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Bacchius

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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 metrical foot consisting of two short syllables followed by one long syllable (˘ ˘ –)

Detailed Definition
A Bacchius is a metrical foot in poetry consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by two stressed syllables (u / /), named after Bacchus, the god of wine, and often used to evoke revelry or rhythmic intensity; it is the reverse of the amphibrach and appears more frequently in Greek than English verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Bacchius in Latin poetry: "aDULt miND"; English example: "deLIGHT in SPRING"; Rare in English, bacchius appears in emphatic phrases like "reJOICE aLONE"; Victorian hymns sometimes use bacchic feet for triumphant lines; The bacchius (unstressed-stressed-stressed) creates forward-driving energy
Additional Notes
Bacchius is a metrical foot with one unstressed followed by two stressed syllables (˘ – –); rare in English but used for emphatic or jarring effects in accentual-syllabic verse.
Also Known As
Long-short-short foot Bacchic measure Wine-god rhythm Dionysian triple Bacchic meter Bacchic foot
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