tetrameter
From LSJ
τὰ σῦκα σῦκα, τὴν σκάφην δὲ σκάφην ὀνομάζειν → call a spade a spade | speak the truth | speak straight from the shoulder | give it straight from the shoulder | give the straight goods | not to mince matters | not to mince words | not mince words | call things by their right names | call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel | call a shovel a shovel | call a spade a spade, not a big spoon
Latin > French (Gaffiot 2016)
tĕtrămĕtĕr, trī, m. (τετράμετρος), tétramètre, qui a quatre mètres [métrique] : Diom. 519, 29.
Latin > German (Georges)
tetrameter, trī, m. (τετράμετρος), der Tetrameter, Viertakter in der Metrik (s. tetrametrus), Diom. 506, 28.
Latin > English
tetrameter tetrametri N M :: tetrameter; four metric feet
Wikipedia EN
In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four feet. 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")
- iambic tetrameter:
- "Because I could not stop for Death" (Emily Dickinson, eponymous Because I could not stop for Death)
- trochaic tetrameter:
- "Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater" (Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater)
- 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
- amphibracic tetrameter:
- And, speaking of birds, there's the Russian Palooski, / Whose headski is redski and belly is blueski. (Dr. Seuss)
