In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. However, the particular foot can vary, as follows:

Anapestic tetrameter:

• "And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea" (Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacherib")

• "Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house" ("A Visit from St. Nicholas")

• "And since birth I've been cursed with this curse to just curse / And just blurt this berserk and bizarre shit that works" (Eminem, "The Way I Am")

Iambic tetrameter:

• "Because I could not stop for Death" (Emily Dickinson, eponymous lyric)

Trochaic tetrameter:

• "Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater" (English nursery rhyme)

Dactylic tetrameter:

• Picture your self in a boat on a river with [...] (The Beatles, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds")

Spondaic tetrameter:

• Long sounds move slow

Pyrrhic tetrameter (with spondees ["white breast" and "dim sea"]):

• And the white breast of the dim sea

Amphibrachic tetrameter:

• And, speaking of birds, there's the Russian Palooski, / Whose headski is redski and belly is blueski. (Dr. Seuss)

See also

• Iambic pentameter

• Anapestic tetrameter

References