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Three-foot line

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 containing exactly three feet (e.g., trimeter), commonly used for lyrical brevity or rhythmic variation in poetic forms.

Detailed Definition
A three-foot line (trimeter) contains exactly three metrical feet—such as three iambs (“To swell the gourd”) or three trochees (“Tyger! Tyger!”)—and is a foundational unit in many poetic forms, including ballads, hymns, and haiku adaptations; its brevity lends itself to lyricism, song, or epigrammatic force.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright" (trochaic tetrameter trimmed to three feet); "Over the mountains / and into the woods" (three iambs); "The cat in the hat" (three anapests); "Come live with me / and be my love" (three stresses); "A rose is a rose / is a rose" (three beats)
Additional Notes
A three-foot line contains exactly three metrical feet (e.g., trimeter); foundational in many forms (ballads, hymns); students should practice scansion to identify foot type (iambic, trochaic, etc.); differs from "three-beat rhythm" by including unstressed syllables.
Also Known As
trimeter tripartite measure tercet-length line Trimeter line Triameter
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