The Ten Poetic Feet

In Poetry Workshop, we've been discussing feet! Specifically, the feet that can be used in various types of poetic meter.

 
Of course, not every poet cares about meter. Writers of free verse don't concern themselves with strict structure. But even free verse contains aural rhythm, and any line of poetry can be scanned (meaning, to define its scansion or map out its rhythm).

For those of us, however, who like the challenge of conforming to tight restraints and making words obey us, poetic rules involving feet and meter provide just that opportunity. Shakespeare was a poet who enjoyed employing such rhythmic rules, and when the context of his words and meaning required it, breaking those same rules.

Following are the ten types of poetic feet. The first four are known as the primary feet and the last two are the substitutive feet. There are others like the tribrach and molossus that we won't go into here, but you can research them if you find poetic feet interesting!

iamb
x /
two syllables: unstressed, stressed
one-word example: about
two-word example: a friend


trochee
/ x
two syllables: stressed, unstressed
one-word example: fleeting
two-word example: join them

dactyl
/ x x
three syllables: stressed, unstressed, unstressed
one-word example: candlestick
two-word example: fairy tale

anapest
x x /
three syllables: unstressed, unstressed, stressed
one-word example: overwhelm
two-word example: the occult

bacchius
x / /
three syllables: unstressed, stressed, stressed
one-word example: I can't think of any
two-word example: about face

antibacchius
/ / x
three syllables: stressed, stressed, unstressed
one-word example: forewarning
two-word example: two timer

amphibrach
x / x
three syllables: unstressed, stressed, unstressed
one-word example: discreetly
two-word example: a baseball

cretic
/ x /
three syllables: stressed, unstressed, stressed
one-word example: Annie Hall's "la-di-da"
two-word example: sit alone

spondee
/ /
two syllables: stressed, stressed
one-word example: tongue-tied
two-word example: great day

pyrrhic
x x
two syllables: unstressed, unstressed
one-word example: no word exists without a stressed syllable
two-word example: “in the room, now” where “in the”
is a pyrrhic and “room, now” is a spondee

And different poetic meters require different numbers of feet per line.

monometer = one foot per line
dimeter = two feet per line
trimeter = three feet per line
tetrameter = four feet per line
pentameter = five feet per line
hexameter = six feet per line
heptameter = seven feet per line
octameter = eight feet per line

The basic meter of a sonnet, you might remember from English class, is iambic pentameter. This means there are five feet per line (penta) and those feet are iambs. Below are a few examples:

iambic pentameter:
a day | without | my car | and now | I'm late
for work | atop | the green | and grass|y hill

dactylic tetrameter:
hopefully | you will be | hungrily | wanting me
after we | celebrate | under the | apple tree

anapestic dimeter:
in a world | where the birds
can't express | without chirps

And the following lines from the song "My Favorite Things" utilize a pyrrhic foot followed by a spondee:

When the | dog bites
When the | bee stings

I hope this helps writers better understand poetic feet. Please ask any questions you have in the comments!

[ images courtesy pixabay.com ]