anapest

anapest, metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable. First found in early Spartan marching songs, anapestic metres were widely used in Greek and Latin dramatic verse, especially for the entrance and exit of the chorus. Lines composed primarily of anapestic feet, often with an additional unstressed syllable at the end of the first line, are much rarer in English verse. Because of its jog-trot rhythm, pure anapestic metre was originally used only in light or popular English verse, but after the 18th century it appeared in serious poetry. Byron used it effectively to convey a sense of excitement and galloping in “The Destruction of Sennacherib”:

In Swinburne’s “By the North Sea,” however, anapestic trimeter conveys a more subdued effect: