What is a spondaic dimeter?

Answer 1

Spondaic dimeter is a term for a specific kind of poetry, formed from the meaningful words "spondee," "di-," and "meter."

A spondee is a type of metrical foot, i.e a chunk of poetry with a certain stress pattern. Specifically, it consists of two more-or-less equally stressed syllables, for example: "Hi, Pete!", or DUM-DUM.

This type of foot is rare in English poetry due to the natural stress in the language. You are more likely to come across iambs (dee-DUM), trochees (DUM-dee), or dactyls (DUM-dee-dee).

So, in spondaic dimeter, "spondaic" refers to the type of foot; the spondee.

Dimeter refers to the number of feet in a line of poetry written in the spondaic dimeter meter. You may have heard of iambic pentameter (five iambs) or dactylic hexameter(six dactyls). In the case of spondaic dimeter, the di- prefix tells us that it is a line of two spondees.

So, a poem written in spondaic dimeter might look something like this:

Hey, John,

where's Ron?

Don't know;

I'm slow.

Answer 2

A spondaic dimeter is a poetic meter containing two metrical feet per line, with each foot consisting of two stressed syllables (spondees). This creates a very strong and regular rhythm in the verse.