It was a metrically auspicious birth date — the spondee “ONE, TEN” resounding like slaps on a baby’s bottom, the anapest “twenty-EIGHT” hurtling toward the future.

The four other feet may be either spondees or dactyls.

One variety consists of five feet, a spondee or iambic, an iambic, a long syllable, and two dactyls.