Question

Which of the following lines is the best example of dactylic meter?

Answer 1

IT IS A.
Hoped I helped

Answer 2

Answer: A. Just for a handful of silver he left us/ Just for a riband to stick in his coat

Explanation:

In poetry, we have different kinds of "feet" - the iamb is probably the most famous type. A dactyl is a kind of foot in which we have a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones.

The lines in option A are often used as an example of dactylic meter. They are the very first two lines in the poem "The Lost Leader", by Robert Browning. If we highlight the stressed syllables, we may observe the pattern:

Just for a handful of silver he left us

Just for a riband to stick in his coat