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Paeonic hexameter

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 six-foot line composed entirely of paeonic feet (typically long-short-short-short pattern)

Detailed Definition
Paeonic hexameter consists of six paeonic feet (´˘˘˘) per line, yielding a long, flowing cadence uncommon in English but occasionally employed in neoclassical or avant-garde poetry to evoke grandeur, ritual speech, or hypnotic repetition through its expansive, syllabic weight.
Example
Example in poetry:
Paeonic hexameter: Rare in English, but Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “sprung rhythm” approximates paeonic (long-short-short-short) in lines like “The world is charged with the grandeur of God”; classical Greek choral odes used paeonic meters for processional energy; contemporary experimental poets like David Jones employ irregular paeonic beats in “In Parenthesis”; paeonic hexameter combines six paeonic feet for driving, asymmetrical rhythm; it defies iambic dominance for ritualistic or ecstatic effect; often appears in liturgical or martial contexts.
Additional Notes
Six-foot line using paeons (four-syllable feet with one long, three shorts). Rare classical meter creating syncopated rhythm. Study quantitative prosody for variants.
Also Known As
fourth paeon hexameter rare hexameter
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