Five iambs per line describe which meter?

• A. Trochaic Tetrameter
• B. Anapestic Trimeter
• C. Iambic Pentameter
• D. Dactylic Hexameter

Answer: (C)

Meter in poetry is about the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line and how many feet it contains. An iamb is a two-syllable unit with an unstressed first syllable followed by a stressed second syllable. When you have five of those iambic feet in one line, you get iambic pentameter, which usually reads with a ten-syllable line in English. This rhythm is a hallmark of much English verse, famously used by Shakespeare. The other options involve different feet or counts: trochaic tetrameter uses four feet of trochees (stressed-unstressed), which sounds opposite in stress pattern; anapestic trimeter uses three-syllable feet of unstressed-unstressed-stressed, giving a brisk, galloping rhythm; dactylic hexameter uses six feet of dactyls (stressed-unstressed-unstressed), common in classical epic but not in standard English dramatic verse. So the description of five iambs per line matches iambic pentameter.