Trochaic Tetrameter
Quick answer: Trochaic tetrameter is a four beat line of falling DUM-da feet, the meter of Hiawatha and the Macbeth witches. Learn how its chanting drive works.
Trochaic tetrameter is a line of four trochees: four DUM-da feet, eight syllables when full, with the stress striking first in every foot. The falling rhythm gives the line a chanting, drum-led drive quite unlike the conversational flow of iambic verse: beats arrive early and keep arriving, and the poem seems to pull the reader along by the wrist.
This is the meter of incantation. Shakespeare gives it to the witches in 'Macbeth' precisely because it sounds like spellcraft, and whole song traditions, most famously the Finnish 'Kalevala', run on its four beat falling pulse. English poets use it when they want ritual, momentum or the uncanny, and it rewards subjects that suit a drum.
How It Works
A full trochaic tetrameter, written for this page: EVEning GATHers ALL its CHILDren. Eight syllables, four falling feet. Very often the final light syllable is dropped so the line ends on a stress, a standard trimming called catalexis: EVEning GATHers ALL it OWNS becomes, trimmed, COUNT the CANdles, CLOSE the DOOR. Seven syllable lines of this shape saturate English song and rhyme.
The stress-first pattern fights the natural grain of English sentences, which like to open with light articles and pronouns, so sustained trochaic verse always sounds marked, deliberate, a little ceremonial. That strangeness is the effect; if you want invisibility, iambs do it better.
Where You Will See It
Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' is the monumental English example, its unrhymed trochaic tetrameter imported from the 'Kalevala' to suggest oral chant, and the meter is so distinctive that parodies of Hiawatha began appearing within months of publication. The Macbeth witches chant in catalectic trochaic tetrameter, Blake's 'The Tyger' burns in it, and Poe doubled it into the octameter of 'The Raven'. Nursery rhymes, skipping songs and football chants keep the rhythm alive in every playground.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Pick subjects with ritual or obsession in them: spells, prophecies, lullabies gone wrong, machines, marches, intrusive thoughts. Open every line on a genuine stress, stockpiling stress-first words, and use catalectic endings when lines should land with a snap. Monotony arrives fast in this meter, so vary line ends, interleave an occasional shorter line, or reserve the trochaic passage for one movement of a longer poem. Judges scoring creativity notice a poem whose very meter performs its subject, and trochaic tetrameter is one of the easiest meters to make performative.
What poets can take from this
- Begin every line on a stressed syllable without exception; the first weak opening breaks the chant.
- Use catalexis, dropping the final light syllable, to end lines on a beat.
- Choose ritual, obsession or momentum as subjects; the meter resists casual talk.
- Vary full and trimmed line endings to keep long passages from droning.
- Read the witches' scenes in 'Macbeth' aloud to load the rhythm into your ear.
Try it yourself
Write a prophecy of ten lines in trochaic tetrameter, delivered by an unreliable fortune teller, using catalectic endings for every prediction that will not come true.
Questions
What is the difference between trochaic and iambic tetrameter?
Both carry four beats, but trochaic lines start each foot on the stress, DUM-da, while iambic lines rise into it, da-DUM. Trochaic tetrameter sounds like chant or drumbeat; iambic tetrameter sounds like song or speech.
Why do trochaic tetrameter lines often have seven syllables?
Because poets drop the final unstressed syllable so the line can end on a stress, a standard practice called catalexis. Four full trochees give eight syllables; the catalectic line keeps its four beats in seven.
What famous poems use trochaic tetrameter?
Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' is the best known sustained example, modelled on the Finnish 'Kalevala'. The witches' chants in 'Macbeth' and Blake's 'The Tyger' use catalectic trochaic tetrameter, and Poe extended the rhythm to octameter in 'The Raven'.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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