Accent (poetry)
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]
| Disyllables | |
|---|---|
| ˘ ˘ | pyrrhic, dibrach |
| ˘ ¯ | iamb |
| ¯ ˘ | trochee, choree |
| ¯ ¯ | spondee |
| Trisyllables | |
| ˘ ˘ ˘ | tribrach |
| ¯ ˘ ˘ | dactyl |
| ˘ ¯ ˘ | amphibrach |
| ˘ ˘ ¯ | anapaest, antidactylus |
| ˘ ¯ ¯ | bacchius |
| ¯ ¯ ˘ | antibacchius |
| ¯ ˘ ¯ | cretic, amphimacer |
| ¯ ¯ ¯ | molossus |
| See main article for tetrasyllables. | |
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
References
- 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.
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