Scan the following poem and name the meter of the poem. I thought they loved me, did me grace To please themselves;' twas all their deed; God...

In order to
determine the meter of a poem, you must first read the lines and pay attention to which words or
syllables are stressed, or ACCENTED.  In order to do this, read aloud and listen to where the
natural stresses fall; identify the stress of multiple syllable words by using a dictionary to
identify stress, or accent.  I have bolded the stressed (accented) syllables in the lines
below:

I thought they
loved me, did me
grace

To please
themselves; 'twas all their
deed;

God makes, or
fair, or foul, our
face;

If showing
mine so caused to
bleed

My cousins'
hearts, they should have
dropped

A word, and
straight the play had
stopped.

Once you have the
stressed, or accented, syllables marked, then you need to look for the pattern established.  In
this case, you can see the da DUM da DUM pattern.  This pattern helps you to identify
the metrical rhythm. This rhythm is called an iamb, which is an unstressed syllable followed by
a stressed syllable.  Next you count how many repetitions of the pattern appear in each line of
the poem.

In this case, there are 4 repetitions of iambs per line, which
means that this poem is a tetrameter: four repetitions of a patterns.  The meter of the poem is
a  two-part name created by the identification of the predominant rhythm, which is iambs, and
the number of repeated feet per line. That means this poem is in iambic tetrameter. You can
learn more about the various metrical feet by reviewing the links below.