How to write metered verse

This article is exclusively about writing metered verse in English, meaning traditional or formal accentual-syllabic verse. Its examples deal with writing in only one meter: iambic pentameter, the most commonly used meter in English. Once a writer is used to writing in one meter, it is relatively easy to apply the same knowledge to a different meter. (Readers are advised to look at the article on Meter to see just how many different meters there can be.)

Writing in accentual-syllabic verse
The poet writing in accentual-syllabic verse must concern himself with two patterns of accented or stressed syllables, imposed by two different logics: that of his words and their stress patterns in the language; and that of his feet and their stress pattern in the meter. When the poet arranges the syllables of his line so that both patterns coincide, the result is euphony, which can give a sense of rightness, or completeness, or a sense of 'heightened speech.' When the two patterns do not match, the result can be discordant, and even ridiculous.

So, a poet wishing to write metered verse well must know both the stress patterns of a prescribed meter, and the stress patterns of the words as naturally used in the language.