User:Saposcat/Poetic Meter

In the Ottoman Turkish language, the structures of the poetic foot (تفعل tef'ile) and of poetic meter (وزن vezin) were indirectly borrowed from the Arabic poetic tradition through the medium of the Persian language.

Ottoman poetry, also known as Dîvân poetry, was generally written in quantitative, or syllable-timed, meter. Syllables are divided into three types:

• Open, or short, syllables (açık hece) consist of either a short vowel alone, or a consonant followed by a short vowel
  • Examples: a-dam ("man"); zir-ve ("summit, peak")
• Closed, or long, syllables (kapalı hece) consist of either a long vowel alone, a consonant followed by a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by a consonant
  • Examples: Â-dem ("Adam"); kâ-fir ("non-Muslim"); at ("horse")
• Lengthened syllables (meddli hece) count as one closed plus one open syllable and consist of a vowel followed by a consonant cluster, or a long vowel followed by a consonant
  • Examples: kürk ("fur"); âb ("water")

In writing out a poem's poetic meter, open syllables are symbolized by "." and closed syllables are symbolized by "–". From the different syllable types, a total of sixteen different types of poetic foot—the majority of which are either three or four syllables in length—are constructed, which are named and scanned as follows:

These individual poetic feet are then combined in a number of different ways, most often with four feet per line, so as to give the poetic meter for a line of verse. Some of the most commonly used meters are the following:

• me fâ’ î lün / me fâ’ î lün / me fâ’ î lün / me fâ’ î lün
  . – . – / . – . – / . – . – / . – . –
• me fâ i lün / fe i lâ tün / me fâ i lün / fe i lün
  . – . – / . . – – / . – . – / . . –
• fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lün
  – . – – / – . – – / – . – – / – . –
• fe i lâ tün / fe i lâ tün / fe i lâ tün / fe i lün
  . . – – / . . – – / . . – – / . . –
• mef’ û lü / fâ i lâ tü / me fâ î lü / fâ i lün
  – – . / – . – . / . – – . / – . –

• • Ezelden şâh-ı aşkın bende-i fermânıyüz cânâ
    Mahabbet mülkünün sultânı âli-şânıyüz cânâ (Baki)
• me fâ i lün / fe i lâ tün / me fâ i lün / fe i lün
  • Müzeyyen oldu reyâhin bezendi bağ-ı çemen
    Meğer ki bağa haber geldi yârdan bu gece (Ahmedi)
• fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lün
  • Ey Nedim ey bülbül-i şeydâ niçün hâmûşsun
    Sende evvel çok nevalar güft ü gûlar vâr idi
• fe i lâ tün / fe i lâ tün / fe i lâ tün / fe i lün
  • İrişir menzil-i maksûduna âheste giden
    Tîz-reftâr olanın pâyine dâmen dolaşır (Laedri)
• mef’ û lü / fâ i lâ tü / me fâ î lü / fâ i lün
  • Vasf-ı lebünle şi’rim olur ser-be-ser lezîz
    Kim âb kand-i nâbı mükerrer eder lezîz (Dehhani)