I want to grow as a poet

[Absolem]

There's a lot of jargon that goes completely over my head. I'd like to improve as a poet so at the expense of sounding like a noobskiis,

What's meter?

[Bloggsworth]

http://www.volecentral.co.uk/vf/

You'll find lots of useful info here.

[PiP]

Meter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats. It is also called a foot. Each foot has a certain number of syllables in it, usually two or three syllables. The difference in types of meter is which syllables are accented and which are not.
Read more at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/e...7BdeYXZpCRO.99

[Ariel]

Meter is the beat of language.

http://www.writingrhymeandmeter.com/...s-fredrickson/

[Absolem]

http://www.volecentral.co.uk/vf/

You'll find lots of useful info here.

The link has a lot of useful information. I bookmarked it.
I prefer to hear directly from a poet as opposed to a link. I wanna hear how certain things are explained by the poets who use them ya know?

[Absolem]

So meter is the rythem of the piece? Could I get an example?

[Ariel]

Well, there are several kinds of meter. As PiP explained the lines can be broken into different "feet". These feet break down between the accents on a line and the syllables in the line--at least in English. Every language breaks down differently. For example French is mostly accentual while Japanese is syllabic.

I'll be able to give you better explanations if I were at work where I keep my poetry writing books.

If I recall, you're a rap fan, right? Listen to the way Eminem emphasizes certain words (or any rap artist, really) and you'll hear the basics of meter.

[Phil Istine]

The link has a lot of useful information. I bookmarked it.
I prefer to hear directly from a poet as opposed to a link. I wanna hear how certain things are explained by the poets who use them ya know?

To start with something fairly simple:

An iambic beat is two syllables with the stronger beat coming second (da-DUM) - like a heartbeat. Example from a line of mine (so maybe not the greatest example):

An island nation ruled the waves.

That has four iambic beats (stressed syllables are in bold). A lot of poetry has five iambic beats to a line (iambic pentameter).

If you want a line with syllables 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. stressed, that is fine too. It's like DA-dum. That is known as a trochee.

That's it for now. There are loads more but those are two of the most basic.

So, da-DUM = iambic
DA-dum = trochee

EDIT: Actually, I should really have referred to them as feet rather than beats. Just those two bits of information should give you something to play around with for a while.

[Absolem]

If I recall, you're a rap fan, right? Listen to the way Eminem emphasizes certain words (or any rap artist, really) and you'll hear the basics of meter.

I notice Eminem uses a lot of stretch rhymes like ' birthday, first place' not to mention he's one of the best if not the best at keeping rhythem and rhyme within a beat. Is that what meter is? Keeping ryhmically consistant?

[Ariel]

Meter can change from line to line but it sounds and looks amateur unless executed very skillfully. To answer your question simply, yes.