A tribrach is a

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 ...

used in formal

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and Greek and Latin verse. In

quantitative meter In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set o ...

(such as the meter of classical verse), it consists of three short syllables; in

accentual-syllabic verse Accentual-syllabic verse is an extension of accentual verse which fixes both the number of stresses and syllables within a line or stanza. Accentual-syllabic verse is highly regular and therefore easily scannable. Usually, either one metrical foot, ...

(such as formal English verse), the tribrach consists of a run of three short

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

s substituted for a

trochee 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 ( ...

. A "tribrach word" is a word consisting of three short syllables, such as Latin "shining" or Greek "you have".W. M. Lindsay (1919), ''Early Latin Verse'', pp. 105–6. An English equivalent would be a word with three short syllables such as ''Canada'' or ''passenger''. The origin of the word tribrach is the Greek , derived from the prefix - "three" and the adjective "short".

Terminology

The name is first recorded in the Roman writer

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

(1st century AD). According to Quintilian, an alternative name for a tribrach, was a "trochee": ("Three short syllables make a , but those who give the name to the prefer to call it a .") Quintilian himself referred to it as a . However, in modern usage a run of three short syllables is always called a tribrach, while the word

is used of a long + short (or heavy + light, or stressed + unstressed) sequence. Another name, mentioned in

Diomedes Grammaticus Diomedes Grammaticus was a Latin grammarian who probably lived in the late 4th century AD. He wrote a grammatical treatise, known either as ''De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III'' or '' Ars grammatica'' in three book ...

(4th century AD) was . The Latin writer on metrics

Terentianus Maurus Terentianus, surnamed Maurus (a native of Mauretania), was a Latin grammarian and writer on prosody who flourished probably at the end of the 2nd century AD. His references to Septimius Serenus and Alphius Avitus, who belonged to the school o ...

(2nd century AD) noted that the long syllable of a trochaic foot (– u) was often resolved into two short syllables, "hence what we call a tribrach can also be called a ". He adds that a tribrach can also be found as a substitute for an iambic foot (u –) and in the first or second half of an (cretic) (– u –). The earliest mention of the word in a Greek writer recorded in Liddell and Scott's lexicon is in the grammarian Hephaestion (2nd century AD), who lists the tribrach among the possible forms which a trochaic foot could take. It was also known as "a tribrach foot".

In Latin poetry

In Latin poetry a tribrach is never found in the works of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, or

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...

, since the hexameter and hendecasyllable metres do not allow a series of more than two syllables. It is, however, fairly common in iambic and trochaic verse as used in Roman comedy in writers such as

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the gen ...

and

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

. In iambic and trochaic metres a tribrach can replace either an iamb (u –) or a trochee (– u) at any place except immediately before the end of the line or before the central dieresis. So for example whether in iambic or trochaic poetry a long element can be replaced by two short syllables. Usually the word accent falls at the beginning of the long syllable: :: "always something" (with a tribrach replacing u –) :: "it happened to the old men" (with a tribrach replacing – u) There are certain rules of word division in a tribrach. For example, a tribrach word such as is not found replacing an iamb (u –) but only replacing a trochee (– u). This rule, however, does not apply in Greek, where word-accent has no effect on the metre. Occasionally two tribrachs are found together in a verse: :: "when the mistress has given birth"Terence, ''Phormio'', 47. An example of a double tribrach in more serious verse is found in the poem said to have been written by the emperor

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

on his deathbed, '' Animula vagula blandula''. Each line of the poem is in an iambic dimeter (u – u – , u – u –), but in the first and fourth lines the first two long elements are resolved into two short syllables, making a tribrach: :: :: :: :: :: ::Poor little, wandering, charming soul ::Guest and companion of my body, ::What place will you go to now? ::Pale, stiff, naked little thing, ::Nor will you be making jokes as you usually do.

In English poetry

Just as in Latin poetry, a tribrach can replace a trochee in trochaic metre: ::Humpty / Dumpty / sat on a / wall In the music which is traditionally used for this nursery rhyme (see

Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. ...

), the words "Humpty" and "Dumpty" are given a

quarter note A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a note (music), musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless ste ...

eighth note 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...

, while "sat on a" has three eighth notes. As in Latin, a tribrach can also replace a trochaic portion of an iambic line, as in this example from "

Teddy Bears' Picnic "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" is a song consisting of a melody by American composer John Walter Bratton, written in 1907, and lyrics added by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy in 1932. It remains popular as a children's song, having been recorded by num ...

" (1932): ::The / little / teddy / bears are / having a / lovely / time to/day The substitution of a tribrach for a trochee is often associated with children's poetry. An example in a more serious poem is the following, from

Sam Ryder Sam Ryder Robinson (born 25 June 1989) is a British singer, songwriter, producer, composer and social media personality. He rose to prominence in 2020, after posting music covers on TikTok, during the first UK lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic ...

's song "

Space Man "Space Man" is a song by the British singer and songwriter Sam Ryder, released as a single on 22 February 2022 through Parlophone Records. It represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, after being intern ...

" (2022). In the refrain a tribrach is used for the words "nothing but" in a similar way with three short equal notes in the music: ::I've / searched a/round the / uni/verse ::/ Been down / some black / holes ::There's / nothing but / space, / man A double tribrach (as in "higgledy piggledy") is also found in English poetry, for example in the nursery rhyme "

Hickory Dickory Dock "Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6489. Lyrics and music The most common modern version is: Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. ...

" ( 1744): ::/ Hickory / dickory / dock. ::The / mouse ran / up the / clock. Another example is found in the children's poem "Disobedience" (1924) by

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

(from his collection ''

When We Were Very Young ''When We Were Very Young'' is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne. It was first published in 1924, and it was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson. The book begins with an int ...

''): ::/ James / James ::/ Morrison / Morrison ::/ Weatherby / George Du/pree ::/ Took / great ::/ Care of his / Mother, ::/ Though he was / only / three.

References

Metrical feet {{Poetry-stub