Question

What is the dominant meter of the following lines from John Milton's "Paradise Lost"?

"Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

Brought death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man"


dactylic
iambic
trochaic
anapestic

Answer 1

Can you try marking the unstressed/stressed syllables?

I'll help you start: Of that ---> "of" is unstressed, "that" is stressed

Answer 2

It seems like the "meter" of the verse consists of one unstressed (un-emphasized) syllable followed by one stressed syllable; more specifically, each line contains 10 syllables, with the odd syllables unstressed and the even syllables stressed, i.e.
Of that for bid den tree whose mor tal taste...
U S U S U S U S U S
[U=unstressed; S=stressed]
So, you simply have to choose which of the patterns in the options fits the one described:
Dactylic = one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables; i.e. S,U,U...
Iambic = one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable: i.e. U,S...
Trochaic = one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable: i.e. S,U...
Anapestic = two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllalbe: i.e. U,U,S...