Trochaic octameter

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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.

[edit] 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.

Because of the length of the line, trochaic octameter lends itself to the heavy use of internal rhyme and alliteration and is also extraordinarily difficult to use consistently. The Raven, for example, breaks into two half-lines of approximately 8 syllables, generally with a caesura between them, and utilizes anapests (which still lead with the stress but then have two unstressed syllables) to break up the monotony of the pure trochaic octameter.

[edit] Example

A trochee foot is a tressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. We could write the rhythm like this:

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 anapests in the second and fifth line, which help to emphasize the more regular lines, and the use of strong accents to end the second, forth and fifth lines, reinforcing the rhyme:


We can notate the scansion of this as follows:

/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
x
x
/
x
/
x
Once up- on a mid- night drear- y, while I pon- der- ed weak and wear- y
/
x
/
x
x
/
x
/
x
x
/
x
x
/
x
x
/
O- ver man- y a quaint and cur- i- ous 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
/
x
/
"'Tis some vis- i- tor," I mut- ter- ed, "tap- ping at my cham- ber door;
/
x
/
x
/
x
/
On- ly this, and noth- ing more
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