Basic Meter Question

[tectak]

Hello!

I am still coming to grips with meter, and I have not had much luck finding a concise answer to this question I have.  Hoping that you, my fellow & more experienced poets, have the answer I would relish the opportunity to learn from you.  Now, I know there is information about meter on the site, and I have searched but have not been able to find the answer I am looking for.  So, here is my question about the very basics of meter.

Do the stressed and unstressed syllables come from the word?
Can some words go either way? e.g.: FALLen / fallEN
If so, do you know of any resources to help find where the stressed syllables are in a word? (I've checked some dictionaries, they are tedious and unclear)

Cheers, S.M.

All of what leanne said...but also...READ YOUR WORK OUT LOUD.
There is a very good reason for doing this. If you only read in your head your brain will apply the kind of deformations to the words that ORIGINALLY made you think you were right....in other words, you will find that you do do not speak as you THINK you speak.
That this is true is evinced by your question on the word "fallen". Say it both ways out loud. Can you hear yourself ever saying fall-EN?
Best,
Tectak
(One more tip. If you write a whole first stanza in a meter which sounds just fine when read out loud, use the stanza as a meter template for subsequent stanzas. You will.find it much easier to match emphases and syllable count by comparing line by line with YOUR OWN already firmed up words, than to try from scratch stanza by stanza)