A hypermetric syllable usually occurs at the end of a line of poetry, but can also appear in the middle of lines that are regularly broken by a caesura, especially hexameters. (This differs from the implied offbeat, in that a syllable is actually there, and is the opposite of catalexis.) Hypermetric syllables provide a pleasing variation of the regular meter, and often lend a conversational tone to the poetic language of formal iambic pentameter. A great many lines in the dialogue of Renaissance drama are hypermetric. Robert Frost uses hypermetric syllables to give some of his poetry the effect of an informal speaking voice:

                He will not go behind his father’s saying
                And he likes having thought of it so well
                He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”

Notice that two of the lines have eleven syllables, the last of which is hypermetric.

Feminine rhymes are usually hypermetric:

            FAREWELL! thou art too dear for my possessing,
            And like enough thou know'st thy estimate:
            The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
            My bonds in thee are all determinate.
            For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
            And for that riches where is my deserving?
            The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
            And so my patent back again is swerving.
            Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing,
            Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking;
            So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
            Comes home again, on better judgment making.
                  Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
                  In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.
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