Which term describes a poem's rhythmic pattern?

• A. Meter
• B. Denotation
• C. Connotation
• D. Synonym

Answer: (A)

Rhythm in poetry comes from meter, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line. Meter gives poetry its musical beat and helps a reader feel a regular rise and fall as the poem flows. For example, many poems use iambic meter, where each pair of syllables has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, and this pattern repeats across the line. Because meter names this repeating rhythm, it’s the term that describes a poem’s rhythmic pattern.

Denotation is the literal dictionary meaning of a word, and connotation is the feelings or associations a word evokes beyond its literal meaning. A synonym is a word that has a similar meaning to another word. None of these deal with the rhythm or beat of a poem, which is why meter is the right concept to describe how a poem sounds in its rhythm.