The etymology of trochaic derives from the Greek trokhaios, from the verb trecho, meaning I run.
In classical metre, the word tetrameter means a line with four metra, wherein each metron contains two trochees.
An example of epic poetry written in trochaic tetrameter is The Song of Hiawatha (1855), by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Weeds of Athens he doth wear: This is he, my master said, Despised the Athenian maid; And here the maiden, sleeping sound, On the dank and dirty ground.
When thou wakest, let love forbid Sleep his seat on thy eyelid: So awake when I am gone; For I must now to Oberon.
Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid's archery, Sink in apple of his eye.
Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand; And the youth, mistook by me, Pleading for a lover's fee.
Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff greyhound, mongrel grim, Hound or spaniel, brach or him, Or bobtail tyke or trundle-tail, Tom will make him weep and wail; For with throwing thus my head, Dogs leap the hatch and all are fled.
dies illa Solvet sæclum in favilla Teste David cum Sibylla!
Balto-Finnic (e.g. Estonian, Finnish, Karelian) folk poetry uses a form of trochaic tetrameter that has been called the Kalevala meter.
The Finnish and Estonian national epics, Kalevala and Kalevipoeg, are both written in this meter, which like Germanic alliterative verse makes heavy use of alliteration within the poetic line.
Its main rules are as follows[5] (examples are taken from the Kalevala): Syllables fall into three types: strong, weak, and neutral.