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Dactylic

Adjective
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

Describing a metrical foot composed of one long (stressed) syllable followed by two short (unstressed) syllables (/ uu).

Detailed Definition
Dactylic describes a metrical foot consisting of three syllables, with the first stressed followed by two unstressed (DUM-da-da); it creates a falling rhythm that can sound solemn, lyrical, or even chant-like, famously used in classical Greek and Latin epics such as Homer’s “Iliad.” In English verse, pure dactylic patterns are less common but appear in works like Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” producing a deliberate rolling cadence well suited to epic or tragic themes.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dactylic|"HICKory DICKory DOCK" with hard-soft-soft pattern; One stressed followed by two unstressed syllables; Longfellow's "Evangeline"; "THUNder CRASHing" from children's verse

Dactyllic meter (stressed-unstressed-unstressed): Longfellow’s “Evangeline” (“This is the forest primeval…”); Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (“Cannon to right of them”); Whitman’s occasional dactyls for incantatory effect; Greek epics like Homer’s dactylic hexameter; modern dactylic experiments by Annie Finch; dactyls mimic galloping rhythms in war poetry.
Additional Notes
Dactylic meter follows the pattern of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones (DUM-da-da); it can produce a heavy, solemn, or classical cadence.

Dactyllic meter (stressed + two unstressed: “MER-ri-ly”) drives epic and galloping rhythms. Longfellow’s “Evangeline” is a key example. Students should practice scansion and consider how dactyls convey urgency or grandeur. It contrasts with iambic regularity and suits narrative poetry.
Also Known As
Dactylic verse Three-beat measure Long-short-short pattern Falling triple rhythm Dactyllic
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