A Metrical Foot In Poetry

Basic repeating rhythmic unit in a line of verse

The foot is the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Indo-European traditions of verse, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of classical ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The unit is equanimous of syllables, and is usually two, three, or four syllables in length. The almost common feet in English are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, and anapest.^[1] The foot might be compared to a bar, or a beat divided into pulse groups, in musical notation.

The English discussion "foot" is a translation of the Latin term pes, plural pedes, which in turn is a translation of the Ancient Greek ποῦς, pl. πόδες. The Aboriginal Greek prosodists, who invented this terminology, specified that a foot must take both an arsis and a thesis,^[2] that is, a place where the foot was raised ("arsis") and where information technology was put downward ("thesis") in chirapsia time or in marching or dancing. The Greeks recognised three basic types of feet, the iambic (where the ratio of arsis to thesis was 1:two), the dactylic (where it was 2:2) and the paeonic (where it was 3:ii).^[3]

Lines of verse are classified according to the number of anxiety they comprise, eastward.k. pentameter. However some lines of verse are not considered to be made upward of feet, due east.g. hendecasyllable.

In some kinds of metre, such equally the Greek iambic trimeter, two feet are combined into a larger unit called a metron (pl. metra) or dipody.

The pes is a purely metrical unit; at that place is no inherent relation to a word or phrase equally a unit of measurement of meaning or syntax, though the interplay between these is an aspect of the poet's skill and artistry.

Classical meter [edit]

Below listed are the names given to the poetic feet by classical metrics. The feet are classified starting time by the number of syllables in the foot (disyllables accept 2, trisyllables three, and tetrasyllables 4) and secondarily by the pattern of vowel lengths (in classical languages) or syllable stresses (in English poetry) which they comprise.

The following lists describe the feet in terms of vowel length (as in classical languages). Translated into syllable stresses (equally in English poetry), "long" becomes "stressed" ("absolute"), and "short" becomes "unstressed" ("unaccented"). For example, an iamb, which is short-long in classical meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the English word "alone".^[4]

Disyllables [edit]

Macron and breve notation: = stressed/long syllable, = unstressed/curt syllable

		pyrrhus, dibrach
		iamb (or iambus or jambus)
		trochee, choree (or choreus)
		spondee

Trisyllables [edit]

			tribrach
			dactyl
			amphibrach
			anapest, antidactylus
			bacchius
			cretic, amphimacer
			antibacchius
			molossus

Tetrasyllables [edit]

				tetrabrach, proceleusmatic

				primus paeon
				secundus paeon
				tertius paeon
				quartus paeon

				major ionic, double trochee
				minor ionic, double iamb
				ditrochee
				diiamb
				choriamb
				antispast

				starting time epitrite
				second epitrite
				third epitrite
				fourth epitrite

				dispondee

References [edit]

^ Baldick, Chris (2008). The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Oxford University Printing. ISBN978-0-19-923891-0.
^ Pearson, Lionel (1990) Aristoxenes: Elementa Rhythmica (Oxford), p. 29.
^ Pearson, Lionel (1990) Aristoxenes: Elementa Rhythmica (Oxford), pp. 25, 27.
^ Howatson, One thousand. C., ed. (1976). The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature . New York: Oxford University Printing. ISBN0-nineteen-866121-v.

External links [edit]

Comprehensive list of feet and colas up to 12 syllables long
Prosody Tutorial by H.T. Kirby-Smith