anacrusis
anacrusis, in classical prosody, the up (or weak) beat, one or more syllables at the beginning of a line of poetry that are not regarded as a part of the metrical pattern of that line. Some scholars do not acknowledge this phenomenon. The term is from the Greek anákrousis, meaning “the act of pushing back,” or “beginning of a tune.”
Citation Information
Article Title:
anacrusis
Website Name:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published:
10 February 2000
Access Date:
March 14, 2025