Tribrach Foot

This trisyllable foot consists of three short vowels ( ᵕ ᵕ ᵕ ) or three unstressed syllables ( ᵕ ᵕ ᵕ ) in metered poetry. The appearance of the Tribrach in English poetry is rare, as it tends to resolve into two disyllabic feet, depending upon the foot that surrounds it.

Examples of the Tribrach foot are shown in verses  (1, 7, 24 and 28) from Robert Lee Frost’s poem “An Old Man’s Winter Night” . Frost was an American poet. He died at age 89 in 1963. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. He received four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. His works tended to mirror rural life in New England during the early twentieth century, wherewith he used those themes to examine complex social and philosophical ideas.

An Old Man’s Winter Night

1    All out of doors looked darkly in at him
7    That brought him to that creaking room was age.
24  Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
28  It's this he does it of a winter night.

Here is the scan of the poem "Walk Through Trees" showing where the tribrach foot occurs in these three quatrains with tetrameter verses rhyming abab as shown below: