Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet. It is not very common in English verse. E.g.: -
Trochaic
- Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
- Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
- As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door
- (Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven")
Iambic
- I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
- I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
- I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
- From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
- I'm very well-acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
- I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
- About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
- With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
- (W.S. Gilbert, "The Pirates of Penzance")
Anapestic (acephalous)
- Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendour of winter had passed out of sight,
- The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that fulfil us in sleep with delight;
- The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops and branches that glittered and swayed
- Such wonders and glories of blossomlike snow or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
- (A. C. Swinburne, "March: An Ode")
Dactyllic
There is, however, the occasional song, among them Marty Robbins's Grammy-winning (1961) "El Paso."
- Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
- I fell in love with a Mexican girl
- Nighttime would find me in Rosa's Cantina
- Music would play and Feleena would whirl
- ...
- Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys
- Off to my left ride a dozen or more
- Shouting and shooting; I can't let them catch me
- I have to make it to Rosa's back door ....
See also
