A dactyl (Greek:δάκτυλος, dáktylos, “finger”) is a foot in poetic meter. In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. In accentual verse, often used in English, it is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables—the opposite is the anapaest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable).
The Greek and Latin words δάκτυλος and dactylus are themselves dactyls (and hence autological). The English word poetry is also a dactyl. A useful mnemonic for remembering this long-short-short pattern is to consider the relative lengths of the three bones of a human finger: beginning at the knuckle, it is one long bone followed by two shorter ones (hence the name dactyl).
The first five feet of the line are dactyls; the sixth a trochee.
Stephen Fry quotes Robert Browning's The Lost Leader as an example of the use of dactylic metre to great effect, creating verse with "great rhythmic dash and drive":
Poetry has a long history, dating back to the SumerianEpic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the SanskritVedas, ZoroastrianGathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language.
Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Poetry (founded as, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse), published in Chicago since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Don Share, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000, and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately 100,000 submissions. It is sometimes referred to as Poetry—Chicago.
Poetry has been financed since 2003 with a $200 million bequest from Ruth Lilly.
History
The magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, an author who was then working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. She wrote at that time:
"The Open Door will be the policy of this magazine—may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, or half-shut, against his ample genius! To this end the editors hope to keep free from entangling alliances with any single class or school. They desire to print the best English verse which is being written today, regardless of where, by whom, or under what theory of art it is written. Nor will the magazine promise to limit its editorial comments to one set of opinions."
A quick video about Dactylic Meter in poetry with an explanation and some examples.
Free Poetry Prompts:
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/free-poetry-prompts.html
published: 16 Sep 2021
"The Dactyl Poem" by Allan Wolf
Allan Wolf, author and performance poet, performing "The Dactyl Poem."
published: 14 Jun 2015
FOUR BASIC METRICAL FEET: IAMB, TROCHEE, ANAPEST, DACTYL
Let me introduce to you the four basic metrical feet that are essential in poetry writing.
00:00 TOPIC INTRO
00:48 METRICAL FOOT
01:16 IAMB
03:25 ANAPEST
04:48 TROCHEE
06:18 DACTYL
07:52 METER
10:19 DRILL
published: 17 Feb 2021
Grammar Girl #557. Double Dactyl Poetry
Now you can listen to the Grammar Girl podcast on YouTube!
This week we talk about the rules for making a double dactyl poem.
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published: 24 Feb 2017
01 Dactylic Hexameter
I've created a short series of lectures to introduce my Latin students to the basics of poetic meter, leading up to Vergil's dactylic hexameter.
The first of the five lectures begins with a little background in reading simple English poetry (iambic heptameter). That's to get your attuned to versed poetry in general.
published: 17 Jan 2019
What does Dactylic Hexameter sound like in English?
An Anonymous poem in English with Virgil's Dactylic Hexameter Style..
Dactyl: -- uu
Long-short-short e.g. "Wonderful!"
Spondee: -- --
2 syllables: Long-Long e.g. "Bad Ass!"
(Trochee: -- u
2 syllables: Long-short e.g. "Pickles" )
These "feet" are the basic building blocks of Dactylic Hexameter Verse (technically speaking there are no Iambs to be found in this meter, but when reading ) Feet are made up of syllables (not words), and they rarely coincide with individual words (in any language), and when they happen to, usually it is called "good poetry"
Each line has Six metrical Feet. The final two feet of each line are always dactyl/spondee: e.g. "shave an' a haircut", "bearded old miser", "primus ab oris" , "ora tenebant" etc. As you listen to (or read...
A quick video about Dactylic Meter in poetry with an explanation and some examples.
Free Poetry Prompts:
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/free-poetry-pro...
A quick video about Dactylic Meter in poetry with an explanation and some examples.
Free Poetry Prompts:
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/free-poetry-prompts.html
A quick video about Dactylic Meter in poetry with an explanation and some examples.
Free Poetry Prompts:
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/free-poetry-prompts.html
Let me introduce to you the four basic metrical feet that are essential in poetry writing.
00:00 TOPIC INTRO
00:48 METRICAL FOOT
01:16 IAMB
03:25 ANAPEST
04:48...
Let me introduce to you the four basic metrical feet that are essential in poetry writing.
00:00 TOPIC INTRO
00:48 METRICAL FOOT
01:16 IAMB
03:25 ANAPEST
04:48 TROCHEE
06:18 DACTYL
07:52 METER
10:19 DRILL
Let me introduce to you the four basic metrical feet that are essential in poetry writing.
00:00 TOPIC INTRO
00:48 METRICAL FOOT
01:16 IAMB
03:25 ANAPEST
04:48 TROCHEE
06:18 DACTYL
07:52 METER
10:19 DRILL
Now you can listen to the Grammar Girl podcast on YouTube!
This week we talk about the rules for making a double dactyl poem.
FOLLOW GRAMMAR GIRL
Twitte...
Now you can listen to the Grammar Girl podcast on YouTube!
This week we talk about the rules for making a double dactyl poem.
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Now you can listen to the Grammar Girl podcast on YouTube!
This week we talk about the rules for making a double dactyl poem.
FOLLOW GRAMMAR GIRL
Twitter: http://twitter.com/grammargirl
Facebook: http://facebook.com/grammargirl
Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/thatgrammargirl
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I've created a short series of lectures to introduce my Latin students to the basics of poetic meter, leading up to Vergil's dactylic hexameter.
The first of ...
I've created a short series of lectures to introduce my Latin students to the basics of poetic meter, leading up to Vergil's dactylic hexameter.
The first of the five lectures begins with a little background in reading simple English poetry (iambic heptameter). That's to get your attuned to versed poetry in general.
I've created a short series of lectures to introduce my Latin students to the basics of poetic meter, leading up to Vergil's dactylic hexameter.
The first of the five lectures begins with a little background in reading simple English poetry (iambic heptameter). That's to get your attuned to versed poetry in general.
An Anonymous poem in English with Virgil's Dactylic Hexameter Style..
Dactyl: -- uu
Long-short-short e.g. "Wonderful!"
Spondee: -- --
2 syllab...
An Anonymous poem in English with Virgil's Dactylic Hexameter Style..
Dactyl: -- uu
Long-short-short e.g. "Wonderful!"
Spondee: -- --
2 syllables: Long-Long e.g. "Bad Ass!"
(Trochee: -- u
2 syllables: Long-short e.g. "Pickles" )
These "feet" are the basic building blocks of Dactylic Hexameter Verse (technically speaking there are no Iambs to be found in this meter, but when reading ) Feet are made up of syllables (not words), and they rarely coincide with individual words (in any language), and when they happen to, usually it is called "good poetry"
Each line has Six metrical Feet. The final two feet of each line are always dactyl/spondee: e.g. "shave an' a haircut", "bearded old miser", "primus ab oris" , "ora tenebant" etc. As you listen to (or read, or recite)
first 4 feet in each line may consist of any combination of Dactyls and/or Spondees:
// // //
-uu | -uu | -uu | -uu | --uu | -- --
x x | x x | x x | x x | --uu |-- x (1st 4 feet can be substituted)
-- -- I -- --I -- -- I -- --| --uu I -- --
The 5th foot in each line is always a dactyl. The 6th foot is a 95% of the time a Spondee ( "Shave an' a haircut...")
THAT is how the meter is defined for all intents and purposes, you can recognize it listening to any inflected language.
Caesura ("little cut": // ) is a brief pause, and can occur anywhere between the 2nd and 5th feet, or can occur in the middle of the 3rd foot if it is a spondee!
Caesura can be the most difficult thing to interpret. They are typically never marked by the author, and are used for practical purpose (like taking a breath), or for grammatical /syntax reasons-- totally depending on the language--, or for purely poetic or dramatic effect, which is the easiest to interpret. But for any of these reasons, there is usually a reason to pause briefly in the middle of a line, although certain instances of frenzied prose or dialogue lead themselves to run-on lines without pause-- which is also perfectly poetic and permissible.
The "Ictus" ("stroke", "hit", or "blow") is essentially the downbeat, in a quantitative-reading in a 'stress-based' reading
more notes...
The first line of this poem (AND the first line of the Aeneid, as well)
follow the pattern: (dactyl, dactyl, spondee, spondee, dactyl, spondee)
--uu I --uu I -- -- I -- --I -- uu I -- --)
(ONCE on a/GREY after/NOON, I /ASKED THE/ BEARDed old/MI-SER)
or,
, , , , , ,
ARma vir/UMque ca/NO // TROI/AE QUI/ PRImus ab/ OR-IS)
n.b. THESE are NOT the NATural WORD ACcents you'd USE when SPEAKing the LINE, but are inSTEAD the reSULT of SCANsion.
Just as in the english example, word accents and ictus can be (and often are) juxtaposed for poetic effect.
To recap:
first 4 feet: dactyls OR spondees, any combination is permissible, but after a bit of study the discerning reader will come to internalize most of the more common patterns. Ovid and Virgil had VERY different treatments of the dactylic hexameter with respect to the most frequent combinations they liked to use.
5th foot: always a dactyl!
6th foot :spondee or trochee, NEVER a dactyl. In english, the final syllable can occasionally be dropped. A crucial thing to note: in dactylic hexameter, most lines are NOT complete sentences, the action typically carries-over onto the next line. This is why English D. H. poetry looks 'weird' or 'ungrammatical' on the page. So, a pause at the end of a thought in the poem is usually NOT at the end of a line, but instead is a caesura.
An Anonymous poem in English with Virgil's Dactylic Hexameter Style..
Dactyl: -- uu
Long-short-short e.g. "Wonderful!"
Spondee: -- --
2 syllables: Long-Long e.g. "Bad Ass!"
(Trochee: -- u
2 syllables: Long-short e.g. "Pickles" )
These "feet" are the basic building blocks of Dactylic Hexameter Verse (technically speaking there are no Iambs to be found in this meter, but when reading ) Feet are made up of syllables (not words), and they rarely coincide with individual words (in any language), and when they happen to, usually it is called "good poetry"
Each line has Six metrical Feet. The final two feet of each line are always dactyl/spondee: e.g. "shave an' a haircut", "bearded old miser", "primus ab oris" , "ora tenebant" etc. As you listen to (or read, or recite)
first 4 feet in each line may consist of any combination of Dactyls and/or Spondees:
// // //
-uu | -uu | -uu | -uu | --uu | -- --
x x | x x | x x | x x | --uu |-- x (1st 4 feet can be substituted)
-- -- I -- --I -- -- I -- --| --uu I -- --
The 5th foot in each line is always a dactyl. The 6th foot is a 95% of the time a Spondee ( "Shave an' a haircut...")
THAT is how the meter is defined for all intents and purposes, you can recognize it listening to any inflected language.
Caesura ("little cut": // ) is a brief pause, and can occur anywhere between the 2nd and 5th feet, or can occur in the middle of the 3rd foot if it is a spondee!
Caesura can be the most difficult thing to interpret. They are typically never marked by the author, and are used for practical purpose (like taking a breath), or for grammatical /syntax reasons-- totally depending on the language--, or for purely poetic or dramatic effect, which is the easiest to interpret. But for any of these reasons, there is usually a reason to pause briefly in the middle of a line, although certain instances of frenzied prose or dialogue lead themselves to run-on lines without pause-- which is also perfectly poetic and permissible.
The "Ictus" ("stroke", "hit", or "blow") is essentially the downbeat, in a quantitative-reading in a 'stress-based' reading
more notes...
The first line of this poem (AND the first line of the Aeneid, as well)
follow the pattern: (dactyl, dactyl, spondee, spondee, dactyl, spondee)
--uu I --uu I -- -- I -- --I -- uu I -- --)
(ONCE on a/GREY after/NOON, I /ASKED THE/ BEARDed old/MI-SER)
or,
, , , , , ,
ARma vir/UMque ca/NO // TROI/AE QUI/ PRImus ab/ OR-IS)
n.b. THESE are NOT the NATural WORD ACcents you'd USE when SPEAKing the LINE, but are inSTEAD the reSULT of SCANsion.
Just as in the english example, word accents and ictus can be (and often are) juxtaposed for poetic effect.
To recap:
first 4 feet: dactyls OR spondees, any combination is permissible, but after a bit of study the discerning reader will come to internalize most of the more common patterns. Ovid and Virgil had VERY different treatments of the dactylic hexameter with respect to the most frequent combinations they liked to use.
5th foot: always a dactyl!
6th foot :spondee or trochee, NEVER a dactyl. In english, the final syllable can occasionally be dropped. A crucial thing to note: in dactylic hexameter, most lines are NOT complete sentences, the action typically carries-over onto the next line. This is why English D. H. poetry looks 'weird' or 'ungrammatical' on the page. So, a pause at the end of a thought in the poem is usually NOT at the end of a line, but instead is a caesura.
A quick video about Dactylic Meter in poetry with an explanation and some examples.
Free Poetry Prompts:
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/free-poetry-prompts.html
Let me introduce to you the four basic metrical feet that are essential in poetry writing.
00:00 TOPIC INTRO
00:48 METRICAL FOOT
01:16 IAMB
03:25 ANAPEST
04:48 TROCHEE
06:18 DACTYL
07:52 METER
10:19 DRILL
Now you can listen to the Grammar Girl podcast on YouTube!
This week we talk about the rules for making a double dactyl poem.
FOLLOW GRAMMAR GIRL
Twitter: http://twitter.com/grammargirl
Facebook: http://facebook.com/grammargirl
Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/thatgrammargirl
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/realgrammargirl
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GET GRAMMAR GIRL BOOKS http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl-book-page
AMAZON AFFILIATE CODE
http://quickanddirtytips.com/amazon
TAKE OUR PODCAST LISTENER SURVEY http://podsurvey.com/GRAMMAR
I've created a short series of lectures to introduce my Latin students to the basics of poetic meter, leading up to Vergil's dactylic hexameter.
The first of the five lectures begins with a little background in reading simple English poetry (iambic heptameter). That's to get your attuned to versed poetry in general.
An Anonymous poem in English with Virgil's Dactylic Hexameter Style..
Dactyl: -- uu
Long-short-short e.g. "Wonderful!"
Spondee: -- --
2 syllables: Long-Long e.g. "Bad Ass!"
(Trochee: -- u
2 syllables: Long-short e.g. "Pickles" )
These "feet" are the basic building blocks of Dactylic Hexameter Verse (technically speaking there are no Iambs to be found in this meter, but when reading ) Feet are made up of syllables (not words), and they rarely coincide with individual words (in any language), and when they happen to, usually it is called "good poetry"
Each line has Six metrical Feet. The final two feet of each line are always dactyl/spondee: e.g. "shave an' a haircut", "bearded old miser", "primus ab oris" , "ora tenebant" etc. As you listen to (or read, or recite)
first 4 feet in each line may consist of any combination of Dactyls and/or Spondees:
// // //
-uu | -uu | -uu | -uu | --uu | -- --
x x | x x | x x | x x | --uu |-- x (1st 4 feet can be substituted)
-- -- I -- --I -- -- I -- --| --uu I -- --
The 5th foot in each line is always a dactyl. The 6th foot is a 95% of the time a Spondee ( "Shave an' a haircut...")
THAT is how the meter is defined for all intents and purposes, you can recognize it listening to any inflected language.
Caesura ("little cut": // ) is a brief pause, and can occur anywhere between the 2nd and 5th feet, or can occur in the middle of the 3rd foot if it is a spondee!
Caesura can be the most difficult thing to interpret. They are typically never marked by the author, and are used for practical purpose (like taking a breath), or for grammatical /syntax reasons-- totally depending on the language--, or for purely poetic or dramatic effect, which is the easiest to interpret. But for any of these reasons, there is usually a reason to pause briefly in the middle of a line, although certain instances of frenzied prose or dialogue lead themselves to run-on lines without pause-- which is also perfectly poetic and permissible.
The "Ictus" ("stroke", "hit", or "blow") is essentially the downbeat, in a quantitative-reading in a 'stress-based' reading
more notes...
The first line of this poem (AND the first line of the Aeneid, as well)
follow the pattern: (dactyl, dactyl, spondee, spondee, dactyl, spondee)
--uu I --uu I -- -- I -- --I -- uu I -- --)
(ONCE on a/GREY after/NOON, I /ASKED THE/ BEARDed old/MI-SER)
or,
, , , , , ,
ARma vir/UMque ca/NO // TROI/AE QUI/ PRImus ab/ OR-IS)
n.b. THESE are NOT the NATural WORD ACcents you'd USE when SPEAKing the LINE, but are inSTEAD the reSULT of SCANsion.
Just as in the english example, word accents and ictus can be (and often are) juxtaposed for poetic effect.
To recap:
first 4 feet: dactyls OR spondees, any combination is permissible, but after a bit of study the discerning reader will come to internalize most of the more common patterns. Ovid and Virgil had VERY different treatments of the dactylic hexameter with respect to the most frequent combinations they liked to use.
5th foot: always a dactyl!
6th foot :spondee or trochee, NEVER a dactyl. In english, the final syllable can occasionally be dropped. A crucial thing to note: in dactylic hexameter, most lines are NOT complete sentences, the action typically carries-over onto the next line. This is why English D. H. poetry looks 'weird' or 'ungrammatical' on the page. So, a pause at the end of a thought in the poem is usually NOT at the end of a line, but instead is a caesura.
A dactyl (Greek:δάκτυλος, dáktylos, “finger”) is a foot in poetic meter. In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. In accentual verse, often used in English, it is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables—the opposite is the anapaest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable).
The Greek and Latin words δάκτυλος and dactylus are themselves dactyls (and hence autological). The English word poetry is also a dactyl. A useful mnemonic for remembering this long-short-short pattern is to consider the relative lengths of the three bones of a human finger: beginning at the knuckle, it is one long bone followed by two shorter ones (hence the name dactyl).
The first five feet of the line are dactyls; the sixth a trochee.
Stephen Fry quotes Robert Browning's The Lost Leader as an example of the use of dactylic metre to great effect, creating verse with "great rhythmic dash and drive":
... about the notes, scales, effects, and instruments to be used, and the meter of each piece can be deduced from the poetry (for example, the dactylic hexameter of Homer and other epic poetry).