View source for Anapaest

{{short description|Metrical foot}}
{{Metrical feet}}
An '''anapaest''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|n|ə|p|iː|s|t|,_|-|p|ɛ|s|t}}; also spelled '''anapæst''' or '''anapest''', also called '''antidactylus''') is a [[metrical foot]] used in formal [[poetry]]. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two [[short syllable]]s followed by a [[long syllable|long]] one; in accentual stress meters it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. It may be seen as a reversed [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]]. This word comes from the [[Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|ἀνάπαιστος}}, ''anápaistos'', literally "struck back" and in a poetic context "a dactyl reversed".<ref>{{LSJ|a)na/paistos|ἀνάπαιστος|ref}}.</ref><ref>''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' 7th Ed. (2009) Edited by Dinah Birch, Oxford University Press Inc.</ref><ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989)</ref><ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms'' (2008) Chris Baldick, Oxford University Press.</ref>

Because of its length and the fact that it ends with a stressed syllable and so allows for strong rhymes, anapaest can produce a very rolling verse, and allows for long lines with a great deal of internal complexity.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com.libwin2k.glendale.edu/EBchecked/topic/22718/anapest  ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2011)]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Apart from their independent role, anapaests are sometimes used as substitutions in iambic verse. In strict [[iambic pentameter]], anapaests are rare, but they are found with some frequency in freer versions of the iambic line, such as the verse of Shakespeare's last plays, or the lyric poetry of the 19th century.

==Examples==
===Trimeter===
Here is an example from [[William Cowper]]'s "Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk" (1782), composed in anapaestic [[trimeter]]:

:''I must '''fin'''ish my '''jour'''ney a'''lone'''''

===Tetrameter===
An example of anapaestic tetrameter is the "[[Twas the Night Before Christmas|A Visit from St. Nicholas]]" by [[Clement Clarke Moore]] (1823):

:''Twas the '''night''' before '''Christ'''mas and '''all''' through the '''house'''''

The following is from [[George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron|Byron]]'s "[[The Destruction of Sennacherib]]":

:''The As'''syr'''ian came '''down''' like a '''wolf''' on the '''fold'''''
:''And his '''co'''horts were '''gleam'''ing in '''purp'''le and '''gold'''''
:''And the '''sheen''' of their '''spears''' was like '''stars''' on the '''sea'''''
:''When the '''blue''' wave rolls '''night'''ly on '''deep''' Gali'''lee'''.''

===Hexameter===
An even more complex example comes from [[William Butler Yeats|Yeats]]'s ''[[The Wanderings of Oisin]]'' (1889). He intersperses anapests and [[Iamb (foot)|iambs]], using six-foot lines (rather than four feet as above). Since the anapaest is already a long foot, this makes for very long lines.

:''Fled foam underneath us and 'round us, a wandering and milky smoke''
:''As high as the saddle-girth, covering away from our glances the tide''
:''And those that fled and that followed from the foam-pale distance broke.''
:''The im'''mor'''tal de'''sire''' of im'''mor'''tals we '''saw''' in their '''fac'''es and '''sighed'''.''

The mixture of anapaests and iambs in this manner is most characteristic of late-19th-century verse, particularly that of [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] in poems such as ''[[The Triumph of Time]]'' (1866) and the choruses from ''[[s:Atalanta in Calydon/Text|Atalanta in Calydon]]'' (1865). Swinburne also wrote several poems in more or less straight anapaests, with line-lengths varying from three feet ("Dolores") to eight feet ("March: An Ode").

===Heptameter===
[[Neutral Milk Hotel]]'s song "[[In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (song)|In the Aeroplane Over the Sea]]" can be described as mainly being written in anapaestic heptameter, or two dimetric lines followed by a trimetric one. At the end of the verses there is a critic monometer and a line that is a variation of an iambic pentameter.

:''What a '''beau'''tiful '''face'''''
:''I have '''found''' in this '''place'''''
:''That is '''circ'''ling '''all''' 'round the '''sun'''''
:''What a '''beau'''tiful '''dream'''''
:''That could '''flash''' on the '''screen'''''
:''In a '''blink''' of an '''eye''' and be '''gone''' from '''me'''''
:'''''Soft''' and '''sweet'''''
:''Let me '''hold''' it '''close''' and '''keep''' it '''here''' with '''me'''''

===Comic poetry===
The anapaest's most common role in English verse is as a comic metre: the foot of the [[Limerick (poetry)|limerick]], of [[Lewis Carroll]]'s poem ''[[The Hunting of the Snark]]'' (1876), [[Edward Lear]]'s ''[[s:The Book of Nonsense|The Book of Nonsense]]'' (1846), ''[[Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats]]'' (1939) by [[T. S. Eliot]], a number of [[Dr. Seuss]] books, among other examples.

==See also==
* [[Anapestic tetrameter]]
* [[Scansion]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Metrical feet]]