Accentual-syllabic verse is an extension of
accentual verse which fixes both the number of stresses and syllables within a
line or
stanza. Accentual-syllabic verse is highly regular and therefore easily scannable. Usually, either one
metrical foot, or a specific pattern of metrical feet, is used throughout the entire poem; thus we can talk about a poem being in, for example,
iambic pentameter. Poets naturally vary the rhythm of their lines, using devices such as
inversion,
elision,
masculine and feminine endings, the
caesura, using
secondary stress, the addition of extra-metrical syllables, or the omission of syllables, the substitution of one foot for another.