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choriambic four-measure

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 four-foot line built entirely of choriambs (– ᴗ ᴗ –), creating a compact, resonant metrical unit.

Detailed Definition
A choriambic four-measure is a metrical line containing four choriambic feet (— ∪ ∪ —), resulting in a sixteen-syllable structure in classical quantitative meter; it provides a balanced, rolling rhythm often employed in choral lyrics to convey solemnity, celebration, or narrative continuity within a strophic framework.
Example
Example in poetry:
Choriambic four-measure (long-short-short-long x4) appears in Horace’s Odes I.23: “Vitas hinnuleo me similis Chloe”; In Swinburne’s “Hendecasyllabics,” choriambic rhythm underlies lyrical flow; A.E. Housman’s “Roman Wall Blues” adapts choriambic measures into English; Modern poet Annie Finch uses choriambic four-measure in “Among the Goddesses” for ritual cadence; Ezra Pound’s “Homage to Sextus Propertius” echoes choriambic structure in elegiac passages.
Additional Notes
choriambic four-measure|A line or verse unit composed of four choriambic feet (–∪∪–); a long and stately classical meter, related to the Choriambic tetrameter.
Also Known As
tetrachoriamb fourfold choriamb quadruple choriamb meter Choriambic tetrameter
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