Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Spondee
Definition:
This delightful little metrical foot consists of a stressed syllable, followed by—wait for it—another stressed syllable, as in DUMDUM (and no, we're not talking about the lollipops). In other words, spondees are super stressed and need to take a chill pill. Or take a page out of the pyrrhic's book and pipe down so the rest of us can get some rest. Sheesh.