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Ionic four-foot

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 metrical line consisting of four Ionic feet (each foot typically two long followed by two short syllables, or vice versa).

Detailed Definition
Ionic four-foot denotes a line of four Ionic metrical feet, each usually consisting of two long and two short syllables in classical prosody, yielding a distinctive cadence that poets may emulate for musical or archaic flavor.
Example
Example in poetry:
A tetrameter line: “˘ ˘ – – | ˘ ˘ – – | ˘ ˘ – – | ˘ ˘ – –”; A Greek lyric fragment by Sappho using four Ionic feet per line; English imitation: “We walked beneath the silver moon”; A reconstructed line: “πολλάκις ἐν νυκτὶ φαεινῇ” adapted to Ionic tetrameter.
Additional Notes
Ionic four-foot (tetrameter) uses four Ionic metra; associated with ecstatic or processional Greek poetry; challenging to adapt into stress-based English meters.
Also Known As
Ionic tetrameter Four-foot Ionic line Tetra-Ionic measure
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