Dactylic tetrameter is a metre in poetry.[1] It refers to a line consisting of four dactylic feet. "Tetrameter" simply means four poetic feet. Each foot has a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, the opposite of an anapest, sometimes called antidactylus to reflect this fact.
Example
A dactylic foot is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones:
A dactylic tetrameter would therefore be:
| DUM
|
da
|
da
|
DUM
|
da
|
da
|
DUM
|
da
|
da
|
DUM
|
da
|
da
|
Scanning this using an "x" to represent an unstressed syllable and a "/" to represent a stressed syllable would make a dactylic tetrameter like the following:
The following lines from The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" demonstrate this, the scansion being:
| /
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
| Pic-
|
ture
|
your-
|
self
|
in
|
a
|
boat
|
on
|
a
|
riv-
|
er
|
with
|
| /
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
| tan-
|
ger-
|
ine
|
tree-
|
ees
|
and
|
marm-
|
a-
|
lade
|
skii-
|
ii-
|
es
|
Another example, from Browning:
| /
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
| Just
|
for
|
a
|
hand-
|
ful
|
of
|
sil-
|
ver
|
he
|
left
|
us!
|
Another example from Leonard Cohen of his song "Famous Blue Raincoat":
| /
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
| What
|
can
|
I
|
tell
|
you
|
my
|
bro-
|
ther
|
my
|
kee-
|
per
|
| /
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
x
|
x
|
/
|
| What
|
can
|
I
|
poss-
|
ib-
|
ly
|
say
|
See also
References