiction book (1997) -
The church choir often sings hymns composed in common meter, which helps the congregation follow along easily.
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In poetry classes, we studied how common meter creates a musical quality that enhances the text's emotional impact.
Synonyms
A group of four lines with four beats then three beats in alternating lines, often ABAB or ABCB rhyme
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning as a type of poetic metre is transparently signalled by combining 'common' (ordinary/frequently used) with 'meter' (a rhythmic pattern), so a learner would likely infer it refers to a commonly used poetic beat. However, the exact technical specification (the alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter pattern and its specific use in ballads and hymns) is specialist knowledge not predictable from the constituents, making the term only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Common meter comes from old hymns and ballads. People called it common because many songs used the same line rhythm, and meter means the pattern of beats, so with its repeated long-short-long-short lines the words could be sung to many different 'melodies', which is why it means the familiar line pattern used in hymns and ballads.