This volume includes most papers read at the International Conference on Meter, Rhythm and Performance held at the University of Vechta, Germany, in May 1999. This metrics conference set out to break new ground in two respects. It was the first to explicitly address aspects of the performance of poetry in addition to questions of meter and rhythm. It was also the first of its kind to invite (and actually attract) a truly international panel of scholars from competing metrical traditions such as Generative Metrics, the Russian School of Metrics, Cognitive Metrics, and several others. Thus, the articles present an unusually broad picture of current research in the field of metrics, including a section on free verse. The languages and literatures addressed include Irish, Welsh, Breton, Latin, English (British and American), Dutch, German, Russian, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, and Sanskrit. Most of the articles are written in English, eight are in German.