An acatalectic line of verse is one having the
metrically complete number of syllables in the final
foot
The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
.
When talking about poetry written in English the term is arguably of limited significance or utility, at least by comparison to its antonym,
catalectic
A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line.
A line ...
, for the simple reason that acatalexis is considered to be the "usual case" in the large majority of metrical contexts and therefore explicit reference to it proves almost universally superfluous.
For example, to describe Shakespeare's sonnets as having been written in ''
iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...
acatalectic'' would be factually accurate, but redundant and never said, because iambic pentameter is presumed to be acatalectic unless specified as being catalectic. However, in very rare contexts where catalexis might be considered probable (e.g., in English
trochaic
In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (al ...
tetrameter
In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical 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 Sennacher ...
, or in differentiating acatalectic verses from surrounding catalectic ones), explicit expression of the verse's metrical completeness may be achieved by using the term. When talking about poems published in languages other than English, the term might prove itself more useful. For example in Polish poetry acatalectic iambic lines are unusual, because feminine ending is dominant.
[Wiktor J. Darasz, Hipometria i hipermetria, Język Polski, 3/2001, p. 189-191 (in Polish).] Thus iambic pentameter in Polish is not 10-syllable long but almost always 11-syllable long.
See also
*
Catalectic
A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line.
A line ...
References
{{reflist
Poetic rhythm