The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Trochee

Trochee: A metrical foot in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (ˊ˘).

EXAMPLES: tróchĕe, tércĕt, trі́plĕt; the adage “Áprı̇̆l│shówĕrs│brі́ng Măy│flówĕrs.” The speaker in Robert Browning’s “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” (1842) uses trochaic tetrameter when he says “Twénty̆-│nі́ne dı̇̆s│tі́nct dăm│nátiŏns… .” Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, often wrote in trochaic tetrameter, as reflected in the title of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960) and in the dialogue of Sam-I-Am in Green Eggs and Ham (1960).