Accent (poetry)

Last updated
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.

In English poetry, accent refers to the stressed syllable of a polysyllabic word, or a monosyllabic word that receives stress because it belongs to an "open class" of words (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) or because of "contrastive" or "rhetorical" stress. In basic analysis of a poem by scansion, accents can be represented by a short vertical line (') preceding the syllable, while the divisions between feet are shown by a slash (/). [1]

Contents

There is generally one accent in each foot, for example:

Be-'hold / her, 'sin-/gle 'in / the 'field
Yon 'sol-/i-'tar-/y 'high-/land 'lass!
'Reap-ing / and 'sing-/ing 'by / her-'self;
'Stop here /or 'gent-/ly 'pass.

See also

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References

  1. St. Edward's University: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2007-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Accessed December 28, 2007.