Spondee in the context of "Libation"

Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry.Its name is derived from Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, "finger") and ἕξ (héx, "six").

Dactylic hexameter consists of six feet. The first five feet contain either two long syllables, a spondee (– –), or a long syllable followed by two short syllables, a dactyl (–ᴗᴗ). However, the last foot contains either a spondee or a long syllable followed by one short syllable, a trochee(– ᴗ). The six feet and their variation is symbolically represented below:

The dactylic pentameter is a verse-form which, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, follows a dactylic hexameter to make up an elegiac couplet. It features two halves, each consisting of two dactyls, for which spondees can be substituted in the first half only, followed by a longum. Thus the line most normally looks as follows (note that "—" marks a long syllable, "∪" a short syllable and " ∪ ∪ " either one long or two shorts):

As in all classical verse-forms, the phenomenon of brevis in longo is observed, so the last syllable can actually be short or long. Also, the line has a diaeresis, where a word boundary must occur, after the first half-line, here marked ||.

A metron /ˈmɛtrɒn/, /ˈmɛtrən/ (from ancient Greek μέτρον "measure"), plural metra, is a repeating section, 3 to 6 syllables long, of a poetic metre.

The word is particularly used in reference to ancient Greek. According to a definition by Paul Maas, usually a metron consists of two long elements and up to two other elements which can be short, anceps or biceps. Thus an iambic metron is x – ᴗ – (where "x" represents an anceps element), a trochaic metron is – ᴗ – x, an ionic metron is ᴗ ᴗ – –, an anapaestic metron is ᴗᴗ – ᴗᴗ –, a cretic metron – ᴗ –, a baccheus is ᴗ – –, and a spondee is – –.

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)

Iambic tetrameter is a poetic meter in ancient Greek and Latin poetry; as the name of a rhythm, iambic tetrameter consists of four metra, each metron being of the form | x – u – |, consisting of a spondee and an iamb, or two iambs. There usually is a break in the centre of the line, thus the whole line is:

("x" is a syllable that can be long or short, "–" is a long syllable, and "u" is a short one.)