anisometric verse

▪ literature

      poetic verse that does not have equal or corresponding poetic metres (metre). An anisometric stanza is composed of lines of unequal metrical length, as in William Wordsworth (Wordsworth, William)'s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” which begins

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Appareled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore

Turn whereso'er I may

By night or day

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

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