In prosody the Inversion of a foot is the reversal of the order of its elements. For example, in English Accentual-syllabic verse the most common inversion by far is the reversal of the first iamb in a line of verse, thus resulting in a trochee. Examples can be found in the first and second lines of Hamlet's soliloquy:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'
Here, that is emphasized rather than is, which would be a wrenched, or unnatural accent. The first syllable of Whether is also stressed, making it a trochaic beginning.
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