Poetry lines are named according to the number of feet they contain. The most common ones follow:
Dimeter:
A line of two feet
Raise her | gently |
Trimeter:
A line of three feet
On high | our flag | is flown |
Tetrameter:
A line of four feet
of all | the men| Ie ‘er | have known |
Pentameter:
A line of five feet
When I | consider how | my light | is spent |
Hexameter:
A line of six feet
When I| have felt | the weight | of days | and years | pushing |
The lines of poetry are usually named after the type of foot that is found most frequently in it. Therefore we speak of an iambic pentameter or a trochaic trimeter. The most common line in the English language is the iambic pentameter. The dactylic hexameter, while much used in Latin and French, has proved too long for English.
You should be able to identify lines in this fashion since very often on the Literature Test you are asked to choose a missing line of poetry and one or more of those suggested may be defective, lacking a foot or using a different type of foot.