counterpoint rhythm

noun

: rhythm in poetry including so much metrical inversion that the prevailing cadence ceases at times to prevail and so that a complex rhythm results from the concomitance of the basic cadence with its inversion
if … reversal is repeated in two feet running … it … is … the superinducing … of a new rhythm upon the old … [so that] two rhythms are in some measure running at once … and this is counterpoint rhythm—G. M. Hopkins

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counterpoint
counterpoint rhythm
counterpoise
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Cite this Entry

“Counterpoint rhythm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/counterpoint%20rhythm. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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