Dactylic
Dactylic refers to a metrical foot in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. This rhythmic pattern is commonly found in classical poetry, particularly in Greek and Latin verse. The dactylic meter creates a distinctive and flowing cadence, and it is often associated with epic poetry and hymns.
8 Key excerpts on "Dactylic"
eBook - ePubEnglish Rhythm and Blues
Where Language and Music Come Together
- Patrice Paul Larroque(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Each syllable has approximately the same value, and the metrical foot is not, as it were, a reality. The traditional English meter, on the contrary, rests on stressed and unstressed (or less accented) syllable groupings. In the classical poetic tradition, metrical units are named after their characteristic feet or the number of feet or syllables within the line. Thus, for example, a decasyllable 3 will designate both a 10-syllable line and a poem composed in 10 syllable verses. (20) Déjà la nuit en son parc amassait Un grand troupeau d’étoiles vagabondes Et pour entrer aux cavernes profondes, Fuyant le jour, ses noirs chevaux chassaient. (The night already gathered in her park A large flock of stars gone astray, And to enter the cavernous dark, Escaping the day chased her black steeds away. J. Du Bellay) In traditional English poetry, an iambic pentameter is a type of metrical line of five feet in which the iamb, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is predominant, as in (21). (21) There lies the port, the vessel puffs her sails: There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me, That ever with a frolic welcome took… (A. Tennyson, Ulysses) 2.3.2 The metrical foot In classical languages, the art of versification relies on alternating long and short syllables (also called heavy and light syllables). The foot is sometimes compared with a measure of music and the long and short syllables with quarter and eighth notes, figures expressing their relative duration: a quarter note is worth two eighth notes. As the quarter note is often chosen as a beat unit, it tends to represent the strong beats in a bar. Again, a parallel can be drawn with music, in the sense that it presents duration and stress patterns comparable with speech ones. In English poetry, the foot depends more on stress than duration; stressed and unstressed syllables play the same part as long and short syllables in classical poetry...
eBook - ePub- James B Greenough, J. H. Allen, G. L. Kittredge(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Dover Publications(Publisher)
...They will here be used in accordance with their ancient meaning, as has now become more common. This metrical accent, recurring at regular intervals of time, is what constitutes the essence of the rhythm of poetry as distinguished from prose, and should be constantly kept in mind. The error mentioned arose from applying to trochaic and Dactylic verse a definition which was true only of iambic or anapaestic. 1 The word Verse (versus) signifies a turning back, i.e. to begin again in like manner, as opposed to Prose (prorsus or prôversus), which means straight ahead. 2 This usage is comparatively rare, most cases where it appears to be found being caused by the retention of an originally long quantity. 3 The practice of Elision is followed in Italian and French poetry, and is sometimes adopted in English, particularly in the older poets: — T’ inveigle and invite th’ unwary sense. — Comus 538. In early Latin poetry a final syllable ending in s often loses this letter even before a consonant (cf. § 15. 7): — seniō cōnfectu s quiēscit.—Enn. (Cat. M. 14). 1 Called pentameter by the old grammarians, who divided it, formally, into five feet (two dactyls or spondees, a spondee, and two anapaests), as follows: — 2 The time of this pause, however, may be filled by the protraction of the preceding syllable: — 1 The greater freedom of substitution in the comedy is due to the fact that the verse is regarded as made up of separate feet rather than of dipodies. 1 Different Greek poets adopted fixed types in regard to the place of the dactyls, and so a large number of verses arose, each following a strict law, which were imitated by the Romans as distinct metres. 1 The figures refer to the foregoing list (§ 625). 1 The two principal theories only are given...
eBook - ePub- Philip Hobsbaum(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...1 METRE AND RHYTHM English verse is a succession of syllables. Some are strongly emphasized, some are not. The pattern of metre is set up by the way in which heavily stressed syllables are interspersed with more lightly stressed syllables. The metrical patterns are termed ‘feet’. The main types of feet are as follows. The iamb: this consists of one lightly stressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. ‘Revolve’, ‘behind’, ‘before’, ‘aloud’ are all iambs. The trochee is the iamb reversed. It consists of one stressed and one lightly stressed syllable. ‘Forward’, ‘backward’, ‘rabbit’, ‘orange’ are all trochees. These two metrical feet, iamb and trochee, each consist of two syllables. But it is possible to have three syllables in a foot, as follows. An anapaest consists of two lightly stressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. ‘Repossess’ and ‘understand’ are examples. A dactyl is an anapaest reversed. It consists of one stressed syllable followed by two lightly stressed syllables. ‘Pulverize’ and ‘agitate’ are Dactylic feet. The intermediate pattern, when a stressed syllable is flanked fore and aft by two lightly stressed syllables, is called an amphibrach: ‘redouble’, ‘confetti’. Such examples as are given here should not be taken to be fixed, as a mathematical quantity would be. They should be regarded rather as indicators. The weight of stress can vary appreciably according to context, especially when that context departs from a metrical norm. What is a metrical norm? In order to form a line of verse, each foot is repeated several times. The more times the foot is repeated, the longer the line becomes. It should be emphasized that one rarely comes across a line that is entirely anapaestic, or entirely Dactylic, or entirely amphibrachic. Usually, with a line made up of trisyllabic feet, there is a mixture of patterns. A dimeter is what we would call a line consisting of two feet. An iambic dimeter would be ‘The passive heart’...
eBook - ePub- Derek Attridge(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Nevertheless, because of its importance in the writing of both poets and critics, the outlines of the classical approach, at least, have to be mastered by anyone with an interest in English poetry. What follows is a mere sketch of its commonest form: upon this simple foundation much more elaborate theoretical edifices have been erected to take account of the huge variety in English metrical practice, but these should be consulted in their original presentations. 3 The classical approach to English metre takes as its fundamental unit the foot, a group of syllables each of which is defined as stressed or unstressed, matching the ‘long’ and ‘short’ of the classical originals. Most English metres consist of the same foot repeated a fixed number of times, and the traditional names of the metres derive from the type of foot and the number of its occurrences in the line. The following list contains the essential vocabulary of the classical approach, x standing for an unstressed syllable, or nonstress, and / for a stress (a less misleading notation than those which retain one or both of the classical symbols for long and short syllables): (a) Types of foot x / iambic foot or iamb / x trochaic foot or trochee x x pyrrhic foot or pyrrhic / / spondaic foot or spondee x x / anapaestic foot or anapaest / x x Dactylic foot or dactyl (b) Types of line monometer one foot dimeter two feet trimeter three feet tetrameter four feet pentameter five feet hexameter or alexandrine six feet heptameter seven feet octometer eight feet Since the English language is incapable of a long succession of either stressed or unstressed syllables, it will be obvious that of the six kinds of foot listed, only those which include syllables of both types can be used as the foundation of a simple metre, producing four main varieties of verse. Those which make use of the two-syllable feet are said to be in duple or binary metres, those which use three-syllable feet in triple or ternary metres...
eBook - ePub- Mick Short(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...But because the line lengths are now very irregular we do not feel that the rhythmic properties of each line are parallel to one another. It is this extra regularity which makes metre what it is. Metred poems, then, are poems where the line lengths and rhythmical patterns within the lines are close enough for us to feel a basic pattern of equivalence from line to line. This is why explaining how the different poetic metres work is an important aspect of explaining rhythm in poetry. 5.4 Different kinds of metre Metre in English verse is a level of organisation which is based upon a two—term contrast between positions in a line which should contain strong and weak syllables. Let us use the traditional terms ictus (/) and remiss (X) to refer to these strong and weak positions respectively. If we restrict ourselves for the moment to a situation where these two positions are only allowed to contain one syllable each, we can see that there are two possible patterns of weak and strong events, X /('di dum') and / X ('dum di'). These two elementary patterns are essential to an understanding of English metrics. The first pattern, X / ('di dum') is traditionally called the iamb and the / X ('dum di') pattern is called the trochee. The basic metrical unit of one strong plus one weak (ictus plus remiss) position is traditionally referred to as the metrical foot. Thus we can find iambic feet, trochaic feet, and also other combinations when the basic unit is expanded to include more than two syllables in the remiss of the foot (the metrical foot must have one and only one ictus syllable, but can normally have from zero to three remiss syllables). Below I list, with illustrative examples, the major foot structures that can be found with any regularity. Some are much more common than others, the iambic foot being by far the most widespread in English verse...
eBook - ePub- Goold Brown(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Perlego(Publisher)
...Some will have only two or three; others, four; others, eight; others, twelve. The dozen are all that can be made of two syllables and of three. Latinists sometimes make feet of four syllables, and admit sixteen more of these, acknowledging and naming twenty-eight in all. The principal English feet are the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl. 1. The Iambus, or Iamb, is a poetic foot consisting of a short syllable and a long one; as, b~etr=ay, c~onf=ess, d~em=and, ~intent, d~egr=ee. 2. The Trochee, or Choree, is a poetic foot consisting of a long syllable and a short one; as, h=atef~ul, p=ett~ish, l=eg~al, m=eas~ure, h=ol~y. 3. The Anapest is a poetic foot consisting of two short syllables and one long one; as, c~ontr~av=ene, ~acqu~i=esce, ~imp~ort=une. 4. The Dactyl is a poetic foot consisting of one long syllable and two short ones; as, l=ab~our~er, p=oss~ibl~e, w=ond~erf~ul. These are our principal feet, not only because they are oftenest used, but because each kind, with little or no mixture, forms a distinct order of numbers, having a peculiar rhythm. Of verse, or poetic measure, we have, accordingly, four principal kinds, or orders; namely, Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, and Dactylic ; as in the four lines cited above. The more pure these several kinds are preserved, the more exact and complete is the chime of the verse. But exactness being difficult, and its sameness sometimes irksome, the poets generally indulge some variety; not so much, however, as to confound the drift of the rhythmical pulsations: or, if ever these be not made obvious to the reader, there is a grave fault in the versification. The secondary feet, if admitted at all, are to be admitted only, or chiefly, as occasional diversifications. Of this class of feet, many grammarians adopt four; but they lack agreement about the selection. Brightland took the Spondee, the Pyrrhic, the Moloss, and the Tribrach...
eBook - ePubEnglish Phonetics and Phonology
An Introduction
- Philip Carr(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...9 Rhythm, Reversal and Reduction 9.1 More on the Trochaic Metrical Foot We said, in Chapter 8, that the rhythm of English is trochaic : the basic rhythmic pattern consists of a stressed syllable followed by zero or more unstressed syllables. For instance, in the phrase made in a factory, the metrical structure is [ˈmeɪdɪnəˈfæktəɹi]. The two trochaic feet here are [ˈmeɪdɪnə] and [ˈfæktəɹi]. We assumed too that syllables with secondary stress also form trochaic metrical feet, as in the word academic : [ˌækəˈdɛmɪk]. The two trochaic metrical feet here are [ˌækə] and [ˈdɛmɪk]: the secondary stress in [ˌækə] forms a trochaic metrical foot with the following unstressed syllable, and the primary stress in [ˈdɛmɪk] forms a trochaic metrical foot with the following unstressed syllable. But what is the evidence for the metrical foot? And what evidence is there for our claim that all feet in English are trochaic? We will now address these questions. 9.1.1 Evidence for the Trochaic Metrical Foot (a): Rhyming Although we have identified a constituent within the syllable widely known as the rhyme, the term is a misnomer: this constituent is not the unit on which rhyming in English is based. While it is true that bad rhymes with mad, and that both contain the rhyme [æd], we must not be misled into thinking that two words rhyme only if they have identical rhyme constituents in the syllable, in this case [æd]. Consider the words witty and city : they rhyme because they both have a trochaic metrical foot of the same sort: [ˈwɪti] and [ˈsɪti]. Clearly, onset consonants play no role in rhyming, but metrical structure does, and the rhyme constituent does not. The reason why entity does not rhyme with either witty or city is that the metrical foot structure of entity is [ˈɛntɪti]: the word entity does not contain a metrical foot of the shape [ˈɪti]...
eBook - ePub- Brian James Baer, Brian James Baer(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Appendix: Basic concepts associated with the translation of poetry A.1 The features of poetry Poetry, as opposed to prose, is a special system of speech that is formally characterized by sound ordering and the generally consistent, or rhythmic, alternation of speech units. The specific features of poetry in a given language are organically woven into the features of the sound structure of that language. This sound structure is what determines the character of the elements that make up the basis of rhythm, that are the sound units of a poem’s rhythmic structure. A sound unit can be a stressed or unstressed syllable, a long or short syllable, a cluster of syllables (for example, a metric foot that includes the combination of a stressed syllable with one or more unstressed syllables), a consistent number of syllables (as in syllabic verse), or a consistent number of stressed syllables (as in tonic or accented verse). In verse, words are arranged in rhythmic lines that often connect with the help of rhyme. Within each of these rhythmic rows there can also be various forms of correlation between individual sounds—the accumulation of sounds that are similar to one another, the repetition of entire sound combinations or, alternatively, the contrast of sounds that are very different from one another. However, rhythm in a poem does not exist independently, and neither do words: words and rhythm work in tandem—they are inseparable. Form and content are united and overlap. Rhythm is inseparable from the semantic qualities of words, which in poetry acquire new shades of meaning, new semantic possibilities they do not have in prose, and a particular emotional effect. The arrangement of words in a poetic phrase, or the word order, also often differs from the language of prose. Poetry is also defined by certain word choices...
