Octameter



Octameter, in poetry, means a line or lines of verse consisting eight metrical feet.

Iambic octameter
Rhyming iambic couplets are sonically indistinguishable from long meter, and are usually written that way instead. So iambic heptameter i rare in English language verse. John Masefield is one poet who used loose iambic heptameter to construct memorable long lines.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
 * -- John Masefield ('Sea-Fever')

Trochaic octameter

 * 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")

Dactylic octameter

 * 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")