Of THAT For-BI-dden TREE, whose MOR-tal TASTEīrought DEATH in-TO the WORLD, and ALL our WOE. Of MAN’S First DI-so-BE-dience, AND the FRUIT Give ME ex-CESS of IT, that, SURF-ei-TING Here are some famous iambic pentameter examples: Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare) Whereas iambs are emphasized on the second beat, trochees are emphasized on the first. Trochee: “DOUB-le, DOUB-le, TOIL and TROUB-le”

The opposite of an iamb is a trochee - iambs are defined by an unstressed syllable leading directly into a stressed syllable, trochees are defined by a stressed syllable leading into an unstressed syllable. We’ve gone over how iambs are used by writers, but perhaps it might be useful to consider their opposites.