Home › Glossary › Letter D

Dipodic

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 structure in which two feet are grouped and perceived as a single rhythmic unit, common in classical quantitative meters like iambic dimeter.

Detailed Definition
Dipodic describes a metrical system where two metrical feet are grouped as a single rhythmic unit or “dipody,” common in classical lyric meters like the Sapphic stanza; in English, dipodic verse may alternate strong and weak beats in pairs, creating a double-pulse rhythm that feels more chant-like than standard accentual-syllabic patterns.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Anglo-Saxon poetry like “Beowulf,” dipodic meter uses two-stress half-lines (“Hwæt! We Gardena / in geardagum”); In Gerard Manley Hopkins’ sprung rhythm, dipodic lines drive intensity (“The world is charged / with the grandeur of God”); In W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” dipodic pulses structure elegiac reflection; In modern poetry, Kay Ryan uses dipodic lines in “Turtle” for compressed philosophy; In Lucille Clifton’s “homage to my hips,” dipodic rhythm asserts bodily presence.
Additional Notes
Relating to dipody or two-foot metrical unit treated as single entity. Common in ballad meter and folk verse. Creates swing or lilt rhythm. Study alongside accentual-syllabic prosody.
Also Known As
Double-foot meter Paired-foot rhythm Two-beat measure
Skip to main content