Common metre, also called common measure, is a type of poetic rhythm made up of four lines. These lines alternate between iambic tetrameter (lines with four pairs of syllables, each pair having an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) and iambic trimeter (lines with three pairs of syllables, each pair having an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The rhythm is shown by the number of syllables in each line, such as 8.6.8.6, 86.86, or 86 86, or by the abbreviation "CM."

Common metre has been used in ballads like "Tam Lin," hymns like "Amazing Grace," and Christmas carols like "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Because this rhythm is widely used, the words of one song can often be sung to the melody of another. For example, the lyrics of "Advance Australia Fair," "House of the Rising Sun," "Pokémon Theme," and "Amazing Grace" can be set to the same melody as any of the others. In the past, song lyrics were not always tied to specific tunes and could be sung to any suitable melody. For instance, "Amazing Grace" was not matched to the tune "New Britain" (now most commonly associated with it) until 56 years after it was first published in 1779.

Variants

Common metre is connected to other types of poetry.

Ballad metre is similar to common metre because both use couplets made of tetrameter (four beats) and trimeter (three beats). However, in ballad metre, the beats do not always follow the pattern of an iamb (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The number of unstressed syllables can vary. Ballad metre is "less regular and more conversational" than common metre.

In ballad form, each stanza usually rhymes only the second lines of the couplets, not the first, creating a rhyme pattern of ABCB. Common metre typically rhymes both the first and second lines of the couplets, forming a rhyme pattern of ABAB. A ballad with four lines and the ABCB rhyme pattern is called a ballad stanza.

— Oscar Wilde, from The Ballad of Reading Gaol

A fourteener is a line of poetry with 14 syllables, usually made up of seven iambic feet (each foot has one unstressed and one stressed syllable).

Fourteener lines are often used in couplets. When fourteener couplets are divided into quatrains (groups of four lines), they are similar to quatrains in common metre or ballad metre. Instead of alternating lines of tetrameter and trimeter, a fourteener combines these lines to create seven feet per line.

The fourteener gives poets more freedom than common metre because its long lines allow for varied use of pauses (caesuras) and pairs of stressed syllables (spondees) to create different rhythms, instead of following a strict pattern of iambs and line breaks.

— Philip Sidney, from Astrophel and Stella (Seventh Song)

A common adaptation of common metre is the common-metre double, which repeats the common metre pattern twice in each stanza, forming a structure of 8.6.8.6.8.6.8.6. Traditionally, the rhyme pattern should also be repeated, creating ABABCDCD. However, it often uses the ballad metre style, resulting in XAXAXBXB. Examples of this form include "America the Beautiful" and "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." A related variation is the common particular metre, 8.8.6.8.8.6., as seen in the tune Magdalen College, composed in 1774 by William Hayes. This tune has been used with the hymn "We Sing of God, the Mighty Source," by Christopher Smart.

Examples

Common metre is often used in hymns, such as this one by John Newton.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

— from John Newton's "Amazing Grace"

William Wordsworth's "Lucy Poems" are also in common metre.

A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.

— from William Wordsworth's "A slumber did my spirit seal"

Many of the poems by Emily Dickinson use ballad metre.

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The Carriage held but just Ourselves And Immortality.

— from Emily Dickinson's poem #712

Another American poem in ballad metre is Ernest Thayer's "Casey at the Bat":

The outlook wasn't brilliant for The Mudville Nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but One inning more to play.

A modern example of ballad metre is the theme song to Gilligan's Island, which makes it possible to sing other ballads to the same tune. The first two lines use a different rhythm than the usual ballad metre. This shows a ballad metre that is less strict than common metre.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.

Another example is the folk song "House of the Rising Sun."

There is a house in New Orleans, They call the rising sun. And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl, And God, I know I'm one.

"Gascoigns Good Night," by George Gascoigne, uses fourteeners.

The stretching arms, the yawning breath, which I to bedward use, Are patterns of the pangs of death, when life will me refuse: And of my bed each sundry part in shadows doth resemble, The sundry shapes of death, whose dart shall make my flesh to tremble.

— from George Gascoigne's "Gascoigns Good Night"

"America the Beautiful," by Katharine Lee Bates, uses the common metre double. It follows a standard common metre rhyme pattern for the first part and a ballad metre pattern for the second.

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

Likewise, "Advance Australia Fair," by Peter Dodds McCormick, Australia's national anthem:

Australians all let us rejoice, For we are one and free; We've golden soil and wealth for toil; Our home is girt by sea; Our land abounds in nature's gifts Of beauty rich and rare; In hist'ry's page, let ev'ry stage Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair.

The first English dubbed Pokémon theme:

I want to be the very best, Like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, To train them is my cause. I will travel across the land, Searching far and wide. Teach Pokémon to understand, The power that's inside.