Spondee

A spondee is a poetic foot of two stressed syllables in a row, as in the words "heartbreak" and "dead end".

Tennyson opens a poem of grief with three heavy beats.

BREAK, BREAK, BREAK,

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1842

What it is

A spondee is DUM-DUM, two beats of equal weight. It makes a line slow and heavy, like footsteps or waves. It is used as a substitute for another foot, not as a pattern of its own.

How to spot it

Read the line aloud and listen for two syllables that both want the stress. Words made of two nouns, such as "heartbreak", "moonlight" and "hot dog", often work. So do pairs of strong words in a row, such as "dead end". If you can slow down on both syllables and neither feels weaker, you have a spondee. Poets use them rarely, so a single one in an otherwise smooth line tends to land hard.

Why it matters to a writer or editor

When a poem needs a moment of weight, such as a death or a decision, a spondee can carry it. Reading the line aloud is the test: if it makes you slow down at the right word, the spondee is working.

Frequently asked questions

Can a whole poem be spondees?

In practice no. English has too few natural spondees. Poets use one now and then, in the middle of an iambic or trochaic line, to slow it down.