Laurel · Poems by form and metre

Trochaic dimeter

Two trochees to the line, the stress falling first. Below, what the metre is and how to recognise it, then every poem on Laurel measured as trochaic dimeter, with how closely each keeps it.

What trochaic dimeter is

Two beats to the line, heavy then light: DUM-da DUM-da, four syllables or three. Used for effect and in refrains.

DUM-da DUM-da

How to tell

Three or four syllables starting on a heavy one.

Paste a poem of your own and Laurel will say whether it is in trochaic dimeter, stanza by stanza. How to scan a line.

32 poems on Laurel in trochaic dimeter

  1. Songs of Innocence William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience · 96%
  2. Earth’s Answer William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience · 94%
  3. Spring William Blake, Poems of William Blake · 93%
  4. Spring William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience · 93%
  5. Earth's Answer William Blake, Poems of William Blake · 92%
  6. Wild nights! Wild nights Emily Dickinson, Poems
  7. Harlem Night Song Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues · 100%
  8. Negro Dancers Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues · 100%
  9. To Midnight Nan at Leroy’s Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues · 100%
  10. Port Town Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues · 94%
  11. Fabliau of Florida Wallace Stevens, Harmonium · 96%
  12. Ballet William Carlos Williams, Al Que Quiere! · 97%
  13. The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, 1866 Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market and Other Poems · 97%
  14. To Alison Cunningham Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses · 96%
  15. Garden Days Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses · 90%
  16. Rachel Walter de la Mare, The Listeners and Other Poems · 92%
  17. A Song: Out of the Italian Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple and Other Poems · 96%
  18. 26. His Answer to a Question Robert Herrick, Hesperides · 100%
  19. The Dark Cup VIII Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow · 100%
  20. Last Poems Alan Seeger, Poems · 97%
  21. Hermes of the Ways H.D., Sea Garden · 97%
  22. Laughter in the Senate Sidney Lanier, Poems · 98%
  23. The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson Sidney Lanier, Poems · 97%
  24. First Winter-Song Eleanor Hull, The Poem-Book of the Gael · 100%
  25. Lautre Enuoy John Skelton, Poetical Works, Volume I · 100%
  26. Night Lyric Bliss Carman, Later Poems · 100%
  27. The Beginning and the End Eugene Field, Hoosier Lyrics · 100%
  28. Vanitas Vanitatum John Addington Symonds, Wine, Women and Song · 99%
  29. Icarus Anonymous, Poems · 98%
  30. Poems Written in War Times Henry Timrod, Poems · 97%
  31. Four Imitations of Béranger William Makepeace Thackeray, Ballads · 95%
  32. Poem L Helen Maria Williams, Poems (1786) · 92%

Each poem's metre was measured from its own words by the method described here; the figure beside a poem is the share of its stressed syllables that fall on the beat. Forms are named from the rhyme scheme and line count together.