Laurel · Poems by form and metre

Trochaic octameter

Eight trochees to the line: the long falling line of Poe's The Raven and Tennyson's Locksley Hall. Below, what the metre is and how to recognise it, then every poem on Laurel measured as trochaic octameter, with how closely each keeps it.

What trochaic octameter is

Eight beats to the line, each a heavy syllable and then a light one: DUM-da eight times, fifteen or sixteen syllables. The long falling line of The Raven and of Tennyson’s Locksley Hall.

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

ONCE u-PON a MID-night DREAR-y, WHILE i PON-dered, WEAK and WEAR-y
Poe, The Raven; the beats in capitals

How to tell

Very long lines that begin on a heavy syllable and fall into two halves of four beats each, often with a rhyme in the middle of the line.

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

104 poems on Laurel in trochaic octameter

  1. H. D. R" William Wordsworth, The Poetical Works, Volume III · 74%
  2. The Raven Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Poetical Works · 94%
  3. The Raven Edgar Allan Poe · 89%
  4. Reconciliation Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass · 74%
  5. Locksley Hall Alfred Tennyson, The Early Poems · 94%
  6. Book I: Ode XVIII: Nullam, Vare Horace, The Odes and Carmen Saeculare · 99%
  7. Dat Ol' Mare o' Mine Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 100%
  8. When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 99%
  9. Chrismus on the Plantation Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 99%
  10. How Lucy Backslid Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 99%
  11. Fishing Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 99%
  12. The Party Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 98%
  13. Philosophy Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 98%
  14. Snowin' Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 97%
  15. Trouble in De Kitchen Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 97%
  16. Whistling Sam Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 97%
  17. The Turning of the Babies in the Bed Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 96%
  18. A Spring Wooing Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems · 96%
  19. Mandalay Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads · 98%
  20. Mandalay Rudyard Kipling, Verses 1889–1896 · 96%
  21. Friends Beyond Thomas Hardy, Wessex Poems and Other Verses · 96%
  22. The Belfry of Bruges Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 97%
  23. Frithiof's Temptation Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 93%
  24. Voice: Lewis Jean Toomer, Cane · 82%
  25. Part I W. S. Gilbert, The Bab Ballads · 97%
  26. Part II W. S. Gilbert, The Bab Ballads · 96%
  27. Leonora Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Town Down the River · 93%
  28. The Wilderness Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Children of the Night · 87%
  29. The Present Crisis James Russell Lowell, Poems · 91%
  30. The Little Old Log Cabin Robert W. Service, Songs of a Sourdough · 98%
  31. The Rivals James Weldon Johnson, Fifty Years and Other Poems · 98%
  32. Tunk James Weldon Johnson, Fifty Years and Other Poems · 98%
  33. Bhishma's Speech Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 100%
  34. Drona's Speech Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 100%
  35. The Anointment of Karna Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 100%
  36. Vidura's Speech Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 100%
  37. The Rival Warriors Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 100%
  38. The Princes Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  39. Book VIII: Bhishma-Badha II Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  40. The Advent of Arjun Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  41. Valadeva's Speech Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  42. The Suitors Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  43. Book VIII: Bhishma-Badha V Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  44. Feast and Sacrifice Vyasa, The Mahabharata (condensed) · 99%
  45. Book III: Elegy the First: The New-Year's Gift Tibullus, The Elegies · 95%
  46. How Old Brown Took Harper’s Ferry Edmund Clarence Stedman, The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman · 95%
  47. The Voice of the Waters George William Russell, The Divine Vision and Other Poems · 93%
  48. Damages, Two Hundred Pounds William Makepeace Thackeray, Ballads · 93%
  49. Flood-Tide Edmund Clarence Stedman, The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman · 93%
  50. The Sleep-Song of Grainne Over Dermuid Eleanor Hull, The Poem-Book of the Gael · 91%
  51. The Morning Star George William Russell, The Divine Vision and Other Poems · 90%
  52. The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters LXXIX Anonymous, The Lay of the Cid · 89%
  53. The Banishment of the Cid XLI Anonymous, The Lay of the Cid · 85%

The first 53 of 104 poems, best-known poets first. The rest are reachable through their poets.

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.