An anapaest (/ˈænəpiːst,-pɛst/; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. It may be seen as a reversed dactyl. This word comes from the Greek ἀνάπαιστος, anápaistos, literally "struck back" and in a poetic context "a dactyl reversed".[1][2][3][4]
Because of its length and the fact that it ends with a stressed syllable and so allows for strong rhymes, anapaest can produce a very rolling verse, and allows for long lines with a great deal of internal complexity.[5]
Apart from their independent role, anapaests are sometimes used as substitutions in iambic verse. In strict iambic pentameter, anapaests are rare, but they are found with some frequency in freer versions of the iambic line, such as the verse of Shakespeare's last plays, or the lyric poetry of the 19th century.
^ἀνάπαιστος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
^The Oxford Companion to English Literature 7th Ed. (2009) Edited by Dinah Birch, Oxford University Press Inc.
^Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed. (1989)
^The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (2008) Chris Baldick, Oxford University Press.
^Encyclopædia Britannica (2011)[permanent dead link]
An anapaest (/ˈænəpiːst, -pɛst/; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative...
length. The most common feet in English are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, and anapaest. The foot might be compared to a bar, or a beat divided into pulse groups...
Examples: When here // the spring // we see, Fresh green // upon // the tree. Anapaest Dactyl Tristich Triadic-line poetry Greene, Roland; Cushman, Stephen; Cavanagh...
syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (e.g. an-no-tate, sim-i-lar) anapaest—two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (e.g. com-pre-hend)...
individual amphibrachic foot often appears as a variant within, for instance, anapaestic meter. It is the main foot used in the construction of the limerick, as...
poetry in which one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. Anapaest–A three-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which two unstressed syllables...
Anapestic tetrameter (British spelling: anapaestic) is a poetic meter that has four anapestic metrical feet per line. Each foot has two unstressed syllables...
a vellum codex from the fourth or fifth centuries AD, showing choral anapaests from Medea, lines 1087–91; tiny though it is, the fragment influences...
written in eight stanzas of four lines, lines one and three in a two-feet anapaest with a feminine internal rhyme, and lines two and four in trochaic octameter...
men-at-arms" speech. In this case, each iamb is underscored with a flap step. Anapaest Dactyl Dactylic pentameter Decasyllable Hendecasyllable Ragale Systems...
anapaest (u u –), then the dactyl (– u u). The exact proportions of the different kinds of feet differ in different authors; for example, anapaests make...
it in his historical work, Old England. An 11-stanza poem in rolling anapaestic metre, it relates how Walter de Clare had murdered his wife and built...
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