Scansion
Each line split into syllables and feet with its stresses: shall I | com-PARE | thee TO | a SUM | mer’s DAY, five iambs, iambic pentameter. The answer key gives the full scansion.
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Teaching guide: poetic metre, rhyme and literary devices
Hearing the beat of a line, finding its rhyme scheme and naming its devices are the core of poetry analysis at secondary school. This free poetic metre and literary devices worksheet generator uses public-domain poems (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Dickinson, Tennyson…): choose the exercise and the level and get a new A4 worksheet with its answer key.
Student worksheet 
Answer key Rhyme schemes
The letter of each line of real stanzas: ABAB quatrains, AA couplets, the ABCB of a ballad stanza and the AABBA of a limerick.
Stanza forms
Couplet, heroic couplet, quatrain, ballad stanza and limerick, told apart by their lines, metre and rhyme scheme.
Literary devices
Simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, repetition, anaphora, rhetorical question, apostrophe, antithesis, inversion, paradox and oxymoron, each in lines where it is plain to see. Wrong options are never arguable.
Checked
Every line is scanned by hand and checked by an engine: its syllables must spell the line and its stress pattern must be a regular metre, or the line stays out of the bank.
Public-domain poems
Classic poems quoted as the standard editions print them, with the poet and the work under every extract, in British spelling.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Poetic Metre Worksheets
What is iambic pentameter?
A line of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one: so LONG | as MEN | can BREATHE | or EYES | can SEE. It is the line of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays. Tetrameter has four feet and trimeter three; trochees (DOU-ble) start on the stress.
How do students scan a line?
Read it aloud, split it into syllables, mark the syllables the voice stresses and group them into feet. Then count the feet and name the foot: iambic (x /), trochaic (/ x), anapaestic (x x /) or dactylic (/ x x). The advanced level adds feminine endings and lines of sixteen syllables.
Which grades are these worksheets for?
Grades 8 to 10. The starter level has iambic tetrameter, couplets and quatrains and the basic devices; the intermediate level iambic pentameter, ballad stanzas, limericks and devices such as anaphora and apostrophe; the advanced level anapaestic and dactylic lines, paradox and oxymoron.
Where do the poems come from?
From public-domain poetry: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Donne, Herrick, Pope, Gray, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Longfellow, Poe, Dickinson, Lear and Kipling. Every extract is credited.
Can I mix them with other exercises?
Yes. Add exercises from other generators to the same sheet, such as syllables, reading comprehension or creative writing prompts, and print them together.
How do I print only the answer key?
Press Print and choose Answer key (or Worksheet and answer key). For new lines with the same settings, select the exercise and press “New”.
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