Ictosyllabic metre: a metre in which each line has a fixed number of beats, and a fixed number of off-beats between each pair of beats within the line, either one (duple metre), two (triple metre) or three (quadruple or paeonic metre, q.v.). Examples:
Duple metre:
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these le-gends and tra-ditions,
With the o-dors of the fo-rest
With the dew and damp of mea-dows
(Longfellow, Hiawatha)
Triple metre:
The Assy-rian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his co-horts were glea-ming in pur-ple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
When the blue wave rolls night-ly on deep Ga-li-lee.
(Byron, “The Destruction of Sennacherib”)
Quadruple (paeonic) metre:
I had a duck-billed pla-ty-pus when...
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Citation: Groves, Peter Lewis. "Ictosyllabic metre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5517, accessed 15 December 2025.]
