Home › Glossary › Letter I

Iambic eight-foot

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

An iambic line extended to eight metrical feet, doubling the rhythmic length of tetrameter

Detailed Definition
Iambic eight-foot is synonymous with iambic octameter—a line of eight iambic feet (sixteen syllables)—a rare and expansive meter in English poetry that risks monotony or breathlessness but can be employed for comic, epic, or experimental effect, requiring skilled modulation to sustain rhythmic interest across its considerable length.
Example
Example in poetry:
Iambic eight-foot (octameter) appears in Poe’s “The Raven”: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary”; modern example: Annie Finch uses octameter in “The Encyclopedia of Scotland” for incantatory effect; this meter creates rolling, hypnotic rhythm; it’s rare in English due to length; iambic eight-foot suits narrative or dramatic monologue; it often employs internal rhyme for musicality.
Additional Notes
Iambic eight-foot is synonymous with full eight-foot iambic; see ID 9273. Its unwieldy length often signals parody or elevated style. Scan carefully—many apparent octameters are actually two tetrameters split by caesura.
Also Known As
Iambic octameter Eight-foot rising line Octosyllabic iambic sequence Heroic octameter line
Skip to main content