ground-feet

Updated: May 28, 2025

But the First Canto breaks at once into the full licence, not merely of equivalence, that is to say, of substituting an anapæst or a trochee for an iamb, but of shifting the base and rhythm of any particular verse, or of set batches of verses, between the three ground-feet, and, further, of occasionally introducing sixes, as in the ballad metre, and even fours

George Saintsbury - Sir Walter Scott: Famous Scots Series