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.
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