Amphibrach

The amphibrach is a trisyllabic foot with the stress on the middle syllable (U—U). The Greek name means "short on both sides," because the strong position is framed by two weak ones. Amphibrachic rhythm has an even, rocking, narrative character close to calm storytelling, and therefore appears frequently in ballads and in lyric-epic works. Owing to the naturalness of its intonational movement, the amphibrach lends itself well to narrative plot poems. In the syllabo-tonic system it belongs, alongside the dactyl and anapaest, to the trisyllabic measures that give a longer and smoother line than disyllabic feet and create the effect of unhurried, balanced speech.