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Choriambic tetrameter

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 of choriambi, combining trochee and iamb patterns

Detailed Definition
Choriambic tetrameter is a four-unit line using choriambic feet (–uu–), creating a compact yet stately rhythm; it appears in Pindaric fragments and 19th-century odes, suitable for meditative or celebratory tones within constrained form.
Example
Example in poetry:
Choriambic tetrameter appears in Tennyson’s “Boadicea”: “Rattle his bones over the rocky shore”; Each foot: stressed-unstressed-unstressed-stressed; “Thunder rolls / over hills / cloaked in mist / deep and old”; Modern approximation: “Darkness falls / on broken dreams / lost in time / without sound”; True choriambic tetrameter is uncommon but powerful for incantatory effect.
Additional Notes
Four-foot line using choriambic meter, sixteen syllables in classical prosody. Creates elaborate rocking rhythm. Rare outside classical Greek poetry. Related to choreic tetrameter but uses Greek rather than Latin terminology.
Also Known As
Four-foot choriambic choriambic four-measure long-short-short-long tetrameter four-unit choriamb
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