Trochee

In poetic metre, a trochee (/ˈtroʊkiː/), choree (/ˈkɔːriː/), or choreus, is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, in English, or a heavy syllable followed by a light one in Latin or Greek. In this respect, a trochee is the reverse of an iamb. In poetic metre, a trochee (/ˈtroʊkiː/), choree (/ˈkɔːriː/), or choreus, is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, in English, or a heavy syllable followed by a light one in Latin or Greek. In this respect, a trochee is the reverse of an iamb. The adjective form is trochaic. The English word trochee is itself trochaic since it is composed of the stressed syllable /ˈtroʊ/ followed by the unstressed syllable /kiː/. Trochee comes from French trochée, adapted from Latin trochaeus, originally from the Greek τροχός (trokhós), 'wheel', from the phrase trokhaios pous, literally 'running foot'; it is connected with the word τρέχω trékhō, 'I run'. The less-often used word choree comes from χορός, khorós, 'dance'; both convey the 'rolling' rhythm of this metrical foot. The phrase was adapted into English in the late 16th century. There was a well-established ancient tradition that trochaic rhythm is faster than iambic. When used in drama it is often associated with lively situations. One ancient commentator notes that it was named from the metaphor of people running (ἐκ μεταφορᾶς τῶν τρεχόντων) and the Roman metrician Marius Victorinus notes that it was named from its running and speed (dictus a cursu et celeritate). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, whose meter was taken from Elias Lönnrot's Kalevala, is written almost entirely in trochees, barring the occasional substitution (iamb, spondee, pyrrhic, etc.). 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 case of Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, this metre is rarely found in perfect examples, at least in English. This is from Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven': Trochaic meter is also seen among the works of William Shakespeare: