Best Trochaic Poems
With the end of days upon them
Nears the time of final battle
In the halls of high Valhalla
Asgard senses its death rattle
In the forest crows the rooster
In the sky the sun does darken
In the cave the hound is howling
To these signs the Aesir harken
Heimdall blows the Gjallarhorn
Dark the rainbow bridge is turning
Vivid lightning cleaves Yggdrasil
Then the central tree is burning
Aesir watch in fascination
See volcanoes spew like fountains
See the heavens splitting open
See the oceans climb the mountains
See the continents convulsing
See the forests burn to ashes
See the sons of Mim awaken
In the fatal lightning flashes
As the winds consume the wasteland
From the south Surtr advances
With his minions tearing corpses
Bright his sword and sharp his lances
Aesir then prepare their weapons
Eyes are clear and arms are steady
The Midgard serpent Jörmungandr
Upon the battle plain is ready
With his heavy hammer Mjolnir
Strides the mighty god of thunder
To do battle with the serpent
And to rend the world asunder
June 30, 2014
N.B. This poem is an Epyllion, a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. It is written in trochaic tetrameter, like some of the ancient Eddas.
Glossary:
Ragnarök - Final battle and death of the Aesir
Aesir - The Norse gods
Asgard - one of the Nine Worlds and home of the Aesir
Valhalla - a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the chief Norse god Odin
Heimdall - A Norse god who blows his horn to signal the beginning of Ragnarök
Gjallarhorn - Heimdall's horn
Midgard- Middle Earth, or the world of humans
Bifröst - the burning rainbow bridge between Midgard and Asgard
Yggdrasil - The sacred Norse central tree that holds the Nine Worlds
Mim - an Asian renowned for his knowledge and wisdom who has been beheaded. Odin carries around Mím's preserved head and it recites secret knowledge and counsel to him.
Surtr- a fire troll with a flaming sword who sets the world on fire.
Jörmungandr- The world serpent or ouroboros that surrounds the earth and grasps his own tail. When he lets go, the world will end. Jörmungandr's arch-enemy is the god Thor.
Thor - The Norse god of thunder
Mjolnir - Thor's hammer and principal weapon
Categories:
trochaic, weather,
Form:
Epyllion
The flying sent projections free to see,
from adjunct Astrals singing bold decree.
Perched on Pisces’s cusp, forsaking Plato’s cave,
Puppets casting shadows, chancing me a slave.
They hang from dreams of higher forms, allures
Contempt in self when loving carnal cores.
Haunted by women’s passions kept in Spirits,
Dawns my sleeping stages now inherits
Marionettes aloft eternal twists
of spinning truths with lies recalling trysts.
Killing prone volitions, changing essence.
Chosen starlight’s beings guiding presence.
Upon a love in purest form demands,
Forgotten suicides of ego strands.
Risking Pirsig’s fate in Zen and journey,
Waging sanity, a bounty worthy.
The stringing of my soul and bracing seeks,
A pulling truth beyond this death it speaks.
------------------------------------------------------------
Alternating stanzas of iambic and trochaic pentameter
Categories:
trochaic, addiction, allegory, change, desire,
Form:
Couplet
In my heart I've always loved you
Always thought you good and kind
Though I know you do not know me
Know you're always on my mind
Nights of darkness pass unbroken
By your smile and gentle ways
How I wish that you were present
Here beside me all my days
Light or darkness, rain or shadow
Thoughts of you are light to me
Now I pray that as you read this
Thoughts of me would kindly be
I would be your slave forever
Just to bring a smile or two
Have you walking life beside me
All your blest commands to do
How I hope that you will greet me
Pray you'll see my desp'rate case
Should you not, my heart would founder
Longing for your smiling face
About this poem: It is trochaic, meaning that it starts with a stressed syllable and alternates between a stressed and unstressed the whole way through. The syllable count is 8.7.8.7. Although I wrote this from the viewpoint of a man, it could be read either way.
Categories:
trochaic, love, passion, valentines day,
Form:
Quatrain
Night has come, the fog is slowly wreathing
Crying soft, a form is moving forward
Now she walks through mist, 'tween shadows seething
Past the ancient walls she pushes onward
Mid the shrouded stones she pours her sorrow
Crying soft, a form is moving forward
Now she weeps amid a ruined palace
*Starting when the distant forest trembles
Comfort is not nigh to ease her sorrow
In her hands she bears a broken chalice
She that once was rich is now the poorest
Starting when the distant forest trembles
Deep within the shadows of the forest
Wars were fought that changed her life forever
She that once was rich is now the poorest
How could men her castle cruelly sever?
Night has come, the fog is slowly wreathing
Wars were fought that changed her life forever
Now she walks through mist, 'tween shadows seething
Day is dawning
Light scatters shadows
What hope will morning bring?
- *Starting is a sudden motion or spasm caused by being alarmed. -
- The part of this poem that is in Terzanelle form is also Trochaic Pentameter, meaning that it is ten syllables per line and alternating between a stressed and unstressed syllable the whole way through. -
- First place in contest, "Terzanelle Fantasy with a Questionku Chaser".
Categories:
trochaic, grief, lonely, loss, war,
Form:
Terzanelle
Bright last quarter, soft, cool moon
Blue-gray sky, sun rising soon.
Pearl-like gem in heaven's row
Lead us to sun's brilliant show.
Morning light on soft feet creeps
Showing us such verdant keeps.
Birds awake and sing their tune
Chirp, chirp at the passing moon.
Great owl sweeps a field for prey
Folks arise, another day.
Daylight grows, hot coffee brews
Soon we'll read the morning news.
Outside air is clean and warm.
On each corner, day shapes form.
Sounds of joy and life, all strong
signalling the waking throng.
Fade fast now last quarter moon.
Soon the sun will see you swoon.
But, at dusk, another eve
There the cloak of night to weave.
Bright Last Quarter
7-9-15
Trochaic
Categories:
trochaic, dark, moon, morning,
Form:
Quatrain
I say to you lets take a walk...to laugh...to chill...and simply talk.
Let’s start heading across the rocks...and go beneath the streets of Rome.
Let us take a break from our feet...down a path right beneath quaint streets,
This is the place where all roads meet...where I’m meaner than Al Capone,
And I could simply make this easy...but your mind will not be blown.
You’ll never see your children grown.
For I thought you was my best friend, but for now you will face your end,
You’re heading there out of your sin...to no light...no love...or cell-phones.
You’ll dwell in torment forever, birds of feather flock together,
In this hall there is no weather, the only echoes are your own,
You’ll rot in disgust and your shameful heart will always be alone.
My love for you...I will condone.
With such greed life karma prevails...and in darkness your bones’ll dwell.
Doesn’t matter how loud you yell...no one will hear that high pitched tone.
I vent all of my frustrations...without any hesitations,
After my retaliation...of this sweet revenge I will prone.
After kicking you in the face...what’s this...is it bodily foam..?
So un-brick the bricks to the dome!
And I don’t care if your legs hurt...for this is how you made it work,
You built your tomb under a church...right beneath its’ big golden throne.
Now behind the mortar you cry...and no one can bade their goodbyes.
My friend...you used to smile so wise...who smiles now as the other moans..?
You love what you can’t have...life...I’m done...revenge has proudly shone.
You’ll die behind the wall of stone.
All of your hate and jealousy...is buried with greed and envy,
You’ll fade from earth as unworthy...right beneath other dried up bones.
Here’s my remorse...wait a minute...clear my nose...on the wall I spit,
Your ego fits nicely here...I’m starting to like your new home.
I’ll let you be with a marker...that I have engraved out of chrome.
“The center of the catacombs”.
_____________________________________
The form is Trochaic Octameter
Iambic pentameter serves as the substitute.
Categories:
trochaic, parody, sisterlove,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter
Sirens wailing like the world had ended
In the streets an eerie calm that day
The heartbeat of our country'd been suspended
Kennedy's been shot! My God! No way!
Youthful vigor, smile inviting and appealing
Camelot! -- He and Jackie'd ushered in
America, the news had sent a-reeling
Lined our faces, tears instead of grins
Woe! The shock wore off, reality set in
Agonizingly, did we return to form
Drank our morning coffee, tasted thin
Sometimes wished we never had been born
Death, unwelcome, always begs a reason
This death torments our souls these many seasons
Trochaic tetrameter/pentameter
Categories:
trochaic, america, cry, death,
Form:
Sonnet
'Course as a grim teller of tall tales,
(albeit poetic) reasonable rhyming
quasi roundelay I readily admitted to feign
cuz, stringing words together with
pride and prejudice plus
sense and sensibility, jocularity,
and conformity I dissed deign
(spoiler alert) iamb, trochaic,
dactylic, and anapestic metrical reign
jest your ordinary garden variety
dollar short day late dime a dozen
penniless citizen banker Abel and Cain,
yet mine mean mien blithely, daringly,
fatuously, ludicrously, nauseatingly,
pretentiously playfully urbane
many (if not all readers)
will coon sitter
yours truly harmlessly insane,
whose feeble attempts
to wax and wane
oft times falls flat (splat goes Matt)
as if dropped out plane,
without a parachute
instantly recuperating while lain
supine (winded, but...
none the worse) asthma brain
suffers concussion, confusion, contusion
actually, immediately, and unexpectedly
knocked fluent German speaking ability
within germane guy verständlich?
If ye really comprehend
trademark non Turkish gobbledygook
then explain (using
language of least familiarity),
but best to commence
with eye catching hook
impossible mission
apt lit pupils (mine)
to evade even momentarily
riveting, spellbinding,
and transfixing look
courtesy ingenious way
with word ye snook
cored me and took
wind out my sails.
Nor could I breakaway courtesy automobile,
cuz 2009 Hyundai Sonata
would not start... yea for real,
thus finding me ready to yoke
neck (think gibbet) each heel
dangling as body goes limp
blessedly, finally, happily
ridding me of any/all hangups,
one less goo goo gaga born this way
poker face cards for him to deal.
UNGABLUZUM describes this schlemiel!
Categories:
trochaic, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Enclosed Rhyme
Poetry time
Every line chimes
Stop on a dime
A buck for a rhyme
What’s a meta for
Similes are, like, a bore
A terzanelle’s attractive
Tho a villanelle’s more proactive
Witches vex trochaic pentameter
Curse iambic HEXameter
Traditionalists eschew free verse
Blank verse is that much worse…
Romance, a hackneyed chore
While humor is adored
Satire rates high too
Tear-jerkers ~ boo-hoo
Poetry time
Elbow grease and grime
Lines sparkle and shine
Craftsmanship sublime
Categories:
trochaic, humor, inspirational, metaphor, poetry,
Form:
Rhyme
(This is a true story from 2001, when I let my
hair grow back to dark, and I fooled a few people
who thought the wig was still my own hair but with
a different shade of blonde!)
Growing roots meant bad hair each day;
bought a wig to stay blonde at school.
One guy loved my color that way.
Said, "Your hair's never looked so cool!"
For Rick Parise's "A Bad Hair Day" Contest
using Chastushka (Russian form of poetry
with trochaic tetrameter).
Categories:
trochaic, funny, hair, hair,
Form:
Chastushka
Fall descends as Summer leaves.
Autumn cools a skewed romance.
Here we find a heart that grieves,
While the other lives to dance.
Short the span of peak allure.
Egos start to hum the blues.
Mirrors follow and procure
Any truth you wish to view.
If the other shoe be age,
Let it drop, accept the dread.
Earplugs mute his music's rage,
Yours in stacks beneath the bed.
Flattery can quickly blind
When it's served in large amounts.
Don't leave common sense behind,
With a dwindling bank account.
Trochaic Tetrameter.
Rhyme / AB-AB
Gene Bourne.
02-05-13.
.
Categories:
trochaic, age, allusion, analogy, break
Form:
Didactic
I am Africa, I am man
Hear my drums, know my heart beat
My sorrow is not metered in iambic lines
Life does not speak that way
So artificial this enumeration of joy
So false this constant rise and fall of tone
I fish the tides
Sometimes the water rises above the rock
And stay a long, long time
Like a dream that won't give up
Sometimes the water recedes far out
Lingering at the bar
Waiting for the moon to show her breast
Watching silently like a star
For one ear Nana Oba to divorce me
From this culture that is my hell.
I am Africa, I am man
My fingers running fast on antelope skin
Cross the bata light and sweet like a caress
Like rainfall on the Serengeti
Like bird call for Nana Oshun's memory
So when I put my hands around your waist
Sliding my finger over the contours of our embrace
Searching for lake Nakuru under your dress
Down from the Kilmanjaro of your breast
And whisper my feelings in your ears
In cross-rhythms, kora and mbira playing
Hot like khamsin, passionate like the yamo
Sucking on your tongue for life
Seeking the umbilical water for my pain
What care for anapestic sentiments
Trochaic promises, dactylic stories
I need you in all the wonder of your loveliness
In all the moods that living tell
In our orbiting exodus of earth and hell
No time now for phony precisions
I speak as I am, as I feel emotions
Dancing on my finger tips
Dancing on the velvet smooth of drums
Ladling at your Nakura, lapping at your lips
All tribal, my body hums
For the stolen glory of my history
For the cinder of theories
That make me victim twice in my misery
I am Africa, I am man
Hear my prophecy, I will succeed!
Categories:
trochaic, inspirational, on writing and
Form:
Free verse
Rhyme: AABB
Rhythm: Trochaic tetrameter. i.e.,
Each line as: BAH-bah BAH-bah BAH-bah BAH-bah
1 “Hi, Corona, thy name means crown.
But all thy deeds in pain us drown.
Many losing jobs, homes and hope,
Are not sure how they now will cope.
2 For months schools and colleges closed,
For us many problems have posed.
Online class is not fun, my friend.
Good if soon it comes to an end.
3 Deaths one million by September.
Scary number to remember!
Why hast thou become a killer?
Please, leave us, mad graveyard filler!”
4 “I am only a messenger.
Neither killer, nor avenger.
Many see me as an evil.
But the wise will see my goodwill.
5 God, your great and loving Father,
Sees you drifting from Him farther.
Fun and entertainment centered,
You are now much conscience blunted.
6 Money you chase; but not wisdom,
Depth in spirit, or God’s Kingdom.
With your science and tech power,
You think you're a mighty tower.
7 God sent me to help you to see
Powerless how you are. Hence flee
From all your sins. Follow God’s way.
Then I'll fly away, as you say.”
Posted: 20 October 2020
Updated: 22 November 2020
Categories:
trochaic, god, science, spiritual, technology,
Form:
Rhyme
short-long
iamb song,or
long-short trochaic,taut,
spondaic long,with syllables
slow-slow-
mono
di,tri,tetra
penta,hexa,hepta
octa,which choice numbers for my
metre?
dactyl
and anapestic
with syllables three-
this poetry's a stress to far..
for me !
Categories:
trochaic, funny, on writing and
Form:
Cinquain
Cunning were her noxious machinations,
Choosing those who never stood a chance.
Masterful projecting of temptations,
Brilliant timing, her alluring glance.
Naive innocence alerted weakness.
Perfect prey, a rug beneath her feet.
Wary of her charm, he played to meekness.
Vamps are blinded by their own conceit.
Love projecting trust her highest rated,
Self assured to win this rueful game,
But his insight unappreciated,
Destined to dethrone this queen of shame.
Midnight luggage packed as she lay sleeping,
Daybreak finding him no longer there.
Not his absence roused her ardent weeping,
Rather, roles reversed and woe to bear.
All her hidden plans, new beau, new city,
Lost its "joie de vivre" without a chump.
Debit card replaced by selfish pity,
Catatonic stupor, being dumped.
She was fooled, assured the man had fallen.
Not a clue his quietly keeping score.
Retribution silently came calling,
As a sliding key beneath her door.
Gene Bourne
02-19-14.
Alternating Acateletic / Cateletic end syllables
for variable texture of flow
in this Trochaic Pentameter poem.
Categories:
trochaic, allegory, angst, betrayal, character,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter