Foot (poetry)

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A Foot is the unit of meter in verse in most Western traditions of poetry (including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of ancient Greek and Latin poetry).

Definition

Foot, n. [ pl. Feet (f***emacr]t). [OE. fot, foot, pl. fet, feet. AS. ft, pl.f***emacr]t; akin to D. voet, OHG. fuoz, G. fuss, Icel. f]
[...]
9. A combination of syllables comprising a metrical element of a verse , the syllables being formerly distinguished by their quantity or length, but in modern poetry by the accent .

The English word "foot" is a translation of the Latin term pes, plural pedes; the equivalent term in Greek, sometimes used in English as well, is metron, plural metra, which means "measure." The foot might be compared to a measure in musical notation.

The foot is a purely metrical unit; there is no inherent relation to a word or phrase as a unit of meaning or syntax, though the interplay between syntax and meter is a function of the individual poet's skill and artistry.

The poetic feet in English

Metrical feet

Disyllables
˘ ˘	pyrrhus, dibrach
˘ ¯	iamb
¯ ˘	trochee, choree
¯ ¯	spondee
Trisyllables
˘ ˘ ˘	tribrach
¯ ˘ ˘	dactyl
˘ ¯ ˘	amphibrach
˘ ˘ ¯	anapest, antidactylus
˘ ¯ ¯	bacchius
¯ ¯ ˘	antibacchius
¯ ˘ ¯	cretic, amphimacer
¯ ¯ ¯	molossus
Number of feet per line
one	Monometer
two	Dimeter
three	Trimeter
four	Tetrameter
five	Pentameter
six	Hexameter
seven	Heptameter
eight	Octameter
See main article for tetrasyllables.

In most Western poetic traditions, the meter of a verse can be described as a sequence or pattern of regularly occurring "feet". A foot is a series of syllables, of which at least 1 is stressed (pronounced more emphatically).

There are 2 kinds of feet used in English-language poetry, those of 2 syllables (disyllables) , and those of 3 syllables (normally 1 stressed and 2 unstressed).

That gives several possible types of feet (see table on left); however, to scan or write normal English verse, you need to know only 5 of those, as the norm is that 1 and only 1 syllable in a foot is stressed.

Normal 2-syllable feet have either of 2 meters, as the stressed syllable can be either the 1st or the 2nd syllable.

1. Trochaic (the noun is "trochee"): stress on the 1st syllable), as in the opening line of Blake's "Introduction" to Songs of Innocence:

PIPing / DOWN the / VALleys / WILD

1. Iambic (the noun is "iamb"): stress is on the 2nd syllable), as in line 23 from Shelley's "Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples":

And WALKED / with IN/ward GLOR/y CROWNED.

Normal 3-syllable feet have either of 3 meters, as the stressed syllable can be either the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd syllable.

1. Dactylic (the noun is "dactyl"): stress is on the 1st syllable, as in "The Voice" by Thomas Hardy:

WOman much / MISSED how you / CALL to me / CALL to me

1. Amphibrachic (the noun is "amphibrach"): stress is on the 2nd syllable, as in the limerick "There once was a man from Nantucket":

There ONCE was / a MAN from / NanTUCKet

1. Anapestic (the noun is "anapest"): stress is on the 3rd syllable, as in the opening to Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron:

The AssYR / ian came DOWN / like the WOLF / in the FOLD

Other feet are theoretically possible (see table on right), but to scan English poetry you only need to know the above 5.

Tetrasyllabic (4-syllable) feet do not play much of a role in English prosody, but 2 need to be noted. One is the choriamb, consisting of a trochee followed by an iamb (DUM-da-da-DUM). The other is the double iamb, equivalent to a pyrrhus followed by a spondee (da-da-DUM-DUM). Either can commonly be substituted for 2 iambic feet.

Meter also refers to the number of feet in a line:

1. Monometer
2. Dimeter
3. Trimeter
4. Tetrameter
5. Pentameter
6. Hexameter
7. Heptameter

For example, iambic pentameter (the most popular meter in English poetry) is verse (lines) of 5 iambic feet.

Any number above 6 feet (hexameter) can be expressed as a combination of shorter lines; for example, heptameter (7 feet in a line) is aurally indistinguishable from successive lines of tetrameter and trimeter (4-3).

("¯" = long syllable; "v" = short syllable)

˘	˘	˘	˘	tetrabrach, proceleusmatic
¯	˘	˘	˘	primus paeon
˘	¯	˘	˘	secundus paeon
˘	˘	¯	˘	tertius paeon
˘	˘	˘	¯	quartus paeon
¯	¯	˘	˘	major ionic, double trochee
˘	˘	¯	¯	minor ionic, double iamb
¯	˘	¯	˘	ditrochee
˘	¯	˘	¯	diiamb
¯	˘	˘	¯	choriamb
˘	¯	¯	˘	antispast
˘	¯	¯	¯	first epitrite
¯	˘	¯	¯	second epitrite
¯	¯	˘	¯	third epitrite
¯	¯	¯	˘	fourth epitrite
¯	¯	¯	¯	dispondee

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 feet 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."

Disyllables

¯ = long syllable, ˘ = short syllable (macron and breve notation)

˘ ˘	pyrrhus, dibrach
˘ ¯	iamb
¯ ˘	trochee, choree (or choreus)
¯ ¯	spondee

Trisyllables

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

Tetrasyllables

˘ ˘ ˘ ˘	tetrabrach, proceleusmatic
¯ ˘ ˘ ˘	primus paeon
˘ ¯ ˘ ˘	secundus paeon
˘ ˘ ¯ ˘	tertius paeon
˘ ˘ ˘ ¯	quartus paeon
¯ ¯ ˘ ˘	major ionic, double trochee
˘ ˘ ¯ ¯	minor ionic, double iamb
¯ ˘ ¯ ˘	ditrochee
˘ ¯ ˘ ¯	diiamb
¯ ˘ ˘ ¯	choriamb
˘ ¯ ¯ ˘	antispast
˘ ¯ ¯ ¯	first epitrite
¯ ˘ ¯ ¯	second epitrite
¯ ¯ ˘ ¯	third epitrite
¯ ¯ ¯ ˘	fourth epitrite
¯ ¯ ¯ ¯	dispondee

External links

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

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