Anapaest
An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of two short syllables followed by a long[?] one. It may be seen as a reversed dactyl.Here is an example from Cowper[?], a line with three anapaestic feet:
- I am out of humanity?s reach
Because of its length and the fact that it ends with a stressed syllable and so allows for strong rhymes, anapaest can produce a very rolling, galloping feelin verse, and allows for long lines with a great deal of internal complexity. The following is from Byron:
- The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
- And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold
- And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
- When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
An even more complex example comes from W. B. Yeats. He intersperses anapests and iambs, using six-foot lines (rather than four feet as above). Since the anapaest is already a long foot, this makes for very long lines.
- Fled foam underneath us and 'round us, a wandering and milky smoke
- As high as the saddle-girth, covering away from our glances the tide
- And those that fled and that followed from the foam-pale distance broke.
- The immortal desire of immortals we saw in their faces and sighed.
with his own God! . . . Bi Nai, the Indian is dying!"
. . . . . . . . . . .
That night Shefford lay in his blankets out under the open sky and the
He had preached of the heavens, but until now had never studied them.
blotted out the starlight did Shefford close his eyes.
. . . . . . . . . . .
With break of the next day came full, varied, and stirring incidents
tasks. Withers had work for ten men, if they could have been found.
rest was a blessing.
He never succeeded in getting on a friendly footing with the Mormon
listened to the trader's wife as she told him about the Indians, and
increased in proportion to his knowledge.
One day there rode into Kayenta the Mormon for whom Withers had been
his superb bay.html">bay with a grace and activity that were astounding in one
bronze and the expression of a cherub; big, soft, dark eyes; and a
Mormon character that Shefford had naturally conceived. His costume
hip. The hand-shake he gave Shefford was an ordeal for that young man
was taking friendly stock of Shefford when the bay mustang.html">mustang reached
that almost brought the mustang to his knees. He reared then, snorted,
with defiant eyes. This mustang was the finest horse Shefford had
in color, had a racy and powerful build, and a fine thoroughbred head
bridle. He spoke as if he were chiding a refractory little boy.
think of you? Tryin' to bite my ear off!"
Lake had arrived about the middle of the forenoon, and Withers
sent out on the ranges to drive in burros and mustangs. Shefford had
.
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