Numbers
Numbers is an older poetic term for the rhythm, measure, or metrical arrangement of verse. Writers and critics once used it to praise the smoothness or music of a poem's lines, especially the way stressed and unstressed syllables fall together. It does not mean individual metrical feet; it means the overall movement and cadence of the verse.
Example
The poem's numbers were steady and musical:
The wind moved slow across the hill,
The darkened pond lay smooth and still.
Related Definitions
[n] an illegal daily lottery
[n] the fourth book of the Old Testament; contains a record of the number of Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt
Related Terms
a mass of, a world of, accent, accentuation, Alexandrine, algorism, algorithm, alliterative meter, amount, amphibrach, amphimacer, amplitude, anacrusis, anapest, antispast, applied mathematics, army, arsis, bacchius, beat, bevy, bingo, bulk, bunch, cadenc