The Amphibrach Foot

The trisyllabic metrical foot is made up of three syllables that can be stressed or unstressed as in accentual-syllabic meter or can either be long or short as in quantitative meter. The Amphibrach is trisyllabic because it has three syllables and is identified has having its stressed syllable surrounded by two unstressed syllables as shown in the Table 6.

Here is a scan of the 1st Stanza of the poem “Ode to Poetry” with quantitative meter symbols showing the use of the amphibrach.

Since poetry is the food of the senses
Cart me heaps of heavy loads of wholesome flesh,
Beneath the skin and on the bone;
Like a flamingo, I take my time to pick,
And eat with delightful intensity,
Savory cuts of great poetry.

Scansion of Edward Lear’s poem “Calico Pie” shows his skillful use of the amphibrach. Take a look.

Calico Pie,
The little Birds fly
Down to the calico tree,
Their wings were blue,
And they sang “Tilly-loo!”
Till away they flew,
And they never came back to me!
They never came back!
They never came back!
They never came back to me!

The basic metron of classical limerick poems is the amphibrach, and the traditional limerick pattern that has somewhat emerged is shown in Table 7.

This pattern is rightly credited the funny poetry of Edward Lear who wrote such for his patron’s grand children in 1840. However, many variations to this pattern have persisted and continue to do so throughout the ages. Nevertheless, all have drawn inspiration from the classical limerick mode of Edward Lear’s funny poetry. It can truly be said that Edward Lear was a precursor to Limerick poetry, although he never used the term limerick. Here is scansion of one of his funny poems in quantitative meter showing his effective use of the amphibrach foot in “There was a young lady whose chin” as shown below:

There was a young lady whose chin, a
Resembled the point of a pin; a
So she had it made sharp, b
And purchased a harp, b
And played several tunes with her chin. A

Here is a scan of a Limerick "Wiener Souse" with quantitative meter symbols by a 21st Century poet showing all the five verses making use of the amphibrach only and rhyming aabba.