Laurel · Poems by form and metre

Trochaic heptameter

Seven 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 heptameter, with how closely each keeps it.

What trochaic heptameter is

Seven beats to the line, heavy then light: fourteen syllables or thirteen. Rare; it reads like a line of the Raven with a foot cut off.

DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da

How to tell

Thirteen or fourteen syllables starting heavy. Ask whether the poet has printed eight-beat lines with the last foot missing.

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

50 poems on Laurel in trochaic heptameter

  1. Thel IV William Blake, Poems of William Blake · 87%
  2. Her Courtesy W. B. Yeats, The Wild Swans at Coole
  3. Carmen LXXXVI: Of Quintia Catullus, The Carmina · 89%
  4. Felix Randal Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems · 81%
  5. Faith Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 100%
  6. De Critters' Dance Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 98%
  7. Love's Seasons Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 93%
  8. The Quilting Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 86%
  9. Loot Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads · 95%
  10. Dirge of Dead Sisters Rudyard Kipling, The Five Nations, Volume II
  11. To My Name-Child Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses · 93%
  12. One of Wally’s Yarns John Masefield, Salt-Water Ballads · 95%
  13. D’Avalos’ Prayer John Masefield, Salt-Water Ballads · 93%
  14. Prayer John Masefield, The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems
  15. Iambicum Trimetrum Edmund Spenser, Amoretti and Epithalamion, and Other Poems
  16. Ashes of Life Edna St. Vincent Millay, Renascence and Other Poems · 93%
  17. Ashes of Life Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poems
  18. Sanazari Hexasticon Richard Lovelace, Lucasta · 100%
  19. Auson Richard Lovelace, Lucasta · 92%
  20. Item Richard Lovelace, Lucasta · 92%
  21. Avieni V. C. Ad Amicos Richard Lovelace, Lucasta · 82%
  22. A Baby's Epitaph Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems and Ballads · 100%
  23. The Armada I Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems and Ballads · 95%
  24. A Morn of May Jean Ingelow, Divided, and Other Poems · 100%
  25. Men, Women and Ghosts Amy Lowell
  26. To the Good Old-Fashioned People James Whitcomb Riley, Riley Farm-Rhymes · 100%
  27. Romancin' James Whitcomb Riley, Riley Farm-Rhymes · 98%
  28. Down Around the River James Whitcomb Riley, Riley Child-Rhymes
  29. Who Santy-Claus Wuz James Whitcomb Riley, Riley Child-Rhymes
  30. July in Georgy James Weldon Johnson, Fifty Years and Other Poems · 98%
  31. The Organ-Boy's Appeal William Makepeace Thackeray, Ballads · 94%
  32. The Joy of Earth George William Russell, The Divine Vision and Other Poems · 94%
  33. The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CX Anonymous, The Lay of the Cid · 94%
  34. By the Margin of the Great Deep George William Russell, Poems · 91%
  35. An Answer by Sheridan Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems · 90%
  36. The Banishment of the Cid XXXI Anonymous, The Lay of the Cid · 90%
  37. The Well of All Healing George William Russell, The Divine Vision and Other Poems · 90%
  38. For] Not in MS John Skelton, Colyn Cloute, and Other Poems · 85%
  39. Time’s Song Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Poems · 83%
  40. O come quickly! Thomas Campion, Poems · 82%
  41. Remembrance George William Russell, The Divine Vision and Other Poems · 79%
  42. Hymn to the Virgin Mary Eleanor Hull, The Poem-Book of the Gael · 75%
  43. Brownie A. A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
  44. Fabula Canis Et Umbrae Jonathan Swift, On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems
  45. Falltime Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers
  46. In Comitatu Corgagensi. Scripsit Jun. Ann. Dom. 1723 Jonathan Swift, On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems
  47. Mad Tom Tatterman John Drinkwater, Poems, 1908-1919
  48. Testament Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers
  49. The Ballad of Calnan’s Christmas Helen Gray Cone, A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems
  50. The Glorious Company Helen Gray Cone, A Chant of Love for England, and Other 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.