Dictionary Definition
octameter n : a verse line having eight metrical
feet
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
- A line of verse containing eight metrical feet
Extensive Definition
Octameter in poetry is a line of eight
metrical
feet. It is
not very common in English verse. E.g: -
Trochaic
- Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
- Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
- As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door
- (Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven")
- Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
Dactylic
- Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the
splendour of winter had passed out of sight,
- The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that fulfil us in sleep with delight;
- The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops and branches that glittered and swayed
- Such wonders and glories of blossomlike snow or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
- (A. C. Swinburne, "March: An Ode")
- The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that fulfil us in sleep with delight;