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Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line of four trochaic feet. The word ...

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. 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: 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 "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: Later he and Oberon have a conversation entirely in catalectic