Anacrusis means the addition of an extra syllable at the start of a line that introduces a variation to the fundamental meter. It is the opposite of the headless line, and is a form of metrical augmentation. A well-known poem by Blake employs this device:
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
This increases the seven-syllable line of trochaic
tetrameter (catalectic)
to eight syllables.
Use the backup arrow on your browser to return.