As part of my studies in poetry and lyric-writing, I became curious about the names of various 'feet' in classical poetry theory. When I searched for the answers, either in dictionaries or on the net, all I found were partial presentations. I had to search nearly 2 dozen web pages to gather the data I've been able to accumulate, and none of them had it all. This page is my best attempt to remedy that situation.
The theory distinguishes two kinds of syllables, either called long and short, or accented and unaccented. This makes it natural to represent them in binary notation, using the digit 1 for long/accented and the digit 0 for short/unaccented. This gives 2 types of feet of length 1, 4 types of length 2, 8 types of length 3, and so on. For some patterns, certain syllables may be of either type; we represent this with the "unknown" logic value X.
For each type, there may be either a noun name (e.g. iamb) referring to the foot, or an adjective name (e.g. iambic) referring to things using or related to the foot, or both, or neither. Patterns of 4 or fewer syllables are called feet, while patterns of 5 or more syllables are called cola, but there doesn't seem to be any good justification for this distinction. Cola are usually marked off by beginning of line, end of line, or word breaks (diaeresis or caesura).
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 0 | ? | ? |
| 1 | headless iamb tailless trochee |
? |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 00 | pyrrhus dibrach |
pyrrhic |
| 01 | iamb | iambic |
| 10 | trochee choree |
trochaic |
| 11 | spondee | spondaic |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 000 | tribrach | tribrachic |
| 001 | anapest | anapestic |
| 010 | amphibrach | amphibrachic |
| 011 | bacchius | bacchic |
| 100 | dactyl | dactylic |
| 101 | amphimacer cretic |
cretic |
| 110 | antibacchius | antibacchic |
| 111 | molossus | ? |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 0000 | proceleus maticus tetrabrach |
proceleusmatic |
| 0001 | quartus paeon | ? |
| 0010 | tertius paeon | ? |
| 0011 | minor ionic double iamb |
? |
| 0100 | secundus paeon | ? |
| 0101 | di-iamb diamb |
? |
| 0110 | antispast | ? |
| 0111 | first epitrite | ? |
| 1000 | primus paeon | ? |
| 1001 | choriamb choriambus |
choriambic |
| 1010 | (ditrochee?) | ? |
| 1011 | second epitrite | ? |
| 1100 | major ionic | ? |
| 1101 | third epitrite | ? |
| 1110 | fourth epitrite | ? |
| 1111 | dispondee | dispondaic? |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 01101 | dochmius | ? |
| 100 1X | adonic | adonic |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 1001001 | hemiepes | ? |
| XX10011 | ? | pherecratic |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 01 01 01 01 | iambic tetrameter | hudibrastic |
| 10000101 | ? | glyconic (var.) |
| 10010011 | hemiepes | ? |
| XX100101 | ? | Glyconic |
| XX110001 | ? | glyconic (var.) |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 100100101 | ? | glyconic (var.) |
| XX1001011 | ? | hipponactean |
| XX1001100 | ? | glyconic (var.) |
| XX1100101 | ? | glyconic (var.) |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 01 01 01 01 01 | iambic pentameter | ? |
| 100 100 01 01 | ? | lesser Alcaic |
| XX10011001 | ? | glyconic (var.) |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| X1 01 1 100 100 | greater Alcaic? | greater Alcaic |
| 10101001010 | Sapphic | Sapphic |
| 10 11 100 10 10 | Sapphic | Sapphic |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 01 01 01 01 01 01 | iambic hexameter Alexandrine |
? |
| 11 1001 1001 01 | Asclepiad | ? |
| Code | Noun | Adjective |
| 010101 01011X | choliamb choliambus scazon |
choliambic |
| 10101001010 10101001010 10101001010 10011 | Sapphic strophe | Sapphic |