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Headless three-foot dactylic

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 dactylic trimeter missing the initial unstressed syllable of the first foot

Detailed Definition
Headless three-foot dactylic is a dactylic trimeter missing the initial unstressed syllable of the first foot, beginning with a stressed syllable; this creates a trochaic onset that adds rhythmic variation and emphasis to the line’s start.
Example
Example in poetry:
Headless three-foot dactylic: Three-foot lines missing initial weak syllable; Example: “Sing loud, dance fast, run free”; Truncated dactylic trimeter; Poems using clipped meter
Additional Notes
Headless three-foot dactylic: A dactylic trimeter line where the first unstressed syllable of the first dactyl has been omitted; results in the line starting with a stress; a form of truncation.
Also Known As
Acephalous dactylic trimeter Headless three-measure falling verse Initial-clipped triple dactyl Catalexis trimeter Dactylic trimeter acephalous
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