TROCHEE

(Redirected from Trochaic)
A 'trochee' or 'choree', 'choreus', is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.

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Examples

See also

Examples

Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha is written almost entirely in trochees, barring the occasional substitution (iamb, spondee, pyrrhic, etc.).
::'''Should' you 'ask' me, 'whence' these 'stor'ies?''
::'''Whence' these 'leg'ends and tra'di'tions,''
::''With the 'od'ours of the 'for'est,''
::''With the 'dew' and 'damp' of 'mea'dows,''
In the second line, "and tra-" is a pyrrhic substitution, as are "With the" in the third and fourth lines, and "of the" in the third. Even so, the dominant foot throughout the poem is the trochee.
Apart from the famous case of Longfellow's ''Hiawatha'', this metre is rare in English verse, except with an extra long syllable added to each line, as in this example from Tennyson:
:'''Go' not, 'hap'py 'day',''
:'''From' the 'shin'ing 'fields';''
:'''Go' not, 'hap'py 'day',''
:'''Till' the 'maid'en 'yields'.''
Some poets choose to alternate lines of full trochees and lines where the final unstressed syllable has been omitted. Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven is a perfect example.
:'''Ah', dis'tinct'ly 'I' re'mem'ber 'it' was 'in' the 'bleak' De'cem'ber;''
:'''And' each 'sep'arate 'dy'ing 'em'ber 'wrought' its 'ghost' up'on' the 'floor'.''
Perhaps owing to its simplicity, though, 'trochaic' meter is fairly common in children's rhymes:
:'''Pet'er, 'Pet'er 'pump'kin-'eat'er''
:'''Had' a 'wife' and 'could'n't 'keep' her.''
Often a few trochees will be interspersed among iambs in the same lines to develop a more complex or syncopated rhythm. Compare (William Blake):
:'''Ty'ger, 'Ty'ger, 'burn'ing 'bright'''
:''In the 'for'ests of the 'night'''
These lines are primarily trochaic, with the last syllable dropped so that the line ends with a stressed syllable to give a strong rhyme or masculine rhyme. By contrast, the intuitive way that the mind groups the syllables in later lines in the same poem makes them feel more like iambic lines with the first syllable dropped:
:'''Did' he 'smile' his 'work' to 'see'?''
In fact the surrounding lines by this point have become entirely iambic:
:'''When' the 'stars' threw 'down' their 'spears'''
:''And 'wat'ered 'Hea'ven with their 'tears'''
:. . .
:''Did 'he' who 'made' the 'lamb' make 'thee'?''
Trochaic verse is also well-known in Latin poetry, especially of the medieval period. Since the stress never falls on the final syllable in Latin, the language is ideal for trochaic verse. The dies irae of the Requiem mass is a perfect example:
:'''Di'es 'ir'ae, 'di'es 'il'la''
:'''Sol'vet 'sae'clum 'in' fa'vi'lla''
:'''Tes'te 'Da'vid 'cum' Sy'bi'lla.''

See also

★ Good King Wenceslas.