This document defines poetic meter as the basic rhythmic structure of verses. It discusses prosody as the study of meter and scanning as marking stressed and unstressed syllables. It outlines common stress patterns like iamb, trochee, spondee, anapest and dactyl defined by stressed and unstressed syllables. Each pattern is called a foot, and poems are categorized by the number of feet like monometer, dimeter, trimeter, and pentameter. Examples are given of different stress patterns and feet.