Thanks for this Keir. This question of pauses is a hard one. You've treated it here as as downstream of a perfectly metrical line--the pauses simply are where a missing beat might go. That pays off surprisingly well, especially with the Shakespeare. But it leads you to a few dubious readings, like putting a pause between two strong beats when clearly those strong beats are meant to go together (long stayed), and draw their strength from being uneasily adjacent. Also I'm not sure a headless beat really should be considered starting with a pause. That said, just the treatment of pauses is excellent and--for me--sorely needed. Ima go and try out all the permutations--strong pause strong, weak pause strong, weak pause weak, etc.
I actually don't necessarily hear a pause in the middle of "long stayed"; I do hear "long" as drawn out. Which makes sense!
This is where accentual-syllabic meets accentual: in removing a syllable from where we would expect to find one, he allowed the temporality of accentual meter to fill in the gap.
"Also I'm not sure a headless beat really should be considered starting with a pause." I agree there's no need to go out of your way to pause before a headless line. Where a headless line succeeds an untailed line, the pause is automatic, as is the case with the second "Stay" in John Donne's poem.
This is what I hear as well. It’s interesting when two beats are put together, they have to work out their problems, in this case, one goes long, the other one goes loud. Lonnng-STAYED.
So long as "Long" is drawn out to enable "stayed" to land as an accentual beat, I'm not sure there is one right way to deliver those two syllables. And another factor in syllabic emphasis is the sliding of syllables (something I discussed in note 12 of my last post - my longest note!)
I've edited my previous comment, as I forgot to respond to your own comment about headless lines.
Thank you for your considered comments and engagement, Matt!
This is great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Certainly, nothing you've written jumps out to me as wrong, but while I know my way around meter and historical language more than the average man in the street, I'm not an expert. And since I'm not an expert, I can only evaluate detailed analyses so well.
All that to explain why I'm asking the following question: do you have some kind of background in this stuff? "Background" referring to professional, academic, or traditional training.
The short answer to your question is no, which I don't see as a drawback (there is no academic course which would have taught me what I know of prosody).
I am just someone who happens to have a good ear, a technical mind, and the ADHD hyperfocus to have read and researched obsessively! But thank you for the question!
Keir, you have done it again. All of these variations are so enlightening when it comes to all the possibilities one might take advantage of when composing poetry. Strangely enough, moreover, I’ve been planning to post my own breakdown and exploration of catalexis and syllable ranges of a given meter this coming Monday—so it seems things are aligning somehow, haha.
When you addressed the exchange of stresses within a meter (such as, “the NIGHT SPOKE into DAWN with RAIN”), I immediately of many of Dickinson’s poems with common measure.
“‘HOPE’ is the THING with FEAthers -
That PERCHes IN the SOUL -
And SINGS the TUNE withoOUT the WORDS -
And NEver STOPS - at ALL -“
You know, wherein the first foot of the tetrameter inverts its stress pattern. It also includes catalexis by cutting off the ending stress! A great example of what you exhibited, in my opinion.
Yes, in its own way, this very much ties in with the material I've covered in this post. As I spelled out in my last post (in this segment: https://poemshape.substack.com/i/181161891/the-golden-line), four beats fills out a rhythmic bar, so whereas an untailed trimeter is one foot short of filling out that bar, a tailed trimeter is only missing that final beat.
Technically, that opening stanza is in short meter: the third line is tetrameter, the rest are trimeters (called "short meter" because it differs from common meter by shortening the opening line). But that tail absolutely makes a difference! “Hope” reaches *towards* the rhythmic completion of a 4th beat - and then "perches in the soul"! That's quite a charming effect!
And after that? *All* the odd numbered lines fill out the full rhythmic bar of four: having settled in, hope "never stops at all"! (Her rhyme patterning through the progression of three stanzas is also something to pay attention to).
But every odd numbered line is tailed, which, as they're already a full bar of four, is excess to rhythmic requirements. And the turbulence of that overflow is perfect for this poem!
I will absolutely write a post on 'iambic versus trochaic' at some point. But to answer your question, Brooklyn, here's a copy and paste of a comment I made some while ago!
"I think of 'trochaic meter' as 'headless iambic'.
Firstly, because I hear every non-displaced beat (in any meter) as a percussive conclusion, and as the reset from which variation has the potential to spring.
Secondly, many 'trochaic' poems have a few 'iambic' lines (take Blake's The Tyger, for instance, starting with the final line of the first stanza). It seems awkward to me to *only* mark those lines with 'iambic feet', and the rest with 'trochaic feet'. If we're going to mark foot divisions, I just find it more sensible to mark the foot divisions after the undisplaced beats, consistently on every line.
Thirdly, a 'trochaic foot' within an 'iambic' poem is something fundamentally different to a 'trochaic foot' within a 'trochaic' poem. Within 'iambic meter', a 'trochee' is a beat displacement: a beat has been pulled back. Within 'trochaic meter', a 'trochaic foot' is not a beat displacement: it's a default. So this is fundamentally contradictory use of the term. If we instead describe 'trochaic meter' as 'headless iambic', we fully resolve that inconsistency."
Something to add: I hear almost *everyone*, even academics who specialise in the study of meter, refer to 'iambic meter' as a 'rising' meter, and 'trochaic meter' as a 'falling' meter. This is a *fundamental* confusion!
Metrical templates do not rise or fall; only words and phrases rise and fall. And a metrical template only has any influence on where a rising or falling word or phrase can *fit* at the very beginning and end of the line.
*Unless*, that is, it has a mid-line variation, such as those I've explored in this very post - in which case it *also* has an influence on either side of that mid-line, which I illustrated!
Oh! I get what you mean, and you’ve got a great point. But can’t the same be said from a, let’s call it, “pro-trochaic” perspective?
And this works only IF we consider meter to be solely about stresses within a line. Double-stressed pairings (what you mentioned as the “drag”) also have their own nomenclature: dibrach and spondee; and groupings of one after the other (“into LATE NIGHTS”, for example) also fall into their own tetrasyllabic meter—namely minor and major ionic. The same with trisyllabic meters. Any of them can still lose or gain a syllable within a specific line while still retaining an overall metrical identity.
I’ve always viewed it reasonable to catalogue a poem’s meter based on the predominant arrangement of metrical feet, though anyone could come up with a pattern ludicrous enough to mess with this praxis or yours. That’s the magic of formal poetry innovation as a matter of spiteful reluctance to comply.
But in response to your first question, no, it doesn't work from a pro-trochaic perspective: to attempt to scan (non-headless) iambic meter as trochaic with an added opening offbeat will end up as a hopeless muddle! This is primarily due to my first point: every undisplaced beat is a percussive conclusion, and the reset from which variation has the potential to spring.
On the other side, for the reasons I gave, scanning 'trochaic' meter as 'headless iambic' only brings greater consistency.
I'm heading to bed right now, but I'll be very happy to discuss this futher if we can break it down to simple, specific questions!
Haha, I love it! I can’t wait for the second part of this conversation, and I’d love to also see your theory in action with more poetry of your authorship!
Thank you so much for writing this compelling explanation — I’ve been pondering some of Shakespeare’s 11 syllable lines that seem to end with a stress; your piece helps me make sense of those lines
Hi Jason - I’m guessing you’re talking about lines with epic caesuras (where the extra offbeat comes mid-line, rather than end-line). As I said, by far the most common unorthodox variation in his plays, so, yes, they’re bound to throw you if you’re not even aware of this metrical option! And for Shakespeare they were expressively super useful, so I’m glad I shared something to heighten your enjoyment and appreciation!
Thanks for this Keir. This question of pauses is a hard one. You've treated it here as as downstream of a perfectly metrical line--the pauses simply are where a missing beat might go. That pays off surprisingly well, especially with the Shakespeare. But it leads you to a few dubious readings, like putting a pause between two strong beats when clearly those strong beats are meant to go together (long stayed), and draw their strength from being uneasily adjacent. Also I'm not sure a headless beat really should be considered starting with a pause. That said, just the treatment of pauses is excellent and--for me--sorely needed. Ima go and try out all the permutations--strong pause strong, weak pause strong, weak pause weak, etc.
I actually don't necessarily hear a pause in the middle of "long stayed"; I do hear "long" as drawn out. Which makes sense!
This is where accentual-syllabic meets accentual: in removing a syllable from where we would expect to find one, he allowed the temporality of accentual meter to fill in the gap.
"Also I'm not sure a headless beat really should be considered starting with a pause." I agree there's no need to go out of your way to pause before a headless line. Where a headless line succeeds an untailed line, the pause is automatic, as is the case with the second "Stay" in John Donne's poem.
This is what I hear as well. It’s interesting when two beats are put together, they have to work out their problems, in this case, one goes long, the other one goes loud. Lonnng-STAYED.
So long as "Long" is drawn out to enable "stayed" to land as an accentual beat, I'm not sure there is one right way to deliver those two syllables. And another factor in syllabic emphasis is the sliding of syllables (something I discussed in note 12 of my last post - my longest note!)
I've edited my previous comment, as I forgot to respond to your own comment about headless lines.
Thank you for your considered comments and engagement, Matt!
This is great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Certainly, nothing you've written jumps out to me as wrong, but while I know my way around meter and historical language more than the average man in the street, I'm not an expert. And since I'm not an expert, I can only evaluate detailed analyses so well.
All that to explain why I'm asking the following question: do you have some kind of background in this stuff? "Background" referring to professional, academic, or traditional training.
You're welcome, Narcisse.
The short answer to your question is no, which I don't see as a drawback (there is no academic course which would have taught me what I know of prosody).
I am just someone who happens to have a good ear, a technical mind, and the ADHD hyperfocus to have read and researched obsessively! But thank you for the question!
Perhaps someday there will be an academic course that teaches just that, and you'll be the teacher.
Perhaps!
Keir, you have done it again. All of these variations are so enlightening when it comes to all the possibilities one might take advantage of when composing poetry. Strangely enough, moreover, I’ve been planning to post my own breakdown and exploration of catalexis and syllable ranges of a given meter this coming Monday—so it seems things are aligning somehow, haha.
When you addressed the exchange of stresses within a meter (such as, “the NIGHT SPOKE into DAWN with RAIN”), I immediately of many of Dickinson’s poems with common measure.
“‘HOPE’ is the THING with FEAthers -
That PERCHes IN the SOUL -
And SINGS the TUNE withoOUT the WORDS -
And NEver STOPS - at ALL -“
You know, wherein the first foot of the tetrameter inverts its stress pattern. It also includes catalexis by cutting off the ending stress! A great example of what you exhibited, in my opinion.
Yes, in its own way, this very much ties in with the material I've covered in this post. As I spelled out in my last post (in this segment: https://poemshape.substack.com/i/181161891/the-golden-line), four beats fills out a rhythmic bar, so whereas an untailed trimeter is one foot short of filling out that bar, a tailed trimeter is only missing that final beat.
Technically, that opening stanza is in short meter: the third line is tetrameter, the rest are trimeters (called "short meter" because it differs from common meter by shortening the opening line). But that tail absolutely makes a difference! “Hope” reaches *towards* the rhythmic completion of a 4th beat - and then "perches in the soul"! That's quite a charming effect!
And after that? *All* the odd numbered lines fill out the full rhythmic bar of four: having settled in, hope "never stops at all"! (Her rhyme patterning through the progression of three stanzas is also something to pay attention to).
Really interesting to compare "On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble" by A. E. Housman: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44413/a-shropshire-lad-31-on-wenlock-edge-the-woods-in-trouble. This is long meter: four tetramaters. And an absolutely consistent alternating rhyme scheme.
But every odd numbered line is tailed, which, as they're already a full bar of four, is excess to rhythmic requirements. And the turbulence of that overflow is perfect for this poem!
Thank you for the explanation of the composition! It lines up with what I’ve read.
I wonder, though, since your exploration of meter was almost wholly centered around iambs: will you do something on different metrical feet?
You know, since an acephalous/headless iambic can equal a catalectic/tail-less trochaic. Or do you consider iambs the baseline?
Thank you for your time all the same! 🙏🏻
I will absolutely write a post on 'iambic versus trochaic' at some point. But to answer your question, Brooklyn, here's a copy and paste of a comment I made some while ago!
"I think of 'trochaic meter' as 'headless iambic'.
Firstly, because I hear every non-displaced beat (in any meter) as a percussive conclusion, and as the reset from which variation has the potential to spring.
Secondly, many 'trochaic' poems have a few 'iambic' lines (take Blake's The Tyger, for instance, starting with the final line of the first stanza). It seems awkward to me to *only* mark those lines with 'iambic feet', and the rest with 'trochaic feet'. If we're going to mark foot divisions, I just find it more sensible to mark the foot divisions after the undisplaced beats, consistently on every line.
Thirdly, a 'trochaic foot' within an 'iambic' poem is something fundamentally different to a 'trochaic foot' within a 'trochaic' poem. Within 'iambic meter', a 'trochee' is a beat displacement: a beat has been pulled back. Within 'trochaic meter', a 'trochaic foot' is not a beat displacement: it's a default. So this is fundamentally contradictory use of the term. If we instead describe 'trochaic meter' as 'headless iambic', we fully resolve that inconsistency."
Something to add: I hear almost *everyone*, even academics who specialise in the study of meter, refer to 'iambic meter' as a 'rising' meter, and 'trochaic meter' as a 'falling' meter. This is a *fundamental* confusion!
Metrical templates do not rise or fall; only words and phrases rise and fall. And a metrical template only has any influence on where a rising or falling word or phrase can *fit* at the very beginning and end of the line.
*Unless*, that is, it has a mid-line variation, such as those I've explored in this very post - in which case it *also* has an influence on either side of that mid-line, which I illustrated!
Oh! I get what you mean, and you’ve got a great point. But can’t the same be said from a, let’s call it, “pro-trochaic” perspective?
And this works only IF we consider meter to be solely about stresses within a line. Double-stressed pairings (what you mentioned as the “drag”) also have their own nomenclature: dibrach and spondee; and groupings of one after the other (“into LATE NIGHTS”, for example) also fall into their own tetrasyllabic meter—namely minor and major ionic. The same with trisyllabic meters. Any of them can still lose or gain a syllable within a specific line while still retaining an overall metrical identity.
I’ve always viewed it reasonable to catalogue a poem’s meter based on the predominant arrangement of metrical feet, though anyone could come up with a pattern ludicrous enough to mess with this praxis or yours. That’s the magic of formal poetry innovation as a matter of spiteful reluctance to comply.
That's a lot to parse in one go!
But in response to your first question, no, it doesn't work from a pro-trochaic perspective: to attempt to scan (non-headless) iambic meter as trochaic with an added opening offbeat will end up as a hopeless muddle! This is primarily due to my first point: every undisplaced beat is a percussive conclusion, and the reset from which variation has the potential to spring.
On the other side, for the reasons I gave, scanning 'trochaic' meter as 'headless iambic' only brings greater consistency.
I'm heading to bed right now, but I'll be very happy to discuss this futher if we can break it down to simple, specific questions!
Haha, I love it! I can’t wait for the second part of this conversation, and I’d love to also see your theory in action with more poetry of your authorship!
Where would you like to resume this conversation, Brooklyn?
Thank you so much for writing this compelling explanation — I’ve been pondering some of Shakespeare’s 11 syllable lines that seem to end with a stress; your piece helps me make sense of those lines
Hi Jason - I’m guessing you’re talking about lines with epic caesuras (where the extra offbeat comes mid-line, rather than end-line). As I said, by far the most common unorthodox variation in his plays, so, yes, they’re bound to throw you if you’re not even aware of this metrical option! And for Shakespeare they were expressively super useful, so I’m glad I shared something to heighten your enjoyment and appreciation!