A paeonic metre is an ictosyllabic metre (q.v.) with three off-beats separating successive beats within the line:
I am the ve-ry mo-del of a mo-dern Ma-jor-General,I’ve in-for-ma-tion ve-ge-ta-ble, a-ni-mal, and mineral,
I am
the ve-rymo-
del of amo
-dern Ma-jor-General,I’ve in-
for-ma-tionve-
ge-ta-ble, a-
ni-mal, andmineral,
(W. S. Gilbert, “The Major-General’s Song”)
(W. S. Gilbert, “The Major-General’s Song”)
There was move-ment at the sta-tion for the word had passed a-roundThat the colt from old Re-gret had got away
There was move
-ment at thesta-
tion for theword
had passed a-roundThat the colt
from old Re-gret
had got away
(‘Banjo’ Patterson, “The Man from Snowy River”)
(‘Banjo’ Patterson, “The Man from Snowy River”)
Paeonic
110 words
Citation: Groves, Peter Lewis. "Paeonic". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1759, accessed 19 April 2024.]
