—Browning.
+109. Feet.+—The metrical effect of the preceding selections is produced by the regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables. A group of accented and unaccented syllables is called a foot. There are four regular feet in English verse, the iambus, the anapest, the trochee, and the dactyl. Three irregular feet, the pyrrhic, the spondee, the amphibrach, are occasionally found in lines, but not in entire poems, and are often considered merely as substitutes for regular feet. For the sake of convenience the accented syllables are indicated thus: _, and the unaccented syllables thus: U.
An iambus is a foot consisting of two syllables with the accent on the last.
U | U | U | U | U _|
Let not ambition mock their useful toil.
—Gray.
U |U | U |U |
He prayeth best who loveth best
U | U | U _|
All things both great and small;
U | U | U |U |
For the dear God who loveth us,
U | U |U _|
He made and loveth all.
—Coleridge.