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Iamb

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-syllable metrical foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (◡ –), foundational to English accentual-syllabic verse.

Explore this topic in depth (2)

How to Scan a Poem — Scansion is the practice of listening closely to a poem’s rhythm and marking its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is not a way of forcing every line into a formula, but a method for hearing how regularity, variation and natural speech work together.

Metre and Rhythm — Metre gives poetry an underlying pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; rhythm is the living sound that results when a person reads it. Learn to hear the beat before naming it, and to notice how poets use regularity and variation to make language move.

Detailed Definition
Iamb is a metrical foot consisting of two syllables with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (u /), as in “before” or “delight”; it is the foundational unit of iambic meter, the most common rhythm in English poetry, mimicking natural speech patterns and lending lyrical fluidity to verse from Shakespeare to contemporary poets.
Example
Example in poetry:
Iamb (˘ ‒) is the basic rising foot: Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be”; Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud”; modern examples include Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (“We / real cool”); Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”; Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” (“You do not do, you do not do”).
Additional Notes
Iamb: A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (da-DUM); foundational in English poetry; examples include “before,” “delight”; often used to mimic natural speech rhythms.
Also Known As
Two-syllable foot Short-long unit Unstressed-stressed pair Rising foot Iambic foot
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