Octameter

Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet. It is not very common in English verse. E.g.: -

Trochaic


 * 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")

Iambic


 * I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
 * I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
 * I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
 * From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
 * I'm very well-acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
 * I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
 * About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
 * With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
 * (W.S. Gilbert, "The Pirates of Penzance")

Anapestic (acephalous)


 * 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")

Dactyllic

There is, however, the occasional song, among them Marty Robbins's Grammy-winning (1961) "El Paso."


 * Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
 * I fell in love with a Mexican girl
 * Nighttime would find me in Rosa's Cantina
 * Music would play and Feleena would whirl
 * Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys
 * Off to my left ride a dozen or more
 * Shouting and shooting; I can't let them catch me
 * I have to make it to Rosa's back door ....
 * I have to make it to Rosa's back door ....