一、步长 （Falling Meter）

两步：Dimeter — two feet

三步：Trimeter — three feet

四步：Tetrameter — four feet

五步：Pentameter — five feet

六步：Hexameter — six feet

七步：Heptameter — seven feet

八步：Octameter — eight feet

二、格式 (forms)

抑扬格（iamb）：是最常见的。《雪尘》 – 罗伯特·弗罗斯特

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood  
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

扬抑格（trochee）：

Should you ask me, whence these stories?

Whence these legends and traditions,

With the odours of the forest,

With the dew and damp of meadows,

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

抑抑扬格（anapaest）：

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,….

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast…
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

扬抑抑格（dactyl）：

Just for a handful of silver he left us

Just for a riband to stick in his coat

扬扬格（spondee）：

很少使用。仅使用它不太可能写一首诗歌。一般作为以上四种格式的变体，掺起来一起用。

White founts falling in the courts of the sun
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run

 这下，当你听到人们讨论五步抑扬格时，你就知道它的格式了吧？

摘自莎士比亚《罗密欧与朱丽叶》：

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,

五步抑扬格最常见了。这一眼看上去长长短短的诗歌，却是整整齐齐的格律诗。