Editing Trochee (section)

== Examples ==

'''Trochaic''' meter is sometimes seen among the works of [[William Shakespeare]]:

{{Poem quote|text=
'''''Dou'''ble, '''dou'''ble, '''toil''' and '''trou'''ble;''
'''''Fi'''re '''burn''' and '''cauld'''ron '''bubb'''le.''
}}<ref>''The Complete Works of William Shakespeare''. London: Abbey Library/Cresta House, 1977.</ref>

Perhaps owing to its simplicity, though, trochaic meter is fairly common in [[nursery rhymes]]:

{{Poem quote|text=
'''''Pet'''er, '''Pet'''er '''pump'''kin-'''eat'''er''
'''''Had''' a '''wife''' and '''could'''n't '''keep''' her.''
}}

Trochaic verse is also well known in [[Latin poetry]], especially of the medieval period. Since the stress never falls on the final syllable in Medieval Latin, the language is ideal for trochaic verse. The {{lang|la|[[dies irae]]}} of the [[Requiem]] mass is an example:

{{Poem quote|text={{lang|la|text=
'''''Di'''es '''ir'''ae, '''di'''es '''il'''la''
'''''Sol'''vet '''sae'''clum '''in''' fa'''vi'''lla''
'''''Tes'''te '''Da'''vid '''cum''' Si'''by'''lla.''
|italic=unset}}}}

The Finnish national epic, {{langx|fi|[[Kalevala]]|label=none}}, like much old Finnish poetry, is written in a variation of [[trochaic tetrameter]].

Trochaic metre is popular in Polish and Czech literatures.<ref>{{langr|cs|Josef Brukner}}, {{langr|cs|Jiří Filip}}, {{langr|cs|Poetický slovník}}, {{lang|cs|Mladá fronta}}, Prague 1997, p. 339–340 {{in lang|cs}}.</ref> {{langr|pl|Vitězslav Nezval}}'s poem [[Edison (Poem)|Edison]] is written in trochaic hexameter.<ref>{{langr|pl|Wiktor J. Darasz}}, {{langr|pl|Trochej}}, {{lang|pl|Język Polski}}, 1-2/2001, p. 51 {{in lang|pl}}.</ref>

===Latin===
{{see|Metres of Roman comedy}}
In Greek and Latin, the syllabic structure deals with long and short syllables, rather than accented and unaccented. Trochaic meter was rarely used by the Latin poets in the classical period, except in certain passages of the tragedies and the comedies.<ref>Gustavus Fischer, "Prosody", ''Etymology and an introduction to syntax'' (''Latin Grammar'', Volume 1), J. W. Schermerhorn (1876) p. 395.</ref> The two main metres used in comedy were the [[trochaic septenarius]] and trochaic octonarius.