Home › Glossary › Letter A

Anacreontic stanza

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A quatrain with a specific metrical pattern imitating Anacreon’s drinking songs, often in iambic and trochaic combinations

Detailed Definition
An Anacreontic stanza is a lyric structure inspired by Anacreon’s short, melodic poems, often comprising quatrains with alternating line lengths and a lilting, iambic-anapestic meter; it celebrates hedonistic pleasures and transient beauty, exemplified in Thomas Moore’s Anacreontic Songs and Romantic-era light verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
An Anacreontic stanza typically uses short, lyrical lines celebrating pleasure; Moore’s stanza: “Young and gay, we’ll kiss the hours, / Cull the sweets of thornless flowers,” exemplifies the form.
Additional Notes
Stanza form in Anacreontic style; often mixing dimeter and trimeter lines. Related to drinking song stanzas. Creates bouncy, convivial rhythm. Shorter stanzas typical. See Cowley's odes for English adaptations.
Also Known As
Convivial stanza Drinking-song unit Wine verse form Symposium stanza
Skip to main content