Adonic

{{Short description|Unit of Aeolic verse}}

{{Refimprove|date=May 2023}}

An adonic (Latin: adoneus) is a unit of Aeolic verse, a five-syllable metrical foot consisting of a dactyl followed by a trochee.

{{cite encyclopedia

| author-last = Halporn

| author-first = J.W.

| editor1-last = Greene

| editor1-first = Roland

| editor2-last = Cushman

| editor2-first = Stephen

| editor3-last = Cavanagh

| editor3-first = Clare

| editor4-last = Ramazani

| editor4-first = Jahan

| editor5-last = Rouzer

| editor5-first = Paul

| encyclopedia = The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

| url = https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400841424

| entry-url = https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400841424#page=46

| entry = Adonic

| language = en

| edition = 4th

| date = 2012

| publisher = Princeton University Press

| isbn = 9781400841424

| oclc = 995235184

| doi = 10.1515/9781400841424

| pages = 8{{ndash}}9

| url-access = subscription

}} The last line of a Sapphic stanza is an adonic. The pattern (where "-" stands for a long and "u" for a short syllable) is: "- u u - -" when the pattern ends with a spondee (i.e. --) or " -uu -u " if a trochee is intended.

Hexameter lines often end in an adonic.