iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry

Meter (poetry)

In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...

 consisting of three iambic units per line.

In ancient Greek poetry

Ancient Greek literature

Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Ancient Greek language until the 4th century.- Classical and Pre-Classical Antiquity :...

, iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consisted of three iambic metra and each metron consisted of two iambi. In the dramatic forms of tragedy and comedy, It was used mainly for the verses "spoken" by a character, that is, the dialogue rather than the choral passages.

In the accentual-syllabic verse

Accentual-syllabic verse

Accentual-syllabic verse is an extension of accentual verse which fixes both the number of stresses and syllables within a line or stanza. Accentual-syllabic verse is highly regular and therefore easily scannable...

 of English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, and other languages, iambic trimeter is a meter consisting of three iambs (disyllabic units with rising stress) per line.

Basic form

The iambic trimeter derives its name from its essential shape, which is three metrical units (hence "trimeter") which are each basically iambic in form. The iambic metron has the following shape (where the "x" is an anceps

Anceps

In Greek and Latin meter, an anceps syllable is a syllable in a metrical line which can be either short or long. An anceps syllable may be called "free" or "irrational" depending on the type of meter being discussed....

, the "-" is a longum, and the "u" is a brevis

Syllable weight

In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line....

):

x - u -

The long-short-long structure is known as a cretic

Cretic

A cretic is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long. In Greek poetry, the cretic was usually a form of paeonic or aeolic verse. However, any line mixing iambs and trochees could employ a cretic foot as a transition...

, so the basic metrical unit of the iambic trimeter may be said to be the following: anceps-cretic. The trimeter simply repeats this structure three times, with the resulting shape as follows:

x - u - x - u - x - u -

Note that, as always, the final syllable can observe the phenomenon of brevis in longo

Brevis in longo

In Greek and Latin meter, a short syllable at the end of a line can be counted as long; this phenomenon is known as brevis in longo.The term comes from Latin, and means "a short [syllable] in place of a long [syllable]." Brevis in longo is possible in any classical meter that requires a long...

, so it may actually be short or long.

A straightforward example of the structure:

u - u - - - u - - - u -

(Euripides, Hippolytus 1053)

Caesura and Bridge

A caesura

Caesura

thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...

 is usually found after the fifth or seventh element of the line, or, in other words, after the second anceps or the brevis of the second cretic. In the example above, it is found after the fifth element, as so (with || representing the caesura):

u - u - - || - u - u - u -

Finally, Porson's Law

Porson's Law

Porson's Law is a metrical law concerning a "bridge" in Greek iambic trimeters, the most common dialogue-meter in Greek tragedy and comedy. In its most general form it states that, in anceps-cretic or cretic-anceps meters, such as the iambic trimeter, no word-break may follow a long anceps, except...

 is observed, which means here that if the first or third anceps is long, there cannot be a word-break after that anceps. The second anceps is free from this constraint, because a word-break at that point would be a main caesura.

Resolution and Substitution

The trimeter also observes the phenomena of resolution

Resolution (meter)

Resolution is the metrical phenomenon in classical poetry of replacing a longum with two brevia. It is generally found in Greek lyric poetry and in Greek and Roman drama, most frequently in comedy....

 and substitution, allowing a greater variety of possibilities. In tragedy, resolution is fairly uncommon, and substitution occurs almost exclusively to accommodate personal names that otherwise could not fit the meter. In comedy, which is closer to casual speech, resolution and substitution are fairly common.

In both tragedy and comedy, though, the third metron is usually left alone; resolution and substitution in the final metron of the line is rare. Also, in tragedy, resolution and substitution are virtually never consecutive, and two instances of either in the same line is extremely rare. Finally, as usual, when resolution or substitution occurs, the two shorts standing in place of a long, an anceps, or one short are almost always within the same word-unit.

Accentual-syllabic iambic trimeter

In English similar accentual-syllabic metrical systems, a line of iambic trimeter consists of three iambic feet. The resulting six-syllable line is very short, and few poems are written entirely in this meter.

The 1948 poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke was an American poet, who published several volumes of poetry characterized by its rhythm, rhyming, and natural imagery. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book, The Waking.-Biography:...

 uses the trimeter:

...We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother's countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

's "Song ('I Love the Jocund Dance')" (1783) uses a loose iambic trimeter that sometimes incorporates additional weak syllables:

I love the jocund dance,

The softly breathing song,

Where innocent eyes do glance,

And where lisps the maiden's tongue.

I love the laughing gale,

I love the echoing hill,

Where mirth does never fail,

And the jolly swain laughs his fill.

As a component of common meter

The English iambic trimeter is much more frequently encountered as one-half of the common meter, which consists of alternating iambic tetrameter

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line; iambic tetrameter is a line comprising four iambs...

 and trimeter lines:

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,

All pray in their distress:

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

William Blake, "The Divine Image," Songs of Innocence, 1789

External links

• Introduction to Greek Iambic Trimeter