Metrical Feet

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

TROCHEE trips from long to short;

From long to long in solemn sort

Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot! yet ill able

Ever to come up with dactyl trisyllable.

Iambics march from short to long;—

With a leap and a bound the swift Anapæsts throng;

One syllable long, with one short at each side,

Amphibrachys hastes with a stately stride;—

First and last being long, middle short, Amphimacer

Strikes his thundering hoofs like a proud high-bred racer.