This is the second of three articles treating on the subject of scansion and meter in poetry. Here I explain and provide concrete examples demonstrating two fundamental feet in English prosody, the anapaest and the dactyl.

Overview

The anapaest (‘an uh ,pest) and the dactyl (‘dact ul) are each a foot consisting of three syllables. The anapaest consists of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable. In a way, it can be looked at as an extension of the iamb in that it uses one more unaccented syllable. The dactyl consists of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables, and this can be looked at as an extension of the trochee for the same reason.

The anapaest and dactyl occur naturally in English poetry. In fact, every line of poetry that is not strictly iambic or trochaic likely contains one or more anapaests or dactyls. The English language has a natural flow to it that can almost always be broken down into combinations of iambs and anapaests or trochees and dactyls.

Functionally, the anapaest and dactyl serve to create variation in lines of poetry that would otherwise be overly iambic or trochaic. Many people now consider poems consisting purely of iambic or trochaic lines to be affected and artificial because they do not represent a natural flow of language. Depending on a poem’s content, style and general use of language, this may or may not be true. Either way, the anapaest and the dactyl can work with the iamb and trochee to accentuate mood and texturize ideas. The poet who is interested in exploring the way a structured use of feet can affect language will in time learn to consciously accentuate particular elements within a line and create engaging, lyrical textures throughout a poem.

Because such prosodic effects on the reader are largely subjective and subconscious, it becomes difficult to discuss exactly what combinations of feet will create which effects within the reader’s mind in relation to language content. It is impossible to know or to generalize. However, the poet can explore the use of feet such as the anapaest and the dactyl and come to his or her own conclusions based on experimentation and practice.

As with the iamb and the trochee, information about the anapaest and the dactyl from a purely technical standpoint is abundant, yet there are not a lot of examples that demonstrate their use in diverse structures. Starting with the anapaest, I will exemplify them in detail so that they may be seen to work functionally. In the examples below, I use the period [.] to represent unaccented syllables and the dash [–] for accented syllables.

Anapaestic Examples

Let’s start looking at line structures. Following are five examples of anapaestic lines, starting from the shortest possible line containing an anapaest–a single anapaest–to a line containing five anapaestic feet. After each example line below, I provide its notation and a parenthesized division of the line’s anapaests followed by some notes.

Here’s a line containing a single anapaest:

If some emphasis is placed on “To”, this could also be scanned as either a catalectic trochaic dimeter (missing the last syllable) or a headless iambic dimeter (missing the first syllable). For our purposes, read the line quickly in order to sense the anapaestic effect. Consider also that an existing metrical scheme will influence the way a particular line reads one way or the other. As you continue looking at these examples, bear in mind that the first syllable of a line opening with an anapaest could potentially be accentuated, depending on variables. You can get around this effect by consciously suppressing that first accent.

Here’s a line containing two anapaestic feet. Two-foot lines are referred to as a “dimeters” (nounal) or “bimetric” (adjectival), so this line is an anapaestic dimeter:

Here’s a line containing three anapaestic feet. Three-foot lines are referred to as “trimeters” or “trimetric”, so this line is an anapaestic trimeter:

Here’s a line containing four anapaestic feet. Four-foot lines are referred to as “tetrameters” or “tetrametric”, so this line is an anapaestic tetrameter:

By now you may be starting to see why purely anapaestic lines three feet or longer are somewhat rare. Try reading this tetrameter out loud a couple of times. It is in the nature of the anapaest and the dactyl to speed up the flow of language. When you have three or more of them in a row it can begin to sound like another language altogether when spoken out loud because the verbal pace becomes so quickened. This is also why I am only providing examples up to six feet, because it is really not worth anyone’s time to study anapaestic or dactylic lines beyond the hexameter.

Here’s a line containing five anapaestic feet. Five-foot lines are referred to as “pentameters” or “pentametric”, so this line is an anapaestic pentameter:

You may have heard people refer to a poem as having a bad case of the “iambic trots”, but I am here to tell you that the iambic trots are much more preferable than the “anapestic gallops”. This line is an example only. I think the average reader would be hard pressed to find an actual line of English poetry that is an anapaestic pentameter. In fact, I would be shocked to discover that a quatrain composed of anapaestic pentameters even existed.

Consider that a catalectic trochaic octameter (eight trochees with the last syllable missing) will contain the same number of syllables as this example line, yet will read more easily. So that you may compare such a line to the above, I’ll demonstrate the dramatic difference:

My article, “Three Useful Concepts in Scansion,” explains the unusual terms I’ve been using, such as “catalectic,” complete with examples.

Dactylic Examples

As stated in the overview, the dactyl is the exact inverse of the anapaest, with the first syllable accented instead of the last. As with the anapaest, or any foot, the dactyl can be comprised of a single word, multiple words, or parts of words. In the illustrating examples above and below, you may have noticed a words split between parenthesized feet, and that more than a single word often comprises a foot.

Five dactylic lines are exemplified below, starting as above from the shortest possible line containing a dactyl–a single dactyl–to a line containing five dactylic feet.

Here’s a line containing a single dactyl:

I chose a single word because it is very easy to accentuate the last syllable of a dactyl when that syllable is its own word. Compare the word “poisonous” to the phrase “listen now”. This of course would change the way the line is scanned. Even with the word “poisonous” by itself, there is a slight accentuation of the final syllable, bordering on becoming a secondary accent. This will often happen when a dactyl occurs at the close of a line. But, as pointed out above, the existing metrical scheme of a poem will bear strong influence on the salience or suppression of a syllable’s accent. Keep this in mind as you continue reading these examples.

Here’s a line containing two dactylic feet. This is a dactylic dimeter:

Here’s a line containing three dactylic feet. This is a dactylic trimeter:

Here’s a line containing four dactylic feet. This is a dactylic tetrameter:

Note that the word “bungalow” generally has a secondary accent on its final syllable which normally would be counted into the meter. However, because of the force of the preceding dactyls, that final accent seems to be suppressed considerably. This accentual interrelationship within and between lines of poetry is something really worth meditating upon when working with meter. As I’ve pointed out before—and can’t emphasize enough—the lines surrounding a given line in a poem will have influence on its meter. Many of the lines I use as examples would read differently when juxtaposed with other lines of varying meters.

Here’s a line containing five dactylic feet. This is a dactylic pentameter:

Note again that that final syllable could have a secondary accent, but again the force of the preceding dactyls should subdue it.

It is very rare that you’ll see an anapaestic or dactylic pentameter in your reading of poetry, especially since readers will often subconsciously shift some of the syllables in a long series of anapaests or dactyls in order to slow down the pace. For the most part, anapaests and dactyls are mixed with iambs and trochees. This is further explored in the next article of this series, “Three Useful Concepts in Scansion.”