The Living Line

A five-week live course in the rhythms of poetry

For poets who want to understand the heartbeat of their lines, whether you write in traditional forms, free verse, or both

Wednesdays, 7 / 14 / 21 / 28 October and 4 November 2026 12–2pm ET (9–11am PT, 5–7pm UK) 

Live on Zoom · Limited to 12 places · Every session recorded

The 28 October session is 4–6pm UK: UK clocks go back that weekend and US clocks don't.

My last four courses all sold out, and places here are limited to 12.

Meter is the most fundamental tool in poetry. Older than rhyme, more primal even than metaphor, it has been in Western poetry from the beginning.

But few people writing poetry today feel confident about what meter is, or how to identify it—let alone how to use it. The terminology alone puts most people off before they ever reach the ideas.

That's a loss, and not only for poets who want to write sonnets and villanelles. Meter is how a poet learns rhythm, and rhythm is what makes a poem sound like a poem rather than prose in short lines.

If you write free verse, this course is especially for you

I write free verse too. But I began by writing only metrical verse, for several years, and I'm very glad I did. It gave me an ear: for how to make sprightly, lively poetic rhythms, and for how to make a poem that sounds like poetry rather than prose trying to be a poem.

I don't write much in meter these days, but thanks to that training I'm always aware of how my lines feel. I can tell when one is flat, and what to do about it—adding stresses or taking them away. I can tell when I'm slipping into a regular meter without meaning to, and decide whether to keep the pattern or break it. Knowing meter gives me a control over my free verse that I don't believe I'd have otherwise.

And as a teacher, I see a great many free verse poems where the writer hasn't yet learned how to move their rhythms away from prose. This course is designed to help you do exactly that.

Over five weeks, you will

• Find and identify meter, so you can see how other poets have used it and learn from them

• Write your own poems in meter, which is the only way to get to know it deeply

• Study and use the different meters, so you can create different moods and effects

• Vary your meter to keep it flexible and fresh, rather than mechanical or sing-song

• Apply meter to traditional forms — blank verse, the sonnet, terza rima...

• ...and use metrical thinking to energize your free verse

The five sessions

1. Stressed and Unstressed Syllables (7 October) Where everything starts. Finding stress in single words, then in sentences, then in lines of poetry—and a first writing exercise that puts that awareness to work.

2. Iambic Verse (14 October) The heartbeat of English poetry. We define the iambic foot and the main iambic meters, look at examples from classic and contemporary poets, and you write your first lines of iambic verse.

3. Other Meters (21 October) Anapests and trochees in depth, with writing practice in each, plus a first look at dactyls, spondees, and pyrrhics. Every foot has its own movement and its own feel.

4. Varying the Meter (28 October) The difference between meter that sounds alive and meter that sounds like a metronome. How poets bend the pattern on purpose, and how to do it yourself—including writing dialogue in iambic that still sounds like speech.

5. Meter in the Real World (4 November) Meter in traditional forms, including a terza rima exercise. Then rhythm in free verse: how adjusting the stresses in a line makes it springier, livelier, and less like prose.

How it works

Accessible. We start by finding the stress in ordinary words and build from there, step by step. No prior knowledge of meter or poetic terminology is assumed, and the pace is deliberately gentle. This subject has a reputation for being forbidding. It isn't, when it's taught properly.

Practical. Every session is a workshop rather than a lecture, with writing, discussion, and pair work each week. You'll leave each class having written something of your own.

Supported. Short homework between sessions, around 30–45 minutes, with a selection reviewed live each week so the common questions get answered. Every participant also sends me eight lines of their own metrical verse each week, and I tell you what's working and what isn't. That matters more in meter than in almost any other subject: you often can't tell whether you've got it right without someone checking. There's also an optional study-buddy scheme, if you'd like a partner to practice with between sessions.

Places are limited to 12. Every session is recorded and shared, so if you have to miss one you won't lose the content, and you can bring your questions to the next live class. Payment can be split into two equal installments.

Two ways to join

Month of Meter: Standard — $449 All ten hours of live teaching, full handouts, every recording, weekly homework with a selection reviewed live, and weekly feedback from me on eight lines of your own metrical writing.

Month of Meter: Masterclass — $599 Everything above, plus a private 30-minute one-on-one with me, working through three of your own poems in detail. Only three Masterclass places are available.

Not sure which is right for you? Email me at brian@brianevansjones.com and I'll help you decide.