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Whole rising octameter

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 continuous eight-foot iambic line sustaining unbroken rising motion

Detailed Definition
Whole rising octameter is a complete, untruncated line of eight iambic feet (sixteen syllables), maintaining full metrical integrity without elision or catalexis; though rare due to its length, it may appear in experimental or narrative contexts where expansive phrasing and rhythmic grandeur are desired, demanding careful syntactic control to sustain coherence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Atalanta in Calydon” uses whole rising octameter: “When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces”; William Morris’ “The Earthly Paradise” employs iambic octameter for narrative sweep; John Masefield’s “Sea Fever” approximates rising octameter: “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky”; Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Aurora Leigh” uses iambic octameter throughout its epic feminist narrative; Contemporary poet Annie Finch occasionally revives octameter in ritual verse; Derek Walcott’s “Omeros” uses extended rising lines approaching octameter for Homeric resonance.
Additional Notes
Whole rising octameter is a full eight-foot iambic line without missing syllables. See ID 9273. Extremely rare—usually signals parody, epic ambition, or technical exercise; verify scansion to distinguish from split tetrameters.
Also Known As
Complete rising octameter Full iambic eight-foot Unbroken octameter line Heroic extended meter Iambic octameter acatalectic
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