An amphibrach /ˈæmfibræk/ is a metrical foot used in Latin and Greek prosody. It consists of a long syllable between two short syllables. The word comes from the Greek αμφίβραχυς, amphíbrakhys, "short on both sides".
In English accentual-syllabic poetry, an amphibrach is a stressed syllable surrounded by two unstressed syllables. It is the main foot used in the construction of the limerick, as in "There once was / a girl from / Nantucket." It was also used by the Victorians for narrative poetry, e.g. Samuel Woodworth's "The Old Oaken Bucket" beginning "How dear to / my heart are / the scenes of / my childhood." W.H. Auden's "Oh Where Are You Going" is a more recent and slightly less metrically-regular example. The amphibrach is also often used in ballads and light verse, such as the hypermetrical lines of Sir John Betjeman's "Meditation on the A30".
Amphibrachs are a staple meter of Russian poetry. A common variation in an amphibrachic line, in both Russian and English, is to end the line with an iamb, as Thomas Hardy does in "The Ruined Maid": "Oh did n't / you know I'd / been ru in'd / said she".
Some books by Dr. Seuss contain many lines written in amphibrachs, such as these from If I Ran the Circus:
- All ready / to put up / the tents for / my circus.
- I think I / will call it / the Circus / McGurkus.
- And NOW comes / an act of / Enormous / Enormance!
- No former / performer's / performed this / performance!
Much of Leonard Cohen's song "Famous Blue Raincoat" is written in amphibrachs - e.g. the first verse (apart from the first foot of the third line, which is a spondee):
- It's four in / the morning, / the end of / December
- I'm writing / you now just / to see if / you're better
- New York / is cold, but / I like where / I'm living
- There's music / on Clinton / Street all through / the evening.
The individual amphibrachic foot often appears as a variant within, for instance, anapaestic meter.