Breaking Down the Bard - Trochees

Now that you know what verse is, and what perfect iambic pentameter is (and if you don't, feel free to read my previous Breaking Down the Bard posts to catch up), we've been tackling what happens when the verse has variations that break the pattern of perfect iambic pentameter.

Say this line of verse, and try to make it perfectly iambic:

Beauty is bought with judgement of the eye

beau-TY is BOUGHT with JUDGE-meant OF the EYE

Sounds flippin' weird, right? It sounds strange because nobody says "beauty" like "beau-TY"... and if they did, you would probably laugh at them. 

The word "beauty" is spoken with the emphasis on the first syllable: "BEAU-ty". It breaks the mould of the style of verse that is prevalent in this play (Love's Labour's Lost), and grabs our attention; which is great for the actor playing the Princess, because she is sort of schooling Boyet with this line. It sounds better when it's spoken like this:

BEAU-ty is BOUGHT with JUDGE-ment OF the EYE

Wow. Like a normal human is talking.

As you probably guessed from the title of this post, this type of metric foot is called a trochee. A trochee is the opposite of an iamb; a trochee is a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed syllable, and an iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. 

Side note: it's pronounced "TROH-key". And yes, the word trochee IS A TROCHEE. Boom. But when you say "iamb", that's a trochee, too, so don't get too excited... you didn't just crack the verse code.

Just like iambs, trochees can be a word all on their own, or they can overlap two words, or be part of a larger word with more syllables. Some words that are trochaic all by themselves are: rainbow, bowling, baseball, country, delta, never, and zero.

Often, trochees will appear at the beginning of a line of Shakespeare's verse, where there has been primarily iambic pentameter. It gets the listener's attention:

Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull.

Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead,

And I would have it suddenly perform'd.

COU-sin, thou WAST not WONT to BE so DULL.

shall I be PLAIN? i WISH the BAS-tards DEAD,

and I would HAVE it SUD-den-LY per-FORM'D.

There might be a trochee on a line with a feminine ending, and/or at the beginning of a line after a feminine ending:

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

To twinkle in their spheres till they return. 

TWO of the FAIR-est STARS in ALL the HEAV-en*

HAV-ing some BUS-'ness, DO en-TREAT her EYES

to TWIN-kle IN their SPHERES till THEY re-TURN

*As per usual, I will remind you that there are many ways to scan a line of verse. For this particular example, I have chosen to trochee the first foot, and pronounce "heaven" with two syllables to demonstrate the feminine ending. You certainly could keep the line in perfect iambic pentameter (by eliding "heaven" to "heav'n"), or any number of other options!

It doesn't have to be at the beginning of a line of verse:

O, what authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

o, WHAT au-THOR-i-TY and SHOW of TRUTH

can CUN-ning SIN COV-er it-SELF with-AL!

And when something magical is happening, Shakespeare might decide to use a trochaic style of verse INSTEAD OF iambic pentameter:

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

DOU-ble, DOU-ble, TOIL and TROU-ble;

FI-re BURN and CAUL-dron BUB-ble.

Or

Shall we their fond pageant see?

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

SHALL we THEIR fond PAG-eant SEE?

LORD, what FOOLS these MOR-tals BE!

Trochees are awesome, because they shake things up and keep the audience listening! It sends a new energy and says, "listen up!" at just the right moment, so be on the lookout for this exciting kind of verse!

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