Learn more about anapest in poetry
The anapestic is one of the more normal metrical types of the English language and an extraordinary method to begin writing poetry or limericks.
In English, we need to express words so anyone can hear to determine where the accentuation is set. State “ignorant” for all to hear, and you’ll see that the initial two syllables are unstressed and the latter is focused on (a highlighted syllable)— this is an illustration of anapest in a single word.
When you feel good with the anapest, work on reading some anapest models out loud. The focused on syllables of every anapest are underlined to assist you with identifying them.
- “The Sick Rose” by William Blake (1794)
1 O Rose | thou workmanship wiped out.
2 The invis | ib le worm,
3 That flies | in the night
4 In the cry | ing storm:
5 Has discovered | thy bed
6 Of crim | child bliss:
7 And his dull | mystery love
8 Does thy life | wreck.
This short sonnet by William Blake is written in anapestic dimeter (two anapests for each line), with replacements made in each line aside from the seventh. The sonnet begins with a hailing spondee (“O Rose”), trailed by an anapest. In the second and third lines, an iamb (note that “the in” is articulated as one syllable) is trailed by another anapest. The forward line flips this example, beginning with an anapest and ending with an iamb. Lines five and eight follow the anapest-iamb design also, while line six is written in versifying dimeter.
- From “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron (1815)
The Assyr | ian descended | like the wolf | on the crease,
What’s more, his co | horts were glimmer | ing in purp | le and gold
This selection comes from a sonnet composed as a rule in anapestic tetrameter (i.e., each line comprises of four anapests).
- From “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore (1823)
‘Twas the night | before Christ | mas, and all | through the house
Not a crea | ture was mix | ring, not ev | en a mouse
In this selection from an acclaimed occasion sonnet, the initial two lines are written in anapestic tetrameter. Since the last syllable of each line is underlined, the rhyme (“house”/”mouse”) further sticks out, giving the sonnet a sing-melody quality.
- From Henry VI by William Shakespeare (1592)
You made | in a day | my master, | entire towns | to fly.
Shakespeare is popular for writing in predictable rhyming, however his lines are sporadically interspersed with anapests, for example, this one, verbally expressed by the Duke of Gloucester in Act II Scene 1 of Henry VI. Anapests make a decent replacement for iambs, since the two of them contain an unstressed syllable followed by a focused on one.
