Corresponding short trochaic lines result from the acatalectic trochaic tetrameterbroken by leonine or inserted rhyme.
The =eight-foot trochaic line=, more exactly definable as the acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf.
The =seven-foot trochaic line= is theoretically either a brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic trimeter with a masculine ending.
If both rhythmical sections of a tetrameter are brachycatalectic we get one of the four varieties of the Middle English Alexandrine--the only one that has continued in use in Modern English poetry.
In like manner the catalectic iambic tetrameteris broken up by inserted rhyme into two short verses, viz.
A tetrameter brachycatalectic in both sections may also be broken up either by leonine or by inserted rhyme.
A stanza made up of tetrameter alternating with trimeter is very common.
The heptameter is usually divided into a tetrameter and a trimeter; the octameter, into two tetrameters.
The Trochaic tetrameter and the Cretic are also favourite rhythms; the former is well suited to the Latin language, its beat being much more easily distinguishable in a rapid dialogue than that of the Iambic.
The rhythm seems to have been much more often trochaic [1] than iambic, at least than trimeter iambic, for the tetrameter is more frequently employed.
We observe here the rare rhythm, analogous to the iambic scazon, of a trochaic tetrameter with a long penultimate syllable.
This verse is a trochaic tetrameter acatalectic, with syncope and protraction in the seventh foot.
Technically the poem is anapestic tetrameter much varied by the introduction of iambic feet.
Hiawatha and Evangeline are not rhymed, the former being trochaic tetrameter and the latter largely dactylic hexameter.
The reference is to the anapaestic tetrameter called ‘Aristophanic.
Lewis, in his Foreign Sources of Modern English Versification (Yale Studies in English, 1898), who finds its origin in the tetrameter of the Latin hymns.
