Foot

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

John Constable (University of Cambridge)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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The metrical unit of verse comprising a number of stressed and unstressed syllables. These are usually marked up with the sign ‘u’ over the unstressed syllable and a forward slash over the stressed syllable. Thus the kinds of feet appear as:

Anapest: u u / Dactyl: / u u Iamb: u / Trochee: / u Spondee: / / As an aid to memory, each Greek word actually has the stress pattern it names. Thus Spondee has two stresses, spond-dee.

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73 words

Citation: Constable, John. "Foot". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=426, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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