# Trochaic octameter checker

Shape a draft against sixteen syllables of falling trochees (DUM-da × 8). Same syllable and stress engine as the lyriic poetry editor — private in your browser.

## A short history

Trochaic octameter is a line of eight trochees: sixteen syllables with stress on the odd beats (DUM-da × 8). The falling duple rhythm is uncommon in English at this length — long enough to risk sounding like prose unless internal rhyme, caesura, or refrain keep the music audible.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) is the best-known English example. Poe described the poem as mixing full (acatalectic) octameter with shorter catalectic lines that drop a final weak syllable, so not every line is a pure sixteen-slot grid. Later narrative and ballad poets — Tennyson, Browning, Kipling, Paterson — also used long trochaic lines, often catalectic.

Outside English, trochaic octameter is more at home in Polish and Czech verse, where word stress naturally favors trochaic feet. In English classrooms it is usually taught as the long falling line behind “The Raven,” with catalexis noted as a common variation.

## Famous poems

### The Raven — Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Classroom staple for trochaic octameter; stanzas mix full sixteen-syllable lines with shorter catalectic refrain lines.

### Locksley Hall — Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet ’tis early morn:

Long trochaic narrative lines, typically catalectic (ending on a strong beat).

### Mandalay — Rudyard Kipling

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ eastward to the sea,

Ballad-like long trochaic lines with a refrain; often scanned with catalectic endings.

### Clancy of the Overflow — Banjo Paterson

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better

Australian bush ballad built on four long trochaic octameter lines per stanza.

## Trochaic octameter (16)

Trochaic octameter is eight trochees in a line: sixteen syllables with a falling strong–weak beat (DUM-da × 8). Strong beats fall on the odd positions (1, 3, 5, …, 15).

In English the meter is uncommon at full length. Poe’s “The Raven” made it famous, mixing complete octameter with catalectic shorter lines. lyriic’s catalog treats each line as an open cycle of sixteen syllables with that trochaic contour; stanza length and rhyme are left to you.

When stress-aware checking is on, lyriic marks the expected contour from dictionary stress so you can see where a draft matches or drifts from the ideal grid.

## Trochee (DUM-da)

A trochee is a two-syllable foot with a strong beat then a light one: DUM-da. Words like “garden,” “poetry,” and “falling” often open on that falling rhythm.

Repeated trochees make trochaic meter—tetrameter (eight syllables) is common in song and children’s verse; longer lines appear in hymns and narrative. English poets often drop or lighten a final weak syllable, so lines may feel truncated compared with a pure foot grid.

With the stress pack loaded, lyriic marks expected strong–weak beats from dictionary stress against that trochaic contour, so you can see where the line matches or drifts.

## Trochaic 8-foot contour

Trochaic octameter expects eight DUM-da feet: sixteen syllables with strong beats on the odd positions (1, 3, 5, …, 15).

When the stress pack is loaded, lyriic compares dictionary stress to that long falling contour.

## Notes on this form

lyriic targets sixteen syllables per line with a trochaic (strong–weak) stress contour. Famous poems often drop the final weak syllable (catalexis) or shorten refrain lines — those will read short or mismatched against a full eight-foot grid.

lyriic does not enforce internal rhyme, refrain structure, or stanza schemes (as in “The Raven” or bush-ballad quatrains).

## Common questions

### What is trochaic octameter?

A line of eight trochees: sixteen syllables alternating stressed and unstressed, beginning on a strong beat (DUM-da × 8). It is rare in English; Poe’s “The Raven” is the usual teaching example.

### Does lyriic check stress as well as syllables?

Yes. With the stress pack loaded, the checker compares dictionary stress to the expected strong–weak pattern alongside the sixteen-syllable target. Open the Trochaic octameter writer under Meter for the same rulers while you draft.

### Is my draft uploaded?

No. Syllable and stress checks run locally in your browser. lyriic is local-first and does not require an account.

## Open the editor

Write in the zen editor: https://lyriic.com/

Open with Trochaic octameter meter: https://lyriic.com/write/trochaic-octameter