Definition of anacrusis in English:
noun (plural anacruses ˌanəˈkruːsiːz)
1 Prosody One or more unstressed syllables at the beginning of a verse.
- Coleridge seems not to have noticed that the tenth line is actually a heptameter - unless one were to allow a double anacrusis.
- A full anapestic metre with feminine ending gives somewhat the effect of anacrusis, since a third light syllable must be crowded in between the stresses.
- The Old English poem contains only about eighty instances of anacrusis, for example.
2 Music One or more unstressed notes before the first bar line of a piece or passage.
- The first subphrase is a modified inversion of the first measure of the Mother's theme, motives a and b and the first note of motive c, excluding the anacrusis but including the grace note.
- Edward's final, truthful, answer, ‘O, I have killed my father dear,’ explodes at the end of the third stanza of the poem and in the music at the anacrusis to measure 44.
- This restatement of the Mother's opening chord provides the vehicle for a sudden shift of tonality to B-flat major and Edward's final answer at the anacrusis to measures 44 and following.
Definition of anacrusis in:
- US English dictionary
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