Billy Collins

I try to write very fast. I don't revise very much. I write the poem in one sitting. Just let it rip. It's usually over in twenty to forty minutes. I'll go back and tinker with a word or two, change a line for some metrical reason weeks later, but I try to get the whole thing just done.

American Poet

Emily Dickinson never developed. She remained loyal to her persona and to that same little metrical song that stood her in such good stead. She is a striking example of complexity within a simple package. Her rhymes are like bows on the package.

James Fenton

Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity could just as easily be a quality of metrical as of free verse.

British Poet

Derek Walcott

My delight in things is definitely Caribbean. It has to do with landscape and food. The fact that my language may have a metrical direction is because that's the shape of the language. I didn't make that shape.

Poet

John Crowe Ransom

Or he can work it out as a metrical and formal exercise, but he will be disappointed in its content. The New Year's prospect fairly chills his daunting breast.

Sophie Hannah

All through childhood, I wrote verses and mysteries. There is, for me, one connection: structure. My poetry is metrical, rhyming.

Understanding 'metrical' helps to grasp the beat of a poem, much like music.

Poetic Rhythm

'Metrical' doesn't only mean iambic pentameter; it covers all rhythmic patterns.

Iambic Misconception

Some metrical poems may have variations that subtly alter the expected rhythm.

Not Always Obvious

'Metrical' in math relates to how we measure and understand space and shapes.

Spatial Understanding

The term appears in the study and application of geometry in various fields.

Geometry Application

Metrical spaces often involve complex mathematics beyond simple distance.

Beyond Basics

 forming a distinct unit, just as a musical measure consists of a certain number of beats. One line of verse is usually made up of several feet. For example, a dactyl is a metrical foot of three syllables