Poe composed “Lenore” in iambic heptameter, which is a somewhat unusual meter for an English-language poem. The term iambic heptameter means that each line in the poem consists of seven iambs, where an iamb is a metrical foot made up of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g., “to-day” or “for-get”). For an example of a strict line of iambic heptameter, consider the verse that opens the fourth and final stanza:

     A-vaunt | to-night | my heart | is light. | No dirge | will I | up-raise

This line (line 20) consists of precisely seven iambic feet, creating a highly regular rhythm. The regularity of this rhythm creates a sing-song effect, which Poe amplifies through the use of internal rhyme. However, the sing-song effect derives mainly from Poe’s choice to write the poem in heptameter. Seven-foot lines naturally tends to break into smaller units of four and three feet, which often makes heptameter sound like ballad verse. Ballad verse, which is frequently used for songs, typically features alternating lines of tetrameter (i.e., four feet) and trimeter (i.e., three feet). And indeed, that’s precisely what the above-quoted line sounds like. Had Poe simply moved “No dirge I will upraise” to its own line, he’d have had ballad verse.

Although the underlying rhythm of the poem is iambic, Poe introduces numerous minor variations to the meter. These variations have subtle effects, as modeled in the poem’s opening lines (1–2):

     Ah bro- | ken is | the gol- | den bowl! | the spi- | rit flown | for-ev- | er!
     Let the | bell toll! — | a saint- | ly soul | floats on | the Sty- | gian riv- | er. 

Whereas the first line consists solely of iambs, the second line features variation in the first two feet. The first foot is a trochee, which inverts the unstressed–stressed pattern of the poem’s typical iambic rhythm. The second foot consists of two stressed syllables, producing a metrical foot known as a spondee. These slight variations disrupt the regularity of the overall rhythm and encourage us readers to pay closer attention to the language. But perhaps more significant than these small variations in rhythm is that fact that both these lines have an extra unstressed syllable at the end. The term for this phenomenon is hypercatalexis (HY-per-CAT-uh-LECK-sis). In this case, the use of hypercatalexis makes the line go on even after it is metrically complete. This produces a subtle sense of excess, as if the line persists even after it should have ended. On a formal level, this sense of a lingering line mirrors the speakers’ feeling that Lenore’s spirit lingers on, caught between Earth and Heaven.