Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The most common feet in English are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, and anapaest. [1] The foot might be compared to a bar , or a beat divided into pulse groups , in musical notation . The English word "foot" is a translation of the Latin term pes , plural pedes , which in turn is a translation of the Ancient Greek πούς, pl. πόδες.
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Pages for logged out editors learn more
A metrical foot (aka poetic foot) is the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Indo-European traditions of poetry. In some metres (such as the iambic trimeter) the lines are divided into double feet, called metra (singular: metron). Monosyllable; Disyllable: metrical foot consisting of 2 syllables.
The pyrrhic is rightfully dismissed. Its existence in either ancient or modern rhythm is purely chimerical, and the insisting on so perplexing a nonentity as a foot of two short syllables, affords, perhaps, the best evidence of the gross irrationality and subservience to authority which characterise our Prosody. [4]
Iambic pentameter (/ aɪ ˌ æ m b ɪ k p ɛ n ˈ t æ m ɪ t ər / eye-AM-bik pen-TAM-it-ər) is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama.The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in each line.
The first three feet in both lines are dactyls. Another example is the opening lines of Walt Whitman's poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" (1859), a poem about the birth of the author's poetic voice: Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking [a dactyl, followed by a trochee ('cradle'); then another dactyl followed by a trochee ('rocking')]
Sometimes the dominant part of the foot, in either quantitative or stressed verse, is called the ictus. Long and short syllables are marked (-) and (u) respectively. The main feet in Latin are: Iamb: 1 short + 1 long syllable (cărō) Trochee: 1 long + 1 short (mēnsă) Dactyl: 1 long + 2 shorts (lītŏră) Anapaest: 2 shorts + 1 long (pătŭlaē)
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 Christmas when all through the house" ("A Visit from St. Nicholas")