qualia

 Qualitative critique of Spanish meter is almost non-existent.  It struck me too that most people in the literary field today would not even have the kind of response that Saintsbury has to Shakespeare's verse.  

I thought of a poor young man I met once in Spain, a native speaker of English, who would read iambic pentameter aloud by stressing the strong syllables strongly and resorting to a sing-song rhythm.  I think of a student in grad school with me who couldn't tell when blank verse was blank verse, literally could not scan it.  

Metrics is largely concerned with establishing what the rules are. In this sense it is not qualitative at all.