Molossus (poetry)

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A Molossus is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of three long syllables. In English poetry, syllables are usually categorized as being either stressed or unstressed, rather than long or short.

For example, the first line of the following verse is a molossus:

Break, break, break,

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

The thoughts that arise in me.

'Break, break, break, Alfred Lord Tennyson, (in memory of Arthur Hallam)

Like the spondee, the molossus is rare in English poetry, but can usually be created by using an adjective-adjective-noun combination, as in W.S. Gilbert's "To Sit in Solemn Silence."

To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock,

In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,

Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block'!'