Meter for dummies?

Colleen:

No, it's not the same. And yes, it is essentially five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables - so it's iambic. Iambic...what?

In practice, there are frequent irregularities to be found within individual lines of poetry.
Example - "Planted in our starkly muted garden".
'in' & 'our' are not usually given particular emphasis, so neither is strictly counted as a 'stressed' syllable. That's a common occurence when using stuff like prepositions (in), determiners (our), pronouns, articles etc. They're often neccesary for conveying meaning, but really they are merely grammatical accessories used to connect and qualify the 'meat' of the poem - imagery, ideas, humour, irony, pathos & whatever else the writer wants to indulge in. It's the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that make an impression on the reader - and they also generally determine the basic pattern of meter.

In the same way that a pattern of 'trochaic' lines results in a 'trochaic' poem, so a pattern of trochaic feet produces a trochaic line. Exceptions (variations) are just that - exceptions to a predominant form. It's the overall impression of sounds that determines/identifies the metrical form.

So, ignoring the accessories (and forgetting about the meaning), 'Planted starkly muted garden' represents the trochaic metrical pattern, and the two unstressed syllables (in & our) are just 'fillers', as far as meter is concerned.
However, when reading that line, the 'fillers' don't significantly detract from the rhythmic quality of the line, so they are our friends, and we must respect and accept these subversive little bastards variations.

That variation - a foot of two unstressed syllables - is called a pyrrhus.
Variations can be useful - for intentionally introducing subtle changes in rhythm, so it would be misleading to say that a pyrrhic foot is just a 'filler' (unless the variation doesn't work - in which case it qualifies as an authentic 'f' word).

Removing 'accessory' words can restore a line's meter.

Example - "For the frigid cold of Winter's nearing woes" (S3 L1 - Lush Dreams)

'the' - the definite article - could be removed without changing the meaning, and the line would scan as perfect iambic pentameter.

'for' - a conjunction - could be removed instead, though that would change the meaning, by omitting an implied connection with the previous stanza.

Tell me when it's time to hush my mouth