The Ditrochee is a tetrasyllabic metrical foot used in metered poetry. In classical poetry of the Greeks and Romans the Ditrochee consists of a long vowel followed by short vowel followed by a long vowel and ending with a short vowel. In English poetry it consists of stressed vowel followed by an unstressed vowel followed by a stressed vowel and ending with an unstressed vowel. As shown in the Table below.
Don’t expect to find poems made up of the Ditrochee foot entirely. However, you are bound to see the Ditrochee foot tramping along with other foot types in verses of poems as shown in the following examples:
In the following pentameter verses 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the First Stanza of the poem
“Ode to Sweet Revenge – Ground Zero Never” the Ditrochee foot appears when scanned as follows:
3 Different benchmarks and strokes they demand of President Barack
4 Doesn’t matter what Obama does; cold water poured on his back
5 Blackberries they vowed to weed out from among their bushes
7 Forget the two wars with hidden goals that tanked their economy;
Now take a look at how the Ditrochee is scattered among the pentameter verses in the
“Ode to the Buckeye Tree” poem in the following examples:
Stanza 1, verses 2 and 4
The tropical shine to come to this place,
Just to feel the arctic wind on my face.
Stanza 2, verses 1, 4, 5 and 6
Winter wonderland before my window,
In frozen wear in virgin snow they stand
Delicately balancing flowing ai
They bow these evergreens and pines with flair.
Stanza 3, Verses 2, 5 and 6
With spinning wheels of fluff above the ground,
Cardinals and jays perch in bright array
Among the blooms, they chirp and feed all day.
Now! here is a task for you. Scan the remaining verses of the
Buckeye ode to locate the ditrochee foot. Happy hunting!
