Anapestic Tetrameter - Example

Example

An anapestic foot is two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. We could write the rhythm like this:

da da DUM

A line of anapestic tetrameter is four of these in a row:

da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM


We can scan this with a 'x' mark representing an unstressed syllable and a '/' mark representing a stressed syllable. In this notation a line of anapestic tetrameter would look like this:

x x / x x / x x / x x /


The following lines from Dr. Seuss' Yertle the Turtle are examples, showing both a complete line of anapestic tetrameter and a line with the first beat omitted:


"And today the Great Yertle,
That marvelous he
Is King of the Mud.
That is all he can see."


We can notate the scansion of this as follows:

x
x
/
x
x
/
x
x
/
x
x
/
And to- day the Great Yer- tle, that Mar- vel ous he
x
/
x
x
/
x
x
/
x
x
/
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see

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