Antibacchius
Quick answer: An antibacchius is a three syllable metrical foot: two stressed syllables then an unstressed one, DUM-DUM-da. Learn how this rare falling foot is used.
An antibacchius is a metrical foot of three syllables in which two stressed syllables are followed by one unstressed syllable: DUM-DUM-da, as in the phrases STOP TALKing, COLD MORNing or GREAT THUNder. As the name announces, it is the mirror image of the bacchius, striking twice at once and then releasing, where the bacchius approaches lightly and lands twice.
Some handbooks call it the palimbacchius, the reversed bacchius. Like most of the rarer classical feet it never established itself as a sustained meter in English, but it earns its entry because the shape occurs naturally in speech and verse whenever a spondaic pair resolves into a light syllable. Knowing the name lets you describe precisely a rhythm you will meet in commands, exclamations and heavily loaded line openings.
How It Works
The antibacchius front loads its force. Both stresses arrive immediately, then the third syllable falls away like an echo, which gives phrases of this shape a struck-bell quality: loud attack, soft decay. An invented illustration: DARK RAIN falls. DOORS SLAM shut. LAST LIGHT dies. Each sentence there is a single antibacchius, and together they toll.
In iambic contexts the foot usually appears where a spondee substitution meets a feminine syllable, often across word boundaries. It slows the line at its start rather than its end, so it suits openings that must seize attention before relaxing into normal meter.
Where You Will See It
Classical prosodists catalogued the antibacchius in Greek lyric and Roman drama, though even there it rarely ran alone for long. In English poetry you will find the shape at emphatic line openings in Milton and the Romantics, wherever two heavy syllables burst in before the meter settles. Imperative phrases in hymns and anthems, and the shouted double-stress starts of playground rhymes, carry the same signature. It is a foot you learn mainly to sharpen your scansion vocabulary: when a line opens with a double blow and a soft third step, you now have its name.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Use the antibacchius as an opening gesture. Beginning a line or stanza with DUM-DUM-da announces urgency, then hands the voice back to lighter feet: a controlled burst rather than a sustained shout. It also makes strong short sentences inside prose poems and free verse, where its attack-and-release shape reads as finality. As always with stress-heavy feet, ration it. One antibacchius per stanza can feel commanding; three feel like being shaken by the lapels.
What poets can take from this
- Open lines with an antibacchius when the poem needs to seize attention instantly.
- Build the foot from two strong monosyllables plus a light ending: cold wind blows, first frost falls.
- Follow the foot with lighter feet so the burst reads as deliberate contrast.
- Confirm the final syllable is genuinely unstressed, or you have written a molossus.
- Use it sparingly; repeated double attacks quickly turn hectoring.
Try it yourself
Write a poem of six short lines, each beginning with an antibacchius, about a house waking up: slammed doors, kettles, alarms, and let the rhythm soften as the morning settles.
Questions
What is the difference between an antibacchius and a bacchius?
The antibacchius stresses first: DUM-DUM-da, two blows then a release. The bacchius stresses last: da-DUM-DUM, a light approach then a double landing. They are exact mirror images of each other.
Is the antibacchius the same as a palimbacchius?
Yes. Palimbacchius, meaning reversed bacchius, is the older Greek label, and antibacchius the more common modern one. Both name the DUM-DUM-da foot.
Does any English poem use antibacchic meter throughout?
No established English poem sustains it, because consecutive double stresses are hard to keep speaking for long. The foot appears as a substitution and as a natural phrase shape, which is where its usefulness lies.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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