The most obvious alternative to iambic pentameter in English is the tetrameter line. But this can become very facile and simplistic and dogtrot, and so only too easily degenerate into doggerel. Trochaic tetrameter can be just the right thing when you want to table-thumpingly dogmatic. But iambic pentameter offers the most easy way out of the dangers of doggerel. For some reason the French seem to favour the alexandrine.
The most obvious alternative to iambic pentameter in English is the tetrameter line. But this can become very facile and simplistic and dogtrot, and so only too easily degenerate into doggerel. Trochaic tetrameter can be just the right thing when you want to table-thumpingly dogmatic. But iambic pentameter offers the most easy way out of the dangers of doggerel. For some reason the French seem to favour the alexandrine.