Dactylic tetrameter

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.

For the dactylic tetrameter in Greek and Latin poetry, see Alcmanian verse.
Metrical feet and accents
Disyllables
˘ ˘pyrrhic, dibrach
˘ ¯iamb
¯ ˘trochee, choree
¯ ¯spondee
Trisyllables
˘ ˘ ˘tribrach
¯ ˘ ˘dactyl
˘ ¯ ˘amphibrach
˘ ˘ ¯anapaest, antidactylus
˘ ¯ ¯bacchius
¯ ¯ ˘antibacchius
¯ ˘ ¯cretic, amphimacer
¯ ¯ ¯molossus
See main article for tetrasyllables.

Example

A dactylic foot is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones:

DUM da da

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:

/ x x / x x / x x / x x

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
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