An adonic (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: ''adoneus'') is a unit of
Aeolic verse, a five-syllable
metrical foot
The foot is the basic repeating metre (poetry), rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of poetry, verse in most Indo-European languages, Indo-European traditions of poetry, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of ...
consisting of a
dactyl
Dactyl may refer to:
* Dactyl (mythology), a legendary being
* Dactyl (poetry), a metrical unit of verse
* Dactyl Foundation, an arts organization
* Finger, a part of the hand
* Dactylus, part of a decapod crustacean
* "-dactyl", a suffix used ...
followed by a
trochee. The last line of a
Sapphic stanza is an adonic. The pattern (with "-" a long and "u" a short syllable) is: "- u u - -" when the pattern ends with a
spondee
A spondee (Latin: ) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek , , 'libation'.
Spondees in Ancient Greek ...
(i.e. --) or " -uu -u " if a trochee is intended.
References
External links
Say Something Wonderful: Spot the Adonic
Types of verses
{{poetry-stub