Chapter XIII: Trochaic Metres

§ =181.= Trochaic metres, which, generally speaking, are less common in English poetry than iambics, were not used at all till the Modern English Period. The old metrical writers (Gascoigne, James VI, W. Webbe) only know rising metres.

Puttenham (1589) is the first metrician who quotes four-foot trochaic lines; similar verses also occur during the same period in Shakespeare's _Love's Labour's Lost_, _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, and other plays.

Whether they were introduced directly on foreign models, or originated indirectly from the influence of the study of the ancients by means of a regular omission of the first thesis of the iambic metres, we do not know. It is likewise uncertain who was the first to use strict trochaic verses deliberately in English, or in what chronological order the various trochaic metres formed in analogy with the iambic ones entered into English poetry.

The longest trochaic lines, to which we first turn our attention, seem to be of comparatively late date.

The =eight-foot trochaic line=, more exactly definable as the acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf. § 77), is the longest trochaic metre we find in English poetry. As a specimen of this metre the first stanza of a short poem by Thackeray written in this form has been quoted already on page 127. As a rule, however, this acatalectic feminine line is mingled with catalectic verses with masculine endings, as e.g. in the following burlesque by Thackeray, _Damages Two Hundred Pounds_:

_Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund,
Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund!
Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper:
Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu've a ríght to whóp her._

While the catalectic iambic tetrameter is a line of seven feet (the last arsis being omitted), the catalectic trochaic tetrameter loses only the last thesis, but keeps the preceding arsis; and on this account it remains a metre of eight feet.

Rhyming couplets of this kind of verse, when broken up into short lines, give rise to stanzas with the formulas _a ~ b c ~ b₄, d ~ e ~ f ~ e ~₄_, or, if inserted rhymes are used, we have the form _a ~ b a ~ b₄_ (alternating masculine and feminine endings), or _a ~ b ~ a ~ b ~₄_ (if there are feminine endings only). In both these cases the eight-foot rhythm is distinctly preserved to the ear. But this is no longer the case in another trochaic metre of eight feet, where the theses of both the fourth and the eighth foot are wanting, as may be noticed in Swinburne, _A Midsummer Holiday_, p. 132:

_Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáy
Ás a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam,
Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme;
Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;_

still less when such lines are broken up by inserted rhyme in stanzas of the form _a b a b₄_. In cases, too, where the eight-foot trochaic verse is broken up by leonine rhyme, the rhythm has a decided four-foot cadence on account of the rapid recurrence of the rhyme.

§ =182.= The =seven-foot trochaic line= is theoretically either a brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic trimeter with a masculine ending. An example of the first kind we had on p. 128. A more correct specimen is the following line from the same poem:

_Hásten, Lórd, who árt my Hélper; | lét thine áid be spéedy._

The verses quoted on p. 128 are incorrect in so far as the caesura occurs at an unusual place, viz. in the middle of the fourth foot, instead of after it, as in the example just quoted.

They show, however, the origin of a pretty frequently occurring anisorhythmical stanza, which is derived from this metre by means of the use of inserted rhyme; lines 1 and 3 having a trochaic, lines 2 and 4, on the other hand, an iambic rhythm; cf. e.g. the following stanza from a poem by Suckling (_Poets_, iii. 741):

_Sáy, but díd you lóve so lóng?
In trúth I néeds must bláme you:
Pássion did your júdgement wróng,
Or wánt of réason sháme you._

When there are masculine rhymes throughout, the stanza is felt distinctly as consisting of alternate lines of four and three feet (_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_).

The seven-foot rhythm, however, remains, if the three-foot half-lines only have masculine endings, and the four-foot half-lines remain feminine; as is the case in Swinburne's poem _Clear the Way_ (_Mids. Hol._, p. 143):

_Cléar the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, | yóu have hád your dáy.
Hére you háve your ánswer, Éngland's | yéa against your náy;
Lóng enóugh your hóuse has héld you: | up, and cléar the wáy!_

This, of course, is likewise the case, if the verses are broken up into stanzas by inserted rhyme (_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_).

More frequently than this correct seven-foot verse, with either a feminine or masculine ending, we find the incorrect type, consisting of a catalectic and a brachycatalectic dimeter, according to the model of the well-known Low Latin verse:

_Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori_,

which is often confounded with the former (cf. § 135). The following first stanza of a poem by Suckling (_Poets_, iii. 471) is written in exact imitation of this metre:

_Óut upón it, Í have lóved | thrée whole dáys tógether;
Ánd am líke to lóve three móre, | íf it próve fair wéather._

Although only the long lines rhyme, the stanza is commonly printed in short lines (_a₄ b₃ ~ c₄ b₃ ~_). Still more frequently we find short-lined stanzas of the kind (_a₄ b₃ ~ a₄ b₃ ~_) as well as the other sub-species with masculine rhymes only: _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_.

§ =183.= The =six-foot trochaic line= occurs chiefly in Modern English, and appears both in acatalectic (feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form; e.g. in Swinburne _The Last Oracle_ (_Poems and Ballads_, ii. 1):

_Dáy by dáy thy shádow | shínes in héaven behólden,
Éven the sún, the shíning | shádow óf thy fáce:
Kíng, the wáys of héaven | befóre thy féet grow gólden;
Gód, the sóul of éarth | is kíndled wíth thy gráce._

Strictly the caesura ought to occur after the third foot, as it does in the first line; generally, however, it is within the third foot, and so this metre as well as the stanza formed by insertion of rhyme acquires an anisorhythmical character, as e.g. in the following quatrain by Moore:

_Áll that's bríght must fáde,--
The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;
Áll that's swéet was máde
But to be lóst when swéetest._

When masculine rhymes are used throughout, the six-foot rhythm is preserved in anisorhythmical stanzas of this kind just as well as when lines like the first of those in the example quoted above, _Day by day_, &c., are broken up by inserted rhymes (_a ~ b ~ a ~ b₃ ~_); or again when they have masculine endings in the second half-lines (_a ~ b a ~ b₃_). If the first half is masculine, however, and the second feminine (or if both have masculine endings on account of a pause caused by the missing thesis), the verses have a three-foot character, e.g. in Moore:

_Whíle I tóuch the stríng,
Wréathe my bróws with láurel,
Fór the tále I síng
Hás for ónce a móral._

§ =184.= The =five-foot trochaic line= also occurs both in acatalectic (feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form, and each of them is found in stanzas rhyming alternately, as e.g. in Mrs. Hemans's _O ye voices_ (vii. 57):

_Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!
Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,
Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,
Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?_

Such verses, of course, can be used also in stanzas with either masculine or feminine endings only.

As in the five-foot iambic verse, the caesura generally occurs either after the second or third foot (in which case it is feminine), or usually within the second or third foot (masculine caesura).

In a few cases this metre is also used without rhyme; e.g. in Robert Browning's _One Word More_ (v. 313-21); feminine endings are used here throughout; run-on lines occasionally occur, and the caesura shows still greater variety in consequence. A specimen is given in _Metrik_, ii, § 217.

§ =185.= The =four-foot trochaic line= (discussed above in its relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes only, we have in Shakespeare's _Tempest_, IV. i. 106-9:

_Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,
Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,
Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!
Júno síngs her bléssings ón you_, &c.

With masculine endings only it is found in _Love's Labour's Lost_, IV. iii. 101:

_Ón a dáy--aláck the dáy!--
Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,
Spíed a blóssom pássing fáir
Pláying ín the wánton áir._

As in the five-foot verse, here also the caesura if used at all may fall at different places; mostly its place is after or within the second foot.

Generally speaking this metre is used in continuous verse in such a way that masculine and feminine couplets are intermixed without regular order;[172] when it is used in stanzas the forms previously mentioned in § 181 are usually adopted.

This metre is used also, in an unrhymed form and with feminine endings throughout, in Longfellow's _Song of Hiawatha_, in which there are noticeably more run-on lines than in rhymed four-foot trochaics.

§ =186.= The =three-foot trochaic line=, both with feminine and with masculine endings, has been discussed in previous sections (§§ 182-3) so far as it is derived from seven- and six-foot verse. It may also be derived from the six-foot metre through the breaking up of the line by means of leonine rhyme, as in the following rhyming couplets:

_Áge, I dó abhór thee,
Yóuth, I dó adóre thee;
Yóuth ís fúll of spórt,
Áge's bréath is shórt._
Passionate Pilgrim, No. 12.

§ =187. Two-foot trochaic lines= generally occur among longer lines of anisometrical stanzas; but we also find them now and then without longer lines in stanzas and poems. Feminine verses of this kind, which may be regarded as four-foot lines broken up by leonine rhyme, we have in Dodsley (_Poets_, xi. 112):

_Lóve comméncing,
Jóys dispénsing;
Béauty smíling,
Wít beguíling_;

and masculine ones in a short poem, possibly by Pope, _To Quinbus Flestrin, the Man-Mountain_ (p. 481):

_Ín a máze,
Lóst, I gáze,
Cán our éyes
Réach thy síze?
Máy my láys
Swéll with práise_, &c.

§ =188. One-foot trochaic lines= seem only to occur among longer verses in regular stanzas, as e.g. in a stanza of Addison's opera _Rosamund_ (I. ii. 38):

_Túrning,
Búrning,
Chánging,
Ránging._

We even find sometimes a line consisting of a single (of course accented) syllable in Swinburne, as e.g. in his poem in trochaic verse, _A Dead Friend_ (_A Century of Roundels_, pp. 12-19):

_Góne, O géntle héart and trúe,
Friénd of hópes forgóne,
Hópes and hópeful dáys with yóu,
Góne?_

It is common to all these trochaic metres that their structure, especially that of the longer ones, is (except for the varying caesura) very regular, and that they have only very few rhythmical licences, chiefly slight slurring.

NOTES:

[172] For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 218.