octameter

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Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet. It is not very common in English verse. E.g.: -

Trochaic

:Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary

:Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-

:While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping

:As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door

Iambic

:I am the very model of a modern Major-General,

:I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,

:I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical

:From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;

:I'm very well-acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,

:I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,

:About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,

:With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

Anapestic (acephalous)

:Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendour of winter had passed out of sight,

:The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that fulfil us in sleep with delight;

:The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops and branches that glittered and swayed

:Such wonders and glories of blossomlike snow or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade

:(A. C. Swinburne, "March: An Ode")

Dactyllic

There is, however, the occasional song, among them Marty Robbins's Grammy-winning (1961) "El Paso."

:Out in the West Texas town of El Paso

:I fell in love with a Mexican girl

:Nighttime would find me in Rosa's Cantina

:Music would play and Feleena would whirl

:...

:Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys

:Off to my left ride a dozen or more

:Shouting and shooting; I can't let them catch me

:I have to make it to Rosa's back door ....

See also