Tsotha
donnyQ
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2013
- Posts
- 1,462
Can someone please help me with this? I'm trying to understand metre, but I keep checking poems and they come up "wrong". Either I am messing up the stress markup or I don't understand how metre works.
An example. The following is a Triolet, so it's supposed to follow iambic tetrameter (four unstressed-stressed feet):
"Birds At Winter", by Thomas Hardy
A Around the house the flakes fly faster, (9 syllables)
B And all the berries now are gone' (ok)
a From holly and cotoneaster (9 syllables, not iambic)
A Around the house. The flakes fly! – faster (9 syllables)
a Shutting indoors the crumb-outcaster (9 syllables, not iambic)
b We used to see upon the lawn (ok)
A Around the house. The Flakes fly faster (9 syllables)
B And all the berries now are gone! (ok)
I've marked in bold what I think are the stressed syllables. Am I doing it wrong? If not, is this a case where the poet simply decided not to stick with the pattern throughout the piece?
An example. The following is a Triolet, so it's supposed to follow iambic tetrameter (four unstressed-stressed feet):
"Birds At Winter", by Thomas Hardy
A Around the house the flakes fly faster, (9 syllables)
B And all the berries now are gone' (ok)
a From holly and cotoneaster (9 syllables, not iambic)
A Around the house. The flakes fly! – faster (9 syllables)
a Shutting indoors the crumb-outcaster (9 syllables, not iambic)
b We used to see upon the lawn (ok)
A Around the house. The Flakes fly faster (9 syllables)
B And all the berries now are gone! (ok)
I've marked in bold what I think are the stressed syllables. Am I doing it wrong? If not, is this a case where the poet simply decided not to stick with the pattern throughout the piece?