dactylic
Long then short-short
Dactylic describes a metrical pattern in poetry where a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables—the rhythm of words like "merrily" or "buffalo." The term comes from the Greek word for finger, which has one long bone followed by two short ones.
Dactylic meter gives verse a rolling, galloping quality: The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold.
Six-foot poetic line
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
- footLeg's lowest part
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
- prosodyStudy of verse rhythm
meter · syllable · quantitative · stressed · unstressed · trochee · anapest · spondee
hexameter
Six-foot poetic line
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
- footLeg's lowest part
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
prosody · meter · syllable · quantitative · stressed · unstressed · trochee · anapest · spondee · iamb
Homer
Ancient Greek epic composer
Aeneid · epic · Greek · Latin · antiquity · oral tradition · recitation · ancient · Ovid · Metamorphoses
cadence
Rhythmic pulse or pattern
tempo · flow · pulse · swing · measure · pace · pattern · movement · progression · triple meter
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
- Classical PoetryHomer, epic poetry, Virgil, Ovid, Horace
- epic poetryIliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Paradise Lost, Beowulf
- poetic devicesalliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, simile
- poeticsrhyme, versification, poetic form, stanza, meter