Dactylic tetrameter
- For the dactylic tetrameter in Greek and Latin poetry, see Alcmanian verse.
Dactylic tetrameter is a metre in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four dactylic feet. "Tetrameter" simply means four poetic feet. Each foot has a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, the opposite of an anapest, sometimes called antidactylus to reflect this fact.
Example
A dactylic foot is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones:
A dactylic tetrameter would therefore be:
DUM |
da |
da |
DUM |
da |
da |
DUM |
da |
da |
DUM |
da |
da |
Scanning this using an "x" to represent an unstressed syllable and a "/" to represent a stressed syllable would make a dactylic tetrameter like the following:
The following lines from The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" demonstrate this, the scansion being:
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
Pic- |
ture |
your- |
self |
in |
a |
boat |
on |
a |
riv- |
er |
with |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
tan- |
ger- |
ine |
tree- |
ees |
and |
marm- |
a- |
lade |
skii- |
ii- |
es |
Another example, from Browning:
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
x |
/ |
x |
Just |
for |
a |
hand- |
ful |
of |
sil- |
ver |
he |
left |
us! |
See also