The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018
Pentameter
Pentameter: A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet. Pentameter is the predominant line length in English verse.
EXAMPLE: The last lines of Wallace Stevens’s “Sunday Morning” (1915) are written in pentameter:
Deer walk│upon│our moun│tains, and│the quail │
Whistle│about│us their│sponta│neous cries│
Sweet ber│ries ri│pen in│the wil│derness;│
And, in│the i│sola│tion of│the sky,│
At eve│ning, cas│ual flocks│of pi│geons make│
Ambi│guous un│dula│tions as│they sink,│
Downward│to dark│ness, on│extend│ed wings.│