Iambic tetrameter
Iambic tetrameter is a term used in the study of poetic meter, with two different uses.
In the quantitative verse of Ancient Greek and Latin, a line of 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:
In the poetry of modern English and other languages using accentual-syllabic verse, "iambic tetrameter" denotes a line consisting of four iambic feet. The scheme is thus:
x / x / x / x /
In such traditions, certain poetic forms rely upon the iambic tetrameter, for example triolet, Onegin stanza, In Memoriam stanza, long measure ballad stanza.
Quantitative verse
In Medieval Latin
The term iambic tetrameter originally applied to the quantitative meter of Classical Greek poetry, in which an iamb consisted of a short syllable followed by a long syllable. Two iambs, or a spondee and an iamb, were joined to make a "metron". In Greek and Latin iambic poetry the first syllable of each iambic metron could optionally be long instead of short.An example in Latin is the hymn Aeterne rerum conditor composed in the 4th century by St Ambrose, which begins:
Aetérne rḗrum cónditór,
noctém diémque quī́ regís,...
"Eternal Creator of things,
Who rulest the night and day"
The two lines above consist of the following rhythm, and joined make a tetrameter:
Latin poetry was quantitative, i.e. based on syllable weight not stress accent, and in places the word-stress does not match the metrical beat . In Ambrose's hymn, there is a strong break at the end of each half of the tetrameter, so that it is usual to write the two halves of the verse on separate lines.
In early Latin
The iambic tetrameter was one of the metres used in the comedies of Plautus and Terence in the early period of Latin literature. This kind of tetrameter is also known as the iambic octonarius, because it has eight iambic feet. There were two varieties. One had a break at the end of the second metron as in Ambrose's hymn. In some lines, however, such as the following from Terence, the break came after the 9th, not the 8th, metrical position:A characteristic of iambic metre in Latin was that even the short elements in the metre were often replaced with a long syllable, as with tūn in fórtūnā́tus, or two short ones, as with mihi above.
A variation on this metre was the iambic septenarius, or iambic tetrameter catalectic. This was similar but with the last syllable omitted. The example below also comes from Terence:
The final syllable of the line could be long or short, but every final syllable counted as long by the principle known as brevis in longo.
Accentual-syllabic verse
The term iambic tetrameter was adopted to describe a metre in accentual-syllabic verse, as composed in English, German, Russian, and other languages. Here, iamb refers to an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A line of iambic tetrameter consists of four such feet in a row:
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
Examples
English
× / × / × / × /Come live with me and be my love
German
× / × / × / × /Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön
Hebrew
× / × / × / × /Adon Olam Asher Malach