Catalectic
is lacking the final syllable or syllables expected in the regular pattern of a
metrical verse line. The term is most often used of the common English trochaic
line in which the optional final unstressed syllable is not used. Of these lines from Shelley's To
a Skylark', the second and fourth are catalectic:
In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run