Heptameter

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Heptameter, in poetry, means a line or lines of verse consisting of seven metrical feet.

Iambic heptameter
An example of iambic heptameter (called the "fourteener"):


 * O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,
 * Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene,-
 * As springs in deserts found seem sweet, All brackish though they be,
 * So midst the wither'd waste of life, These tears would flow to me!
 * (– Lord Byron, "Youth and Age").

Scanned:
 * O COULD / I FEEL / as I / have FELT, // or BE / what I / have BEEN,
 * Or WEEP / as I / could ONCE / have WEPT / o'er MAN/y a VAN/ish'd scene,-
 * As SPRINGS / in DES/erts FOUND / seem SWEET, // all BRACK/ish THOUGH / they BE,
 * So MIDST / the WITH/er'd WASTE / of LIFE, // those TEARS / would FLOW / to ME!

Notice the break inside the line (called a caesura), signalled by the comma and indicated by the // symbol, after the fourth foot in three of the four lines. Heptameter verse tended to have a natural break at this point. After a while, it became the fashion to break the heptameter line at this point, the result being the forms known as ballad meter (or ballad measure), and common meter (or common measure).

Rewritten in common meter, Byron's lines would read:
 * O could I feel as I have felt,
 * Or be what I have been,
 * Or weep as I could once have wept
 * O'er many a vanish'd scene,-
 * As springs in deserts found seem sweet,
 * All brackish though they be,
 * So midst the wither'd waste of life,
 * These tears would flow to me!

Number of feet per line

 * Monometer - one
 * Dimeter - two
 * Trimeter - three
 * Tetrameter - four
 * Pentameter - five
 * Hexameter - six
 * Heptameter - seven