Molossus Foot

Molossus is a metrical foot used in metered poetry. It consists of three long syllables ( ̵̵̵̵̵        ̵̵̵̵̵        ̵̵̵̵̵  ).  In English poetry, syllables are usually categorized as being stressed or unstressed, rather than long or short as is the case in quantitative meter of Greek and Roman poetry. The molossus is very rare in English poetry, but can usually be created by using an adjective-adjective-noun combination. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Break, Break, Break” (in memory of Arthur Hallam) shows a molossus in verses 1 and 2 of the first stanza as shown below:

The poem “Freak Storm Smash” is loaded with the molossus foot as shown in the partial scan below: