Tribrach
Quick answer: A tribrach is a metrical foot of three unstressed syllables, da-da-da, the lightest foot in prosody. Learn where it appears and what it does in verse.
A tribrach is a metrical foot made of three unstressed syllables in a row: da-da-da, the lightest and quickest unit in the whole metrical inventory. The name is Greek for three shorts. Just as the molossus is all weight, the tribrach is all air, and for the same reason neither can make a meter by itself: verse with no stresses at all is simply not something an English mouth can produce for long.
In classical quantitative verse the tribrach was a recognised resolution, two short syllables standing in for one long, common in Greek drama's spoken lines. In English scansion it names those skimming moments when three light syllables run together between beats, often across word boundaries, and the line suddenly accelerates as if the ground had briefly disappeared.
How It Works
English generates tribrachs whenever small grammatical words cluster: and in the, of a re-, or the light tails of longer words meeting light articles. Take an invented line: MEMory is a CORridor with the LIGHTS going OUT. Between the beats, syllables pour in twos and threes, and where three run light together, in a cor-, you have tribrach movement. The effect is speed and dissolve, the voice hurrying weightlessly to the next landing.
Strict foot-by-foot scanners often redistribute these syllables into anapests or pyrrhics plus something else; the tribrach label matters less than hearing the acceleration. In sprung rhythm and much free verse, where beats are counted and light syllables float free, tribrach runs are a standard resource.
Where You Will See It
Euripides and Aristophanes resolved iambs into tribrachs constantly, so students of Greek drama meet the foot early. In English, Hopkins is again the great enabler: his poems let unstressed syllables multiply between stresses precisely to create rushes and hoverings. Swinburne's rolling anapestic verse dissolves into tribrach movement at speed, and comic patter songs, Gilbert and Sullivan above all, rely on floods of light syllables that scan as tribrach after tribrach between the beats.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Think of tribrachs as a pacing dial. Pack light syllables between your beats and the line rushes, skims or babbles; strip them out and it slows and firms. This is the practical secret behind lines that feel breathless: not faster reading, but more unstressed syllables per stress. Try writing a passage of panic or gossip with deliberately crowded light syllables, then a passage of resolve with almost none, and you will feel the dial turn under your hand.
What poets can take from this
- Use runs of light syllables to create rush, panic, chatter or weightlessness.
- Balance every tribrach passage with firm stresses nearby, or the line loses its floor.
- Do not agonise over labels; hearing three quick syllables matters more than naming them.
- Watch polysyllabic words: their unstressed tails often create tribrachs with following articles.
- Read fast passages aloud once slowly to check that no needed stress has drowned.
Try it yourself
Write two versions of the same four line poem about waiting for news: one crowded with unstressed syllables so it babbles, one stripped to strong beats so it stands still, then keep the version the subject deserves.
Questions
Can the tribrach sustain a meter?
No. A meter needs stresses to mark its beats, and a tribrach contains none. It exists as a variation and a description of light syllable runs inside meters built from stronger feet.
What is the difference between a tribrach and a pyrrhic?
Only the count: a pyrrhic is two unstressed syllables, a tribrach is three. Both describe the light, quick stretches between the stressed beats of a line.
Why did Greek drama use tribrachs so freely?
Greek meter measured syllable length, and its rules allowed one long syllable to resolve into two shorts. In spoken dramatic lines this happened constantly, turning iambs into tribrachs and giving the dialogue a rapid, speech-like surface.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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