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.

48 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. Love Among the Ruins Robert Browning, Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning
  14. The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, 1866 Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market and Other Poems · 97%
  15. In Front of the Landscape Thomas Hardy, Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries
  16. The Riddle I Thomas Hardy, Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses
  17. To the Moon Thomas Hardy, Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses
  18. To Alison Cunningham Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses · 96%
  19. Garden Days Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses · 90%
  20. Biography John Masefield, The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems
  21. Rachel Walter de la Mare, The Listeners and Other Poems · 92%
  22. A Song: Out of the Italian Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple and Other Poems · 96%
  23. 26. His Answer to a Question Robert Herrick, Hesperides · 100%
  24. Hermes of the Ways H.D., Sea Garden · 97%
  25. Hermonax H.D., Heliodora, and Other Poems
  26. Holy Satyr H.D., Heliodora, and Other Poems
  27. Street Cries Sidney Lanier, Poems · 100%
  28. First Winter-Song Eleanor Hull, The Poem-Book of the Gael · 100%
  29. Lautre Enuoy John Skelton, Colyn Cloute, and Other Poems · 100%
  30. Night Lyric Bliss Carman, Later Poems · 100%
  31. The Beginning and the End Eugene Field, Hoosier Lyrics · 100%
  32. Vanitas Vanitatum John Addington Symonds, Wine, Women and Song · 99%
  33. Icarus Anonymous, Poems · 98%
  34. Poems Written in War Times Henry Timrod, Poems · 97%
  35. Four Imitations of Béranger William Makepeace Thackeray, Ballads · 95%
  36. Poem L Helen Maria Williams, Poems (1786) · 92%
  37. A Woman's Last Word Adelaide Anne Procter, Legends and Lyrics: Second Series
  38. A Year Song George MacDonald, A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems
  39. Buttercup Days A. A. Milne, Now We Are Six
  40. Chant for Dark Hours Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope
  41. Countrywomen Katherine Mansfield, Poems
  42. Hearth and Altar Henry Van Dyke, The Poems of Henry Van Dyke
  43. Joy Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems
  44. Losses Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems
  45. Miscellaneous Poems Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of Passion
  46. Résumé Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope
  47. Tippling Sándor Petőfi, Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet
  48. White Shoulders Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems

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.