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Examples of Iambic Meters

Iambic meter is defined as poetic verse that is made up of iambs, which are metrical "feet" with
two syllables. In iambic verse, each line consists of one or more iambs. Iambic pentameter is the
most common type of iambic meter but there are several others, as you'll see in the examples
below.
Iambs: The Basis of Iambic Poetry
The first syllable in an iamb is unaccented and the second is accented. Here are some examples
of iambs:
 exist
 belong
 predict
 away
 the one
 we played
 you know
 I can't
Examples of Iambic Trimeter
When you combine three iambs, you create poetry in iambic trimeter. Each line has six syllables
that alternate stressed and unstressed accents. Here are some examples:
The only news I know
Is bulletins all day
From Immortality.
The only shows I see,
Tomorrow and Today,
Perchance Eternity.
- Emily Dickinson, "The Only News I Know"

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard a wise man say,
'Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
- E. Housman, "When I Was One-and-Twenty"

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
- Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz,"

I love the jocund dance,

The softly breathing song,
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Where innocent eyes do glance,

And where lisps the maiden's tongue.
- William Blake, "Song"

The idle life I lead

Is like a pleasant sleep,
Wherein I rest and heed
The dreams that by me sweep.
- Robert Bridges (no title)
Examples of Iambic Tetrameter
Poems that consists of four iambs per line are written in iambic tetrameter. Each line has eight
syllables in alternating stressed and unstressed accents. For example:
I wandered, lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er dales and hills
When, all at once, I saw a crowd
A host of golden daffodils.
- William Wordsworth, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

There is a lady sweet and kind,

Was never face so pleased my mind;
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die.
- Thomas Ford, "There is a Lady Sweet and Kind"

The hills, the meadows, and the lakes,

Enchant not for their own sweet sakes.
They cannot know, they cannot care
To know that they are thought so fair.
- Henry Leigh, "Not Quite Fair"

Of Neptune's empire let us sing,

At whose command the waves obey;
- Thomas Campion, "A Hymn in Praise of Neptune"

Strong Son of God, immortal Love,

Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
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- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam"

Examples of Iambic Pentameter

The most common meter used in poetry and verse, iambic pentameter consists of five iambs and
10 syllables per line. Here are examples:
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
- Anne Bradstreet, "To My Dear and Loving Husband"

In Oxford there once lived a rich old lout

Who had some guest rooms that he rented out,
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Miller's Tale

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
- Wiliam Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
- John Keats, "Ode to Autumn"

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
- Robert Frost, "Acquainted with the Night"
Sound Out the Syllables
Now you have seen many different examples of iambic meters in classic poetry and verse. Now
when you read literature or poems you will be better able to recognize the iambs that you see and
how they work in poetic verse to create rhythym. Combine this with some essential poetry terms
and genres, and you'll soon be a poetry master.
Example of Iambic Pentameter #1:
Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
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Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Example of Iambic Pentameter #2:

Sonnet 29, by William Shakespeare

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Example of Iambic Pentameter #3:

From:
Autumn, by John Keats
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

Rhythm and Meter in English Poetry

English poetry employs five basic rhythms of varying stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. The meters
are iambs, trochees, spondees, anapests and dactyls. In this document the stressed syllables are marked in
boldface type rather than the tradition al "/" and "x." Each unit of rhythm is called a "foot" of poetry.
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The meters with two-syllable feet are

 IAMBIC (x /) : That time of year thou mayst in me behold
 TROCHAIC (/ x): Tell me not in mournful numbers
 SPONDAIC (/ /): Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
Meters with three-syllable feet are
 ANAPESTIC (x x /): And the sound of a voice that is still
 DACTYLIC (/ x x): This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock (a
trochee replaces the final dactyl)
Each line of a poem contains a certain number of feet of iambs, trochees, spondees, dactyls or anapests. A
line of one foot is a monometer, 2 feet is a dimeter, and so on--trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5),
hexameter (6), heptameter (7), and o ctameter (8). The number of syllables in a line varies therefore
according to the meter. A good example of trochaic monometer, for example, is this poem entitled
"Fleas":
Adam
Had'em.
Here are some more serious examples of the various meters.
iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables)
 That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold
trochaic tetrameter (4 trochees, 8 syllables)
 Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers
anapestic trimeter (3 anapests, 9 syllables)
 And the sound | of a voice | that is still
dactylic hexameter (6 dactyls, 17 syllables; a trochee replaces the last dactyl)
 This is the | forest pri | meval, the | murmuring | pine and the | hemlocks

Iambic Pentameter in Poetry and Verse

Iambic pentameter is the most common type of meter used in poetry and verse. One writer
in particular was famed for using it, William Shakespeare, although he was not the
first, Chaucer used it to good effect before him, as you'll see in these iambic pentameter
examples:
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me; 
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, 
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York; 
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
- William Shakespeare, Richard III
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour named. What's more to do, 
Which would be planted newly with the time, 
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny; 
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, 
We will perform in measure, time and place: 
So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth
O that this too too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! 
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
If music be the food of love, play on; 
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, 
The appetite may sicken, and so die. 
That strain again! it had a dying fall: 
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, 
That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more: 
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;
- William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 12"
Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
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Batter my heart three-personed God, for you

as yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand o'erthrow me and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
- John Donne, "Holy Sonnet XIV"
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar.
- John Milton, "Paradise Lost"

Examples of Iambic Pentameter in Literature

Example #1: Macbeth (By William Shakespeare)

“Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honour named. What’s more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen…
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.”

Notice the pattern of underlined accented, and unaccented syllables, which

are iambic pentameter in these lines of “Macbeth,” a play by Shakespeare.

Example #2: Ode to Autumn (By John Keats)

“Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run…
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.”
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In this ode, the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDEDCCE. The meter is iambic

pentameter, having five iambs comprising a stressed syllable followed by an
unstressed syllable in each line as underlined.

Trochees in Poe's "The Raven"

Edgar Allen Poe's work deals frequently with the subjects of madness and
death, so it's fitting that Poe often uses the trochee. One of the most well-
known trochaic poems ever written is Poe's "The Raven," which is about a
grieving young man's encounter with a talking raven and his slow descent
into madness.
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!
Notice how lines 2, 4, 5 and 6 all end on stressed syllables, breaking the
stressed-unstressed pattern of trochaic meter. This is called catalexis—when
the final syllable of a line is dropped to create a pause or a rhyme. Trochaic
poems are often full of catalectic lines simply because it is difficult to rhyme
on an unstressed syllable.

Trochees in Shakespeare's Macbeth
Though Shakespeare typically writes in iambic pentameter, he used trochaic
meter to give an eerie and ominous feeling to the the spells he wrote for the
witches in Macbeth.
Double, double toil and trouble; 
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; 
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf...
The backward stress pattern of trochees is effective not only for making the
words of witches sound even more unearthly, but for giving them the kind of
incantatory rhythm that is used in so many magic words,
like Hocus pocus and Open Sesame.

Trochees in Auden's "In Memory of W.B.

Yeats"
W.H. Auden's short elegy for the poet W.B. Yeats uses the plaintive tone
created by the downward emphasis of the trochee as he expresses sadness
over a friend's death. Here's an excerpt of four lines from the poem:
Earth, receive an honoured guest;
William Yeats is laid to rest:
Let this Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
Notice again how the unstressed syllable is dropped from the end of each
line to enable rhyming. Generally speaking, it is much more common to end
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lines, as well as poems, on stressed syllables because it creates a pause that

gives a sense of completion.

Trochees in Millay's "Sorrow"

Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote the poem "Sorrow" in trochaic meter,
emphasizing the marked downward beat of the poet’s mood. She invokes
the image of rain in the first line, drawing a parallel to the falling rhythm of
the trochee. This is the first six lines of the poem:
Sorrow like a ceaseless rain 
Beats upon my heart. 
People twist and scream in pain, — 
Dawn will find them still again;
This has neither wax nor wane,
Neither stop nor start.
Note how the final unstressed syllable at the end of each line is omitted,
resulting in what's called a "broken" foot. This technique is
called catalexis and is used, in this case, to make the poem's rhyme scheme
possible. The final foot of each line is counted as a foot despite its "silent"
final syllable. Therefore, it would still be said that the poem is written in
trochaic tetrameter (four trochees making up eight syllables per line)
alternating with trochaic trimeter (three trochees making up six syllables per
line), even though the poem alternates between lines of five and seven
syllables.

Trochees in Dr. Seuss's "Green eggs and

Ham"
In his popular children's book "Green Eggs and Ham," Dr. Seuss writes one
character's speech in trochees, while the other he writes in iambs. The stress
pattern of trochees is the opposite of iambs, so the difference can be
thought of as a metrical reflection of the two character's clashing
personalities and perspectives. The optimistic "iambic" character keeps
offering the pessimistic "trochaic" character to try something new (a nice
dish of green eggs and ham), while the "trochaic" character keeps refusing.
"Do you like green eggs and ham?"
"I do not like them, Sam-I-Am!"
More generally, the unusual, inverted rhythm of the trochee serves to
accentuate the stress pattern of words, making them easier to remember.
This makes trochees good for children's books, such as
"One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" and nursery rhymes like
"Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb," all of which use
trochaic meter.

Trochees in Shakespeare's King Lear

In this passage from Shakespeare's King Lear, King Lear's daughter has just
been killed before his very eyes. Although the play is written, like most of
Shakespeare's plays, in iambic pentameter, Shakespeare substitutes
trochees for all five iambs in the final line to demarcate a heightening of
emotion and to create the tone of a wail.
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And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
and thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
never, never, never, never, never!
Example #1

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!”

Written by Edgar Allan Poe, a famous American poet, this poem is a superb

composition of a mystery of the arrival of a raven. The poem shows fear,
uncertainty, and loneliness of a person, who is a victim of unfortunate
circumstances. At the same time, “The Raven” is one of the most well-known
trochaic poems ever written. Its lines two, four, five and six end on stressed
syllables that break the conventional stressed-unstressed pattern of the
trochaic meter. Poe has used catalexis strategy in which he has deliberately
dropped the final syllable of a line to create a pause or a rhyme.

Example #2

Song of the Witches by William Shakespeare

“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf…”

This extract has taken from one of the famous plays of William Shakespeare,
Macbeth. The witches sing this song as they intend to curse Macbeth. Though
most of Shakespeare’s works are written in iambic pentameter, where he has
used a trochaic meter to give a strange feeling to the charm, he presents for
the witches in this play. This backward stress pattern of the trochaic meter is
highly effective to create the blank rhythm widely used in magic words.

In Memory of W.B. Yeats by W. H. Auden

Earth, receive an honoured guest;

William Yeats is laid to rest:
Let this Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.”

The poet has expressed his profound sadness over his friend’s death. He has
skillfully inserted trochaic trimeter in the poem to express his feelings. It is due
to the melancholy tone created by the downward emphasis of the trochee that
the poet has expressed his grief. However, the unstressed syllable at the end
of each line is dropped to create end rhyme in the poem. Also, the dropping of
a syllable has created a pause that completes the line in itself.

Example #4
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Sorrow by Edna St. Vincent Millay,

Sorrow like a ceaseless rain
Beats upon my heart.
People twist and scream in pain, —
Dawn will find them still again;
This has neither wax nor wane,
Neither stop nor start.”

The poem deals with the subject of sorrow. The poet has presented his
version of sorrow in contrastwith others. However, the poet has used trochaic
diameter, emphasizing the conspicuous downward beat of the poet’s
pensive mood. He has also used catalexis technique to make the rhyme
schemepossible. In other words, he has deliberately omitted the last
unstressed syllable of each line.

Example #5

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest,
With the dew and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions,
And their wild reverberations,
As of thunder in the mountains?”

The Song of Hiawatha is a famous epic of English literature and comprises

the brave and magical deeds of its hero performed in the pristine American
land. It is about his visits with members of the Ojibwe, Black Hawk and other
American tribes. However, this poem uses the trochee as a primary metrical
foot. Henry has also skillfully used trochaic tetrameter line after line.

Anapest
In poetry, a metrical pattern that has two unstressed syllables followed by a
stressed syllable is called an anapest.
An anapest is punctuated as follows: UU/
Examples of Anapest:
U U        /           U U /
In the blink of an eye
U U         /      U U          /      U U           /       U U /
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house.
U U      / U U      / U U      / U U       /
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
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U U         /      U U    /     U U     /              U U      /

O Rose thou art sick / the invisible worm / that flies in the night
U U          /      U U     /      U U         /
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.
U U          /           U U /                U U                   /
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking.

Examples of Dactyl in Literature

Example #1: The Destruction of Sennacherib (By Lord Byron)

“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown…

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast…

And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!”

Byron has written this poem in anapestic tetrameter pattern, which consists of
four anapests in each line. In this extract, anapests are marked in bold. The
entire poem has the same pattern, where the first two syllables are
unstressed, followed by a third stressed syllable.

Example #2: Verses Supposed to Be Written by Alexander Selkirk (By William

Cowper)

“I am monarch of all I survey,

My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
Oh, solitude! where are the charms…

Better dwell in the midst of alarms…

I am out of humanity’s reach,
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech…
They are so unacquaintted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me…”

This poem shows examples of anapests and iamb combinations. And at some

places, iambs are substituted by anapests. The poem is written in
anapestic trimeter in each line, which means there are three anapests in each
line.

Example #3: ‘Twas the Night before Christmas (By Clement Clarke Moore)

” ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care…
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While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads…

had just settled our brains for a long winter‘s nap…
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky…
with the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.”

This poem is a perfect example of anapest, which runs throughout the poem.
Most of the lines are following anapestic tetrameter. Like in the first line, there
are four anapests. However, three anapests are also used in other lines.

Example #4: The Cloud (By Percy Bysshe Shelley)

“May have broken the woof of my tent’s thin roof,

The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent…
Are each paved with the moon and these…
And the Moon’s with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl…
Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,
The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march…
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair…
While the moist Earth was laughing below.”

This poem is also a very good example of anapest. Each long line has three
anapests (anapestic trimeter) followed by shorter lines with two anapests
(anapestic dimeter). It is lending rhythm and regular beats to the poem.

Example #1: The Charge of the Light Brigade (By Alfred Lord Tennyson)

“Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death 
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!’ he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.”

In this poem, Tennyson has used dactylic meter perfectly. Notice this dactylic
pattern as one accented syllable, followed by two unaccented syllables.
Dactylic syllables give rhythm and pause while reading, thus laying emphasis
on certain words.

Example #2: Evangeline (By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

“THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight …

Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand–Pre …

Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant …

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Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of

the huntsman? …

Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? …

List to the mournful tradition, still sung by the pines of the forest … “

This is a very popular example of dactylic meter appearing in combination with

spondaic meter. Look at the words shown in bold, with a stress pattern of one
accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.

Example #3: The Lost Leader (By Robert Browning)

“Just for a handful of silver he left us,

Just for a riband to stick in his coat—
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed:
How all our copper had gone for his service!”

Browning has used dactylic meter to create a great rhythmic effect. Most of
the lines of the above verses contain four dactyls.

Example #4: (Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking (By Walt Whitman)

“Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking
Out of the mockingbird’s throat, the musical shuttle
Out of the Ninth-month midnight …”

Whitman is using dactyl in the phrase, “Out of the …” as a pulse riding

throughout this poem, which is generating a starting point for each new line.

Example #5: Higgledy Piggledy (By Ian Lancashire)

“Higgledy piggledy,
Bacon, lord Chancellor.
Negligent, fell for the
 Paltrier vice.

Bribery toppled him,
Bronchopneumonia
Finished him, testing some
Poultry on ice.”

This is a perfect example of a double dactyl poem. It is constructed of two

quatrains, each consisting of dactylic dimeter lines. Here, the first line is a
nonsense phrase, and the second one is a proper name, while the sixth line is
a single double-dactylic word. Double dactyl creates rhythm and humor in this
poem.