Trochee
Quick answer: A trochee is a two syllable metrical foot with the stress first: DUM-da, as in garden or thunder. Learn how trochaic rhythm works and when to use it.
A trochee is a metrical foot of two syllables in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed one: DUM-da, as in GARden, THUNder and MOUNtain. It is the mirror image of the iamb, a falling foot rather than a rising one, and lines built from trochees have a distinctive insistent drive, striking their beat first and letting the echo trail after.
Where iambic verse tends to sound like heightened speech, trochaic verse sounds like chant, spell or drumbeat. That character makes the trochee the natural meter of nursery rhymes, incantations, playground taunts and marching songs. Poets choose it when they want urgency, strangeness or the hypnotic quality of ritual, and avoid it when they want a poem to sound relaxed and conversational.
How It Works
Isolated trochaic words are everywhere: WATer, SISter, BROKen, SILver. Chain them and the falling movement compounds, as in a line invented for this page: SILver KETtles WHIStle EVEnings. Notice how the line seems to push forward, each beat arriving early. Because English sentences like to begin with unstressed articles and pronouns, sustaining trochees takes deliberate effort, and the resulting slight unnaturalness is part of the sound.
Trochaic lines very often drop their final unstressed syllable so the line can end on a stress, a move called catalexis. GATHer EVery FALLing LEAF is a catalectic trochaic line: four beats, but only seven syllables.
Where You Will See It
Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' is the famous English experiment in sustained trochaic tetrameter, borrowing the metre of the Finnish 'Kalevala'. Blake's 'The Tyger' beats out its questions in mostly catalectic trochaic lines, and the witches in 'Macbeth' chant their charms in the same falling rhythm, which is no accident: the meter itself sounds like spellcraft. Nursery rhymes lean trochaic too, one reason children absorb them so easily. Poe used trochaic octameter, eight falling feet to a line, to hypnotic effect in 'The Raven'.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Reach for trochees when the poem wants momentum or menace: chants, curses, work songs, obsessive thoughts. Front load your lines with strong nouns and verbs, since the stress must arrive first, and consider catalectic endings so lines close with punch rather than trailing off. Sustained trochaic poems risk monotony, so most poets use the meter for short pieces or single stanzas inside a larger poem. Trying one trochaic stanza in an otherwise iambic draft is a cheap experiment that often reveals what your poem's rhythm is actually doing.
What poets can take from this
- Start every trochaic line on a stressed syllable; one weak opening breaks the spell.
- Use catalexis, dropping the last light syllable, to end lines on a strong beat.
- Save sustained trochaic meter for chant-like subjects; it resists casual conversation.
- Stock up on naturally trochaic words: two syllable nouns stressed on the first syllable.
- If a trochaic draft turns singsong, vary line length rather than abandoning the foot.
Try it yourself
Write a nine line charm or spell, the kind a character might mutter over a fire, in trochaic rhythm, ending at least half the lines on a stressed syllable.
Questions
What is the difference between a trochee and an iamb?
Order of stress. A trochee is stressed then unstressed, DUM-da, as in TIger. An iamb is unstressed then stressed, da-DUM, as in beLOW. Trochaic rhythm falls and drives; iambic rhythm rises and flows.
Why do trochaic poems often have seven syllable lines?
Because of catalexis: poets drop the final unstressed syllable of a trochaic tetrameter line so it can end on a stress. Four trochees would give eight syllables; the catalectic line keeps four beats in seven syllables.
Is trochaic meter harder to write than iambic?
Generally yes, in English. Sentences naturally begin with light words like the and a, which fight the trochee's stress-first pattern. That difficulty is also the appeal: sustained trochees sound marked, ritualistic and deliberate.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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