Trochaic octameter

The best known work in trochaic octameter is Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", which uses five lines of trochaic octameter followed by a "short" half line (in reality, 7 beats). By the end of the poem, the latter half line takes on the qualities of a refrain.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

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,[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43777 Robert Browning, A Toccata of Galuppi's at Poetry Foundation.] Alfred Tennyson's Locksley Hall,[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45362 Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall at Poetry Foundation.] and Rudyard Kipling's Mandalay.{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Steven |title=William Gaddis: Expanded Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9_IBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |year=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-62892-646-0 |page=115}} (Compares Locksley Hall and Mandalay.) Lines in these poems are catalectic (' x ' x ' x ' x ' x ' x ' x ' ).

A line of trochaic octameter is eight of these in a row:{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

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:

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:

The following first two lines from "Womanizer" by Britney Spears also show trochaic octameter.

We can notate the scansion of this as follows:

It becomes more important in another section of the chorus, in which words are repeated so as to maintain the meter.

Trochaic octameter is popular in PolishWiktor J. Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, p. 73 (in Polish). and Czech literatures.[https://archive.org/details/poetikajakoztoae01durduoft Josef Durdík, Poetika jakožto aesthetika umení básnického, pp. 374-375 (in Czech).] 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.Josef Brukner, Jiří Filip, Poetický slovník, Mladá fronta, Praha 1997, pp. 339-342 (in Czech).

: 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)

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Category:Types of verses