(Redirected from Foot (poetry))In
verse, many
meters use a 'foot' as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. Both the
quantitative meter of
classical poetry and the
accentual-syllabic meter of most poetry in English use the foot as the fundamental building block. A foot consists of a certain number of
syllables forming part of a line of verse. A foot is described by the character and number of syllables it contains: in English, feet are named for the combination of accented and unaccented syllables; in other languages such as
Latin and
Greek, the duration of the syllable (long or short) is measured.
When scanning a line of verse, a poet looks at feet as the basic rhythmic unit rather than words. A foot can consist of multiple words and a single word can contain many feet; furthermore, a foot can and often does bridge multiple words, containing, for example, the last two syllables of one word and the first of the next. To scan for feet, one should focus on the stream of sound alone and set aside the actual meaning of the words.
The poetic feet in classical meter
Below are listed the names given to the poetic feet by classical metrics. The feet are classified first by the number of syllables in the foot (''disyllables'' have two, ''trisyllables'' three, and ''tetrasyllables'' four) 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 feets in terms of vowel length (as in classical languages). Translated into syllable stresses (as in English poetry), 'long' becomes 'stressed' ('accented'), and 'short' becomes 'unstressed' ('unaccented'). For example, an
iamb, which is short-long in classical meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the English word "betray."
The most common in English verse are the
iamb, the
trochee, the
dactyl, and the
anapest.
Disyllables
''
x = short syllable,
/ = long syllable (
ictus and x notation)''
Trisyllables
''
x = short syllable,
/ = long syllable (
ictus and x notation)''
Tetrasyllables
''
x = short syllable,
/ = long syllable (
ictus and x notation)''
| x x x x | tetrabrach, proceleusmatic |
| |
| / x x x | primus paeon |
| x / x x | secundus paeon |
| x x / x | tertius paeon |
| x x x / | quartus paeon |
| |
| / / x x | major ionic, double trochee |
| x x / / | minor ionic, double iamb |
| / x / x | ditrochee |
| x / x / | diamb |
| |
| / x x / | choriamb |
| x / / x | antispast |
| |
| x / / / | first epitrite |
| / x / / | second epitrite |
| / / x / | third epitrite |
| / / / x | fourth epitrite |
| |
| / / / / | dispondee |
Related Links
Comprehensive list of feet and colas up to 12 syllables long
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