Trochaic octameter

Trochaic octameter is a poetic meter that has eight trochaic metrical feet per line. Each foot has one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Trochaic octameter is a rarely used meter.

Description and uses

The best known work in trochaic octameter is Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", which utilizes five lines of trochaic octameter followed by a "short" half line (in reality, 7 beats) that, by the end of the poem, takes on the qualities of a refrain.

Another well-known work is Banjo Paterson's "Clancy of the Overflow", which uses four lines of trochaic octameter for each verse throughout. Other examples are Robert Browning's A Toccata of Galuppi's,[1] Alfred Tennyson's Locksley Hall,[2] and Rudyard Kipling's Mandalay.[3] Lines in these poems are catalectic (' x ' x ' x ' x ' x ' x ' x ' ).

DUM da

A line of trochaic octameter is eight of these in a row:

DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da

We can scan this with a 'x' mark representing an unstressed syllable and a '/' mark representing a stressed syllable. In this notation a line of trochaic octameter would look like this:

/ x / x / x / x / x / x / x / x

The following first verse from "The Raven" shows the use of trochaic octameter. Note the heavy use of dactyls in the second and fifth line, which help to emphasize the more regular lines, and the use of strong accents to end the second, fourth and fifth lines, reinforcing the rhyme:

We can notate the scansion of this as follows:

/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
Once up- on a mid- night drear- y, while I pon- dered weak and wear- y
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
O- ver many a quaint and cur- ious vol- ume of for- got- ten lore,
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
While I nod- ded, near- ly nap- ping, sud- den ly there came a tap- ping,
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
As of some- one gent- ly rap- ping, rap- ping at my cham- ber door.
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
"'Tis some vis- i- tor," I mut- tered, "tap- ping at my cham- ber door;
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
On- ly this, and noth- ing more

In other literatures

Trochaic octameter is popular in Polish[4] and Czech literatures.[5] It is because the main stress in Polish falls regularly on the penultimate syllable and in Czech on the first syllable. So all Polish and Czech two-syllable words are trochaic.[6]

Niedostępna ludzkim oczom, że nikt po niej się nie błąka,
W swym bezpieczu szmaragdowym rozkwitała w bezmiar łąka
(Bolesław Leśmian, Ballada bezludna)
Stojím v šeru na skalině, o niž v pěnu, déšť a kouř
duníc, ječíc rozbíjí se nesmírného vodstva bouř.
(Svatopluk Čech, Písně otroka)

See also

References
  1. Robert Browning, A Toccata of Galuppi's at Poetry Foundation.
  2. Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall at Poetry Foundation.
  3. Moore, Steven (2015). William Gaddis: Expanded Edition. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-62892-646-0. (Compares Locksley Hall and Mandalay.)
  4. Wiktor J. Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, p. 73 (in Polish).
  5. Josef Durdík, Poetika jakožto aesthetika umení básnického, pp. 374-375 (in Czech).
  6. Josef Brukner, Jiří Filip, Poetický slovník, Mladá fronta, Praha 1997, pp. 339-342 (in Czech).
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