What are iambic and trochee?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Poetry differs from prose by composing a certain pattern from words, not only semantic, but also sound. Putting together a certain mosaic from them, the poet is able to convey the deepest experiences and vivid scenes. To create the rhythm and harmony of the work, certain rules of versification are used: observing the alternation in a certain order of strong and weak syllables (stressed and unstressed), called the foot; vigilance about verse meter or a constant number of repetitions of stops in each line.

Disyllabic foot

In order to understand what iambic is, you need to carefully understand stops in general. If we are talking about a two-syllable foot, to which iambic and trochee belong, then in this case unstressed syllables alternate with stressed ones, one after one. The stress falling on the first of the two syllables indicates that the foot belongs to the chorea:

Quiet pond here and there, Sunday, walking on the waves…

While the stress on the second syllable indicates that it is iambic. examples:

WHEN THE WINTER RELATES A blizzard, And the heart prays for a friend, WAY TO PROTECT YOUR SOUL…

Ormore:

Then, and I'll take an arrow

And, burning malice is not the same, Release the fingers of the auntie…

Pyrrhic

These are two vivid examples that can give you an idea of what iambic is. Faced with serious classical poetic works, it can be more difficult to determine the size of the foot. This is due to the distribution of stresses in them, which do not always coincide with the above scheme. What to do in this case:

Dawn blushed demandOnok, The river murmured on the sand, And there, uphill, a foal

Listened to the breeze.

The foot is difficult to define due to the uneven distribution of stress in words. What is this? Yamb? Trochee?

For such cases, there is a folk way to determine the size of the foot, which consists in "minting" a verse like a first-grader on a ruler, not paying attention to either the meaning of the words or the correct placement of stresses in them. With such a recitation of the verse, you can notice the following pattern:

Za-rYa-ru-mYa-ni-las-ask-sonok, Jur-cha-la-rech-ka-po-pes-ku, A-tAm-at-a-look-rier-same-re-be-nok

When-listening-shi-val-sya-kve-ter-kuU.

When reading a verse in this way, a number of additional stresses that are not inherent in words are revealed. You should pay attention to the sixth syllable in the first and third lines, the fourth and sixth - in the last, clearly demonstrating this poetic phenomenon. In literary criticism, it is called pyrrhic and is applicable to all syllable sizes.

In this simple way, every second syllable is stressed in the above verse, a typical iambic is exposed. Along with the chorea, it was the most popular syllable among the works of poets of the 19th century. Poems in iambic were preferred by: A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, A. S. Griboyedov and many other classics.

Tri-compound foot

The trisyllabic feet include dactyl, amphibrach and anapaest. These foot sizes are characterized by one stressed and two unstressed syllables accompanying it. The difference lies in the number of syllables on which the stress falls: dactyl has the first syllable stressed, amphibrach - the second, anapaest - the third. This can be seen in examples:

Dactyl:

Branches of their own, Dropping into the water, She drinks the sky

EARLY TIME…

Amphibrach:

When the same for the world that is in me, It will fall restless, in spring…

Anapest:

Love! Do not skimp on the madness of feelings, Needless saving a heart of fire!

Pour into me like into a vessel that is withered and empty…

Poetic meter

The number of repeating stops in one line of a poem creates a certain meter. In the last example given, we are talking about the repetition of four three-syllable feet. Literally, this is called a tetrameter anapaest.

The most common poetic meters characteristic of Russian classics are four-foot, three-foot and two-foot.

For example:

Goddess that decorated the sky with herself, Throws his eyes into my dreams…

This example outlines the fourfold use of amphibrach in one line and is named accordingly: amphibrach tetrameter.

And the above excerpt characterizing the dactyl foot is two-footed.

What is iambic trimeter or tetrameter is easy to understand on the following

examples:

Sometimes delirious, and without knowing it myself

Where I'm going. And is it important to know…

This verse is written in iambic tetrameter. He is also recognizable in the immortal "Eugene Onegin", A. S. Pushkin.

The next verse refers to iambic trimeter, and A. S. Griboyedov resorts to it in his "Woe from Wit":

YOU CANNOT SCREAM PRAYERS, PrayersAnd are silent…

Now, when it is clear what is a trochee, and what is a dactyl, iambic or amphibrach, you can start writing your works. What is iambic for a poet? Probably the most comfortable size. You should start with him.