Thefoot is the basic repeatingrhythmic unit that forms part of a line ofverse in mostIndo-European traditions of poetry, including Englishaccentual-syllabic verse and thequantitative meter ofclassicalancient Greek andLatin poetry. The unit is composed ofsyllables, and is usually two, three, or four syllables in length. The most common feet in English are theiamb,trochee,dactyl, andanapaest.[1] The foot might be compared to abar, or abeat divided intopulse groups, inmusical notation.[citation needed]
A metrical foot is, in classical poetry, a combination of two or moreshort or long syllables in a specific order; although this "does not provide an entirely reliable standard of measurement" in heavily accentedGermanic languages such as English.[2] In these languages it is defined as a combination of onestressed and one or two unstressed syllables in a specific order.[2]
In general, lines of verse can be classified according to the number of feet they contain, using the termsmonometer,dimeter,trimeter,tetrameter,pentameter,hexameter,heptameter, andoctameter, although seven or more feet in a line is uncommon.[2] Pentameter is the most common in English verse.[3] However, some lines of verse are not considered to be made up of feet, for examplehendecasyllable lines.[citation needed]
In some kinds of metre, such as the Greekiambic trimeter, two feet are combined into a larger unit called ametron (pl. metra) or dipody.[citation needed]
The English word "foot" is a translation of the Latin termpes, pluralpedes, which in turn is a translation of the Ancient Greek πούς, pl. πόδες. The Ancient Greek prosodists, who invented this terminology, specified that a foot must have both anarsis and a thesis,[4] that is, a place where the foot was raised ("arsis") and where it was put down ("thesis") in beating time or in marching or dancing. The Greeks recognised three basic types of feet, the iambic (where the ratio of arsis to thesis was 1:2), the dactylic (where it was 2:2) and the paeonic (where it was 3:2).[5]
Below listed are 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, andtetrasyllables four) and secondarily by the pattern of vowel lengths (in classical languages) or syllable stresses (in English poetry) which they comprise.[citation needed]
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, aniamb, which is short-long in classical meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the English word "alone".[6]
A short syllable in this context is known as an arsis, while a long one is known as a thesis.[7]
Macron and breve notation:– = stressed/long syllable,◡ = unstressed/short syllable
| ◡ | ◡ | pyrrhus, dibrach |
| ◡ | – | iamb (or iambus or jambus) |
| – | ◡ | trochee,choree (or choreus) |
| – | – | spondee |
| ◡ | ◡ | ◡ | tribrach |
| – | ◡ | ◡ | dactyl |
| ◡ | – | ◡ | amphibrach |
| ◡ | ◡ | – | anapaest, antidactylus |
| ◡ | – | – | bacchius |
| – | ◡ | – | cretic, amphimacer |
| – | – | ◡ | antibacchius |
| – | – | – | molossus |
| ◡ | ◡ | ◡ | ◡ | tetrabrach, proceleusmatic |
| – | ◡ | ◡ | ◡ | primuspaeon |
| ◡ | – | ◡ | ◡ | secundus paeon |
| ◡ | ◡ | – | ◡ | tertius paeon |
| ◡ | ◡ | ◡ | – | quartus paeon |
| – | – | ◡ | ◡ | majorionic, double trochee |
| ◡ | ◡ | – | – | minor ionic, double iamb |
| – | ◡ | – | ◡ | ditrochee |
| ◡ | – | ◡ | – | diiamb |
| – | ◡ | ◡ | – | choriamb |
| ◡ | – | – | ◡ | antispast |
| ◡ | – | – | – | first epitrite |
| – | ◡ | – | – | second epitrite |
| – | – | ◡ | – | third epitrite |
| – | – | – | ◡ | fourth epitrite |
| – | – | – | – | dispondee |
