Spondee

A **spondee** is a metrical foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables. Ex. **//**

An example of spondee can be found in Larkin’s “MCMXIV” in the 18th line:

“And the countryside not caring The place names all hazed over”

“Place” and “name” used successively is an example of spondee. The two words contain equally stressed syllables in this metrical foot.

Another example can be seen in Larkin’s “The Whitsun Weddings” in the eighth line of the first stanza:

“Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish dock ; thence”

“Fish” and “dock” are two stressed syllables used consecutively in this line and therefore create a spondee.