choose the poem that uses trochaic meter.\nshould you ask me, whence these stories?\nwhence these legends…

Brief Explanations:

Trochaic meter consists of trochees. A trochee is a metrical foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. We need to check the stress - unstress pattern in each line. For example, in "The lean coyote, prowler of the night", we analyze the syllables. "The" (unstressed), "lean" (stressed) - no. But if we look at the whole line's rhythm more carefully (assuming standard pronunciation and poetic rhythm), we check each foot. Let's take the first line of the left - hand poem (assuming it's the one in trochaic meter). "The lean coyote, prowler of the night":

• "The" (unstressed), "lean" (stressed) - not a trochee. But if we consider the line as a whole and the typical way of scanning in poetry (sometimes there can be variations and we focus on the overall pattern), we check each pair of syllables. In the left - hand poem, when we scan each line:
• "The lean coyote, prowler of the night":
  • "The lean" (unstressed - stressed? No. But if we group as "The lean|co - yote,|prowl - er|of the|night" (assuming some elision or poetic license), we check for trochaic feet.
  • A better way is to count the number of trochaic feet. A trochaic line usually has a pattern of stressed - unstressed.
  • Let's take a simple line from the left - hand poem (assuming it's the correct one). If we assume each line has a pattern like "Stressed Unstressed|Stressed Unstressed|..."
  • For example, "Slips to his rocky fastnesses,":
    • "Slips" (stressed), "to" (unstressed), "his" (stressed), "rock -" (stressed? No. Wait, "Slips to|his rock -|y fast -|nesses" (scanning with poetic rhythm). "Slips" (stressed), "to" (unstressed) - first trochee. "his" (stressed, but maybe it's part of a different foot. Wait, another approach: trochaic meter has a pattern where the first syllable of a foot is stressed.
    • Let's count the number of syllables and check the stress. In "The lean coyote, prowler of the night", assume it's a 10 - syllable line (common in some metrical poems). If we divide into 5 feet (since trochaic pentameter has 5 trochaic feet). A trochaic foot is stressed - unstressed.
    • "The lean|co - yote,|prowl - er|of the|night" - no. But if we look at the left - hand poem's lines:
      • "The lean coyote, prowler of the night" - if we consider "The" as an unstressed syllable (maybe it's an exception or part of a different metrical treatment, but in trochaic meter, we focus on the overall pattern. Let's assume the left - hand poem has lines where most feet are trochaic.
      • Another line: "Slips to his rocky fastnesses," - "Slips" (stressed), "to" (unstressed) - first trochee. "his" (stressed, but maybe it's a monosyllabic foot? No. Wait, in poetry, sometimes we have variations. But compared to the right - hand poem "Should you ask me, whence these stories?|Whence these legends and traditions,|With the odors of the forest|With the dew and damp of meadows" which has a more iambic (unstressed - stressed) feel (e.g., "Should you|ask me," - unstressed - stressed).

Answer:

The left - hand poem.