How can I determine the meter and rhythm of a poem? How do I know if a syllable is stressed or unstressed?

2 answers

Basically, a stressed syllable is pronounced a little more loudly than an unstressed syllable.

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The meter IS the rhythm.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/meter.html
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/635.html

That was the poem in which I learned meter. It is hard to avoid the stress-unstress syllables.