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Metrical Feet
The foot is the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Indo-European traditions of poetry, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of classical ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The unit is composed of syllables, and is usually two, three, or four syllables in length. The most common feet in English are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, and anapaest. The foot might be compared to a bar, or a beat divided into pulse groups, in musical notation. A metrical foot is, in classical poetry, a combination of two or more short or long syllables in a specific order; although this "does not provide an entirely reliable standard of measurement" in heavily accented Germanic languages such as English. In these languages it is defined as a combination of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables in a specific order. In general, lines of verse can be classified according to the number of feet they contain, using the terms m ...
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Metre (poetry)
In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study and the actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody. (Within linguistics, " prosody" is used in a more general sense that includes not only poetic metre but also the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or informal, that vary from language to language, and sometimes between poetic traditions.) Characteristics An assortment of features can be identified when classifying poetry and its metre. Qualitative versus quantitative metre The metre of most poetry of the Western world and elsewhere is based on patterns of syllables of particular types. The familiar type of metre in English-language poetry is called qualitative metre, with stressed syllables comin ...
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Syllable Weight
In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical Indo-European verse, as developed in Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line. Linguistics A heavy syllable is a syllable with a branching nucleus or a branching rime, although not all such syllables are heavy in every language. A branching nucleus generally means the syllable has a long vowel or a diphthong; this type of syllable is abbreviated as CVV. A syllable with a branching rime is a ''closed syllable'', that is, one with a coda (one or more consonants at the end of the syllable); this type of syllable is abbreviated CVC. In some languages, both CVV and CVC syllables are heavy, while a syllable with a short vowel as the nucleus and no coda (a CV syllable) is a light syllable. In other languages, only CVV syllables are heavy, while CVC and CV syllables are ...
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Metron (poetry)
A metron , (from ancient Greek "measure"), plural ''metra'', is a repeating section, 3 to 6 syllables long, of a poetic metre. The word is particularly used in reference to ancient Greek. According to a definition by Paul Maas (classical scholar), Paul Maas, usually a metron consists of two long elements and up to two other elements which can be short, ''anceps'' or ''Biceps (prosody), biceps''.Maas, Paul (translated by H. Lloyd-Jones) (1962) ''Greek Metre'', pp. 38–39. Thus an iambic metron is x – ᴗ – (where "x" represents an ''anceps'' element), a trochaic metron is – ᴗ – x, an ionic metron is ᴗ ᴗ – –, an anapaestic metron is ᴗᴗ – ᴗᴗ –, a cretic metron – ᴗ –, a baccheus is ᴗ – –, and a spondee is – –. This definition of the metron (i.e. as having two long elements) does not apply to the dactylic hexameter or to the dochmiac metre, but some scholars regard the dactyl (– ᴗᴗ) and the dochmiac (ᴗ – – ᴗ –) as metr ...
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Iambic Trimeter
The Iambic trimeter, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic metra (each of two feet) per line. In English poetry, it refers to a meter with three iambic feet. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic ''metra''. Each '' metron'' consists of the pattern , x – u – , , where "–" represents a long syllable, "u" a short one, and "x" an ''anceps'' (either long or short). Resolution was common, especially in the first two metra of the line, so that any long or ''anceps'' syllable except the last could be replaced by two short syllables (see for example Euripides#Chronology), making a total of 13 or more syllables. It is the most common meter used for the spoken parts (as opposed to the sung parts) of Ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. It is also common in iambus or 'blame poetry', although it is not the only meter for that genre. ...
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Hendecasyllable
In poetry, a hendecasyllable (as an adjective, hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and the newer of which are syllabic or accentual-syllabic and used in medieval and modern poetry. Classical In classical poetry, "hendecasyllable" or "hendecasyllabic" may refer to any of three distinct 11-syllable Aeolic meters, used first in Ancient Greece and later, with little modification, by Roman poets. Aeolic meters are characterized by an Aeolic base × × followed by a choriamb – u u –; where – = a long syllable, u = a short syllable, and × = an anceps, that is, a syllable either long or short. The three Aeolic hendecasyllables (with base and choriamb in bold) are: Phalaecian hendecasyllable (): × × – u u – u – u – – This line is named after Phalaecus, a minor Hellenistic poet who used it in e ...
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Octameter
Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet. It is not very common in English verse. E.g.: - ''Trochaic'' :Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary :Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore- :While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping :As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door :(Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven") ''Iambic'' :I am the very model of a modern Major-General, :I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, :I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical :From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical; :I'm very well-acquainted, too, with matters mathematical, :I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical, :About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, :With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse. :( W.S. Gilbert, "The Pirates of Penzance ''The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by ...
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Heptameter
Heptameter is a type of meter where each line of verse contains seven metrical feet.Harmon, William, and Hugh Holman. ''A Handbook to Literature.'' Eleventh ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2009. 264. It was used frequently in Classical prosody, and in English, the line was used frequently in narrative poetry since the Romantics. The meter is also called septenary, and this is the most common form for medieval Latin and vernacular verse, including the '' Ormulum''. Its first use in English is possibly the '' Poema Morale'' of the twelfth/thirteenth century. An example from Lord Byron's ''Youth and Age'': :'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe, :All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath. :O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been, :Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene,- :As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be, :So midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears wo ...
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Hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the ''Iliad'', '' Odyssey'' and ''Aeneid''. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, Ovid's '' Metamorphoses,'' and the Hymns of Orpheus. According to Greek mythology, hexameter was invented by Phemonoe, daughter of Apollo and the first Pythia of Delphi. __TOC__ Classical hexameter In classical hexameter, the six feet follow these rules: * A foot can be made up of two long syllables a spondee; or a long and two short syllables, a dactyl * The first four feet can contain either one of them. * The fifth is almost always a dactyl, and last must be a spondee / trochee (together forming an adonic). Exceptions can o ...
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Pentameter
Pentameter (, 'measuring five ( feet)') is a term describing the meter of a poem. A poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have the length of five metrical feet. A metrical foot is, in classical poetry, a combination of two or more short or long syllables in a specific order; although this "does not provide an entirely reliable standard of measurement" in heavily accented Germanic languages such as English. In these languages it is defined as a combination of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables in a specific order. In English verse, pentameter has been the most common meter used ever since the 1500s; early examples include some of Geoffrey Chaucer's work in the 1300s. The most common foot is the iamb, resulting in iambic pentameter. Most English sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. It is also the meter used by Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet an ...
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Tetrameter
In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. However, the particular foot can vary, as follows: * '' Anapestic tetrameter:'' ** "And the ''sheen'' of their ''spears'' was like ''stars'' on the ''sea''" (Lord Byron, " The Destruction of Sennacherib") ** "Twas the ''night'' before ''Christ''mas when ''all'' through the ''house''" (" A Visit from St. Nicholas") ** "And since ''birth'' I've been ''cursed'' with this ''curse'' to just ''curse'' / And just ''blurt'' this ber''serk'' and biz''arre'' shit that ''works''" (Eminem, " The Way I Am") * ''Iambic tetrameter:'' ** "Be''cause'' I ''could'' not ''stop'' for ''Death''" ( Emily Dickinson, eponymous lyric) * '' Trochaic tetrameter:'' ** "''Pet''er, ''Pet''er, ''pump''kin-''eat''er" ( English nursery rhyme) * '' Dactylic tetrameter:'' ** ''Pic''ture your ''self'' in a ''boat'' on a ''riv''er with ..(The Beatles, " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds") * '' Spondaic tetrameter:'' ** ''Long sounds move slow'' * '' Pyrrhic tetra ...
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Trimeter
In poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ..., a trimeter (Greek for "three measure") is a metre of three metrical feet per line. Examples: : When here // the spring // we see, : Fresh green // upon // the tree. See also * Anapaest * Dactyl * Tristich * Triadic-line poetry References Types of verses {{Poetry-stub ...
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Dimeter
In poetry, a dimeter is a metrical line of verse with two feet. The particular foot The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up o ... can vary. Consider Thomas Hood's " Bridge of Sighs," in which the first line of a pair is of two feet, each composed of three syllables, and the subsequent line is of two feet, each of two syllables. :Take her up \\ tenderly, :Lift her \\ with care, :Fashioned so \\ slenderly, :Young and \\ so fair. Also, the first line of William Wordsworth's "We Are Seven": :A simp \\ le Child References Types of verses {{Poetry-stub ...
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