[Nick McRae]

A question for the Metrical poets.

This forum's piqued my curiosity about metrical poetry and so I've been doing some reading about it. The sense I get is that a metrical poem typically uses any number of formal metrical types, and has a defined structure that is usually somewhat symmetrical.

My questions are:

1) If we're stretching the rules of meter, when would a poem be considered no longer metrical? What does the boundary between a non-metrical and metrical poem look like?

2) If we stay within the boundary of the above question, can a metrical poem essentially do anything, as long as it has a somewhat consistent form or pattern? Are there any other limits to what a metrical poem is or isn't? Styles or general rules that a metrical poet would adhere to?

3) Qualitative vs Quantitative Meter. I'm seeing this distinction being made on the Wikipedia page. Do writers at this forum typically use just one, or both of these methods?

Apologies if this takes too much time to answer, hopefully someone has the time to take a stab at it.

Thanks in advance for any replies.