HEADLESS LINE

also called acephalous line in prosody, a line of verse that is lacking the normal first syllable. An iambic line with only one syllable in the first foot is a headless line, as in the third line of the following stanza of A.E. Housman's poem To an Athlete Dying Young: The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high.