Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / Unit 6 AIL 0512 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Spondee
Captions available
The idea
The glossary calls a spondee a double-hard-stressed phrase, quoting Hopkins's shook foil from God's Grandeur. Two stresses together halt the line's momentum. A spondee rarely runs a whole poem; it appears as a deliberate interruption, and an interruption is always worth asking about.
In practice
Two stresses, side by side.
Where people slip
A spondee interrupts on purpose.
Your place on the trail
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