Гальперин И. Р. Стилистика английского языка

2. Trochaic metre, where the order is reversed, i.e. a stressed syllable is followed by one unstressed
3. Dactylic metre – one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed
4. Amphibrachie metre – one stressed syllable is framed by two unstressed
_________


¹ Many linguists hold that verse rhythm is based on alternation, between stronger and weaker stresses. They maintain that four degrees of stresses are easily recognizable. But for the sake of abstraction – an indispensable process in scientific investigation – the opposition of stressed – unstressed syllables is the only authentic way of presenting the problem of verse rhythm.
253

5. Anapaestic metre – two unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed

These arrangements of qualitatively different syllables are the units of the metre, the repetition of which makes verse. One unit is called a foot. The number of feet in a line varies, but it has its limit; it rarely exceeds eight.
If the line consists of only one foot it is called a monometer; a line consisting of two feet is a dimeter, three – trimeter; four – tetrameter; five – pentameter; six – hexameter; seven – septameter; eight – оctameter. In defining the measure, that is the kind of ideal metrical scheme of a verse, it is necessary to point out both the type of metre and the length of the line. Thus, a line that consists of four iambic feet is called iambic tetrameter; correspondingly a line consisting of eight trochaic feet will be called trochaic octameter, and so on.
English verse is predominantly iambic. This is sometimes explained by the iambic tendency of the English language in general. Most of the English words have a trochaic tendency, that is the stress falls on the first syllable of two-syllabic words. But in actual speech these words are preceded by non-stressed articles, prepositions, conjunctions or by unstressed syllables of preceding words thus imparting an iambic character to English speech. As a result iambic metre is more common in English verse than any other metre.
Here are a few examples illustrating various metrical arrangements of English verse.
1. Iambic pentameter

2. Trochaic tetrameter

3. Dactylic dimeter

4. Amphibrachic tetrameter

5. Anapaestic tetrameter

If we. make a careful study of almost any poem, we will find what are called irregularities or modifications of its normal metrical pattern. These modifications generally have some special significance,
254
usually connected with the sense, though in some cases they may be due to the nature of the language material itself. This is particularly the case with the first modification when the stress is lifted from a syllable on which the language will not allow stress, and we have what is called a pуrrhiс foot instead of an iambic or a trochaic foot, for example:
So, that now to still the beating of my heart I stood repeating (Poe)

But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy (Keats)

In both examples the stress is lifted from prepositions on which the stress seldom falls, therefore pyrrhics are very common and quite natural modifications in English verse.
The second modification of the rhythm is the inverted order of stressed and unstressed syllables in one of the feet of the iambic or trochaic pattern. For example, in the sonnet by Roy Campbell "The Serf" which, like all sonnets, is written in iambic pentameter, there creeps in a foot where the order, unstressed – stressed, is inverted:
His naked skin clothed in the torrid mist

That puffs in smoke around the patient hooves

Here the third foot of the first line violates the rhythmic pattern. Such modifications are called rhythmic inversions and are used to add emphasis.
The third modification is the insertion of a foot of two stressed syllables, called a spondee. It is used instead of an iambus or a trochee. In Shakespeare's iambic pentameter these two modifications are frequently to be found, for example:
The morn in russet mantle clad