Trochaic tetrameter

Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line of four trochaic feet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that the poem has four trochees. A trochee is a long syllable, or stressed syllable, followed by a short, or unstressed, one.

Example

Literary examples

For English-speakers, two of the best-known examples are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha" and the Finnish "Kalevala".

This can be demonstrated in the following famous excerpt from "Hiawatha's Childhood", where the accented syllables of each trochee have been bolded:

:By in shores of Gitche Gumee,:By in shining Big-Sea-Water,:Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,:Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.:Dark behind it rose the forest,:Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,:Rose the firs with cones upon them;:Bright before' it beat the water,:Beat the clear and sunny water,:Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

The "Kalevala" also follows a loose trochaic tetrameter, though it also has some slight variations to the normal pattern, which cause some people to term it the [http://www.karuse.info/metre.htm "Kalevala Metre"] . Because English tradition is so strongly iambic, some feel that it has an awkward or unnatural feel to the ear.

Trochaic tetrameter is also employed by Shakespeare in several instances to contrast with his usual blank verse (which is in iambic pentameter). For instance, in "Midsummer Night's Dream", Shakespeare frequently writes the lines of his fairies in catalectic trochaic tetrameter, as is evidenced by Puck's lines, here:

:Through the forest have I gone.:But Athenian found I none,:On whose eyes I might approve:This flower's force in stirring love.:Night and silence.--Who is here?:Weeds of Athens he doth wear::This is he, my master said,:Despised the Athenian maid;:And here the maiden, sleeping sound,:On the dank and dirty ground.:Pretty soul! she durst not lie:Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.:Churl, upon thy eyes I throw:All the power this charm doth owe.:When thou wakest, let love forbid:Sleep his seat on thy eyelid::So awake when I am gone;:For I must now to Oberon.

Later he and Oberon have a conversation entirely in catalectic trochaic tetrameter, which is unusual, since generally Shakespeare used pentameter for dialogue sequences.

:OBERON:Flower of this purple dye,:Hit with Cupid's archery,:Sink in apple of his eye.:When his love he doth espy,:Let her shine as gloriously:As the Venus of the sky.:When thou wakest, if she be by,:Beg of her for remedy.

:"Re-enter PUCK"

:PUCK:Captain of our fairy band,:Helena is here at hand;:And the youth, mistook by me,:Pleading for a lover's fee.:Shall we their fond pageant see?:Lord, what fools these mortals be!

:OBERON:Stand aside: the noise they make:Will cause Demetrius to awake.

:PUCK:Then will two at once woo one;:That must needs be sport alone;:And those things do best please me:That befal preposterously.

Good examples of the rhythmic scheme, albeit not in English, are found in two famous thirteenth century medieval Latin hymns:
*"Dies Irae" (used as the sequence in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass), the first two verses of which are::Dies iræ! dies illa:Solvet sæclum in favilla:Teste David cum Sibylla!

:Quantus tremor est futurus,:quando judex est venturus,:cuncta stricte discussurus!

and

*"Stabat Mater" (a stand alone meditation on the suffering of Mary, Jesus Christ's mother, during his crucifixion), the first two verses of which are: :Stabat mater dolorosa:iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,:dum pendebat Filius.

:Cuius animam gementem,:contristatam et dolentem:pertransivit gladius.