trochee


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trochee

Prosody a metrical foot of two syllables, the first long and the second short (– ⌣)

Trochee

 

(1) In metric versification, a foot three moras in length, consisting of one long and one short syllable (¯ ˅).

(2) In Russian syllabotonic versification, a two-syllable foot stressed on the first syllable. In trochaic verse the weak syllables are unstressed and the strong syllables may be either unstressed or stressed; the last syllable in a line must be stressed. Examples are Górnye vershíny (“Mountain peaks,” M. Iu. Lermontov; trochaic trimeter), Búria mglóiu nébo króet (“The storm covers the sky with mist,” A. S. Pushkin; trochaic tetrameter), Vykhozhúodín ia na dorógu (“I go out on the road alone,” Lermontov; trochaic pentameter), and Nét na svéte múk sil’née múki slóva (“There are no torments on earth more intense than the torment of the word,” S. Ia. Nadson; trochaic hexameter).

In Russian poetry of the 18th and 19th centuries the most common trochaic meter was the tetrameter. Beginning in the mid-19th century the trochaic pentameter became more widespread; other trochaic meters were rarely used.

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References in periodicals archive ?
As compared to the random trochee, the index of the first duration in Kreutzwald's T4 is lower in all the odd ('strong') positions, while the index of the third duration is higher.
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TROCHEE The first syllable of every foot is a prominent one.
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The concluding five syllables are either stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, unstressed, or stressed, unstressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed (or one trochee and one dactyl, in either order).
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Metrically, this sonnet predominantly features regular iambic pentameter, but the initial trochee in line 4 ("Peeps in") effectively reverses the rhythm and approximates the sudden entry of the starlight described there, and the spondee "twin-angel" in line 12 provides apt emphasis as well.
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The insistent drum roll of the dominant anapestic foot, relieved by the occasional iamb or trochee, enhances the tone, and the brilliant sixth stanza,
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O Floinn then proceeds to indicate where he feels the stresses must fall in certain lines of O Riordain's poetry and concludes that it is the English trochee that lies behind it all.
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Iamb, anapest, trochee, dactyl, spondee," he recited, "da dee, da da dee, dee da, dee da da, dee dee.
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He assumes that simple words in Chinese form disyllabic trochees from left to right, and that the first trochee attracts stress.
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