Read this excerpt from the iliad. with tame content, and thou possess’d of thine? great as thou art, and like a god in fight, think not to rob me of a soldier’s right. at thy demand shall i restore the maid? how many feet are in each line?

There are ten syllables per line, but only every second syllable is accented (a "foot").  This makes five poetic "feet" per line.

As the boys sleep, military airplanes battle fiercely above the island. none of the boys sees the explosions and flashes in the clouds because the twins sam and eric, who were supposed to watch the signal fire, have fallen asleep. during the battle, a parachutist drifts down from the sky onto the island, dead.