Question

Analyze the stanza from Lewis Carroll's "You Are Old, Father William" poem and determine which metrical foot Carroll uses.

"You are old, Father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head - Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

iambic
trochaic
anapestic
dactylic

Answer 1

I believe the correct answer is the third option: anapestic.

 

Anapestic meter is a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (graphically noted as: ˘ ˘ ¯ ). The poem “You Are Old Father William” by Lewis Carroll is written in anapestic tetrameter, which means that the third metrical foot of four is stressed. This metrical foot is often used in parodies, such as this one or Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Blessings and how he Gained Them" which is the parody on the same theme.