Editing Octameter (section)

{{Multiple issues|
{{Unreferenced|date=December 2009}}
{{Expand Finnish|date=May 2025}}
{{Expand German|date=May 2025}}
}}
'''Octameter''' in [[poetry]] is a line of eight [[meter (poetry)|metrical]] [[foot (poetry)|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|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
:([[Algernon Charles Swinburne|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 ....