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Paeon

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 foot consisting of four syllables with one stressed and three unstressed syllables

Detailed Definition
A paeon is a metrical foot in classical prosody consisting of four syllables with one long (or stressed) syllable and three short (or unstressed) syllables, arranged in any of four possible patterns (first, second, third, or fourth paeon); though rare in English poetry due to the language’s stress-based rather than quantity-based meter, paeonic rhythms occasionally appear in experimental or mimetic verse to evoke fluidity, hesitation, or irregular cadence, reflecting the foot’s ancient use in Greek dramatic and lyric contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
A paeon (one long + three short or vice versa) appears in Latin hymns like “Te Deum”; English approximation: “In the blink of an eye” (stressed-unstressed-unstressed-unstressed); Paeonic rhythm in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”: “A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice”; Modern use: “Over the hills and far away” approximates a double paeon

In Greek lyric poetry, the peon (one long + three shorts or variants) appears in choral odes, as in fragments of Bacchylides; The first peon (¯ ˘ ˘ ˘) is used in Pindar’s victory odes to convey exultation; In Latin, Horace occasionally uses peonic rhythms in his Odes for variety; In English, Swinburne imitates classical peons in “Atalanta in Calydon”: “Before the beginning of years there came”; In modern experimental poetry, Ezra Pound uses peonic-like groupings in “Canto I” to echo Homeric rhythm; The fourth peon (˘ ˘ ˘ ¯) appears in Sappho’s stanzas to build toward a strong final beat.
Additional Notes
Paeon: A classical metrical foot with one long and three short syllables, in various arrangements; rarely used in English but appears in theoretical prosody.

A peon (or paean) is a metrical foot consisting of four syllables with one long (or stressed) syllable and three short (or unstressed), arranged in varying orders: the most common types are the first-peon (´˘˘˘), second-peon (˘´˘˘), third-peon (˘˘´˘), and fourth-peon (˘˘˘´). Though rare in English poetry, peons appear in experimental or classical-influenced verse. They offer rhythmic variety and can mimic natural speech patterns. Prosodists encounter them more frequently in Greek and Latin metrics. The peon contrasts with more common feet like the iamb or trochee.
Also Known As
Greek four-syllable Variable stress foot Mixed measure Compound foot Paeonic Peon paean (in metrical contexts)
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