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Dimeter brachycatalectic

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 two-foot line missing its final half-foot, producing clipped, urgent rhythm

Detailed Definition
Dimeter brachycatalectic is a two-foot metrical line missing its final unstressed syllable(s), typically resulting in a truncated, emphatic ending; common in trochaic or iambic forms, this variation sharpens rhythmic closure and is often used in refrains, hymns, or dramatic exclamations for heightened impact.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dimeter brachycatalectic (two feet, last syllable missing) appears in Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”: “I’m No- / -body! Who”; In nursery rhymes: “Jack Sprat / Could eat no”; In T.S. Eliot’s “Macavity”: “Macavity’s a mystery cat”; In Blake’s “The Lamb”: “Gave thee life & bid thee feed”; Contemporary poet Kay Ryan uses brachycatalectic dimeter for epigrammatic compression.
Additional Notes
Two-foot line missing final syllable in second foot. Creates truncated, abbreviated effect. Rare metrical variation. Related to catalexis and acephalous lines.
Also Known As
Shortened two-foot line Truncated dimeter Cataletic double foot Abbreviated binary meter
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