Choliamb

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Choliambic verse is a style of poetic verse in ancient Greek and Latin literature, characterized by a limping or imperfect iambic trimeter, having a spondee as the last foot. Choliambic verse is sometimes called scazon, or "lame iambic", because it brings the reader down on the wrong "foot" by reversing the stresses of the last few beats. It was originally pioneered by the Greek lyric poet Hipponax, who wrote "lame trochaics" as well as "lame iambics"; the Latin poet Catullus provides a further example.

[edit] References

Richmond Lattimore, "Greek Lyrics" 1949