Metirical Feet - by Coleridge, my secret to decoding postings about meter ;)

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Elyse
Member

since 2000-04-16

Posts 414
Apex (think raleigh) NC

0 posted 2000-06-13 05:46 PM

Trochee trips from long to short;
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot! yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long -
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng;
One syllable long, with one short at each side,
Amphibrachys hastes with a stately stride -
First and last being long, middle short, Amphimacer
Strikes his thundering hoofs like a proud high-bred Racer.
If Derwent be innocent, steady, and wise,
And delight in the things of earth, water, and skies;
Tender warmth at his heart, with these meters to show it,
With sound sense in his brains, may make Derwent a poet -
May crown him with fame, and must win him the love
Of his father on eath and his Father above.
My dear, dear child!
Could you stand upon Skiddaw, you would not from its whole ridge
See a man who so loves you as your fond S. T. COLERIDGE

Elyse
Member

since 2000-04-16

Posts 414
Apex (think raleigh) NC

1 posted 2000-06-13 05:54 PM

i hope its ok for me to post something i didnt write, and i hope this helps some of you figure out meter and learn some new words, like it did for me

luv Elyse

Poertree
Senior Member

since 1999-11-05

Posts 1359
UK

2 posted 2000-06-13 06:18 PM

anything with the words Skiddaw and Derwent in it is fine by me .......thanks for the memories ........LOL

Philip

Romy
Senior Member

since 2000-05-28

Posts 1170
Plantation, Florida

3 posted 2000-06-13 07:13 PM

Hi Elyse,

The new words were great but I don't know if I'll ever understand meter. (sigh)
It always seems so confusing!
I think I tend to write the same way I play the piano- by ear!

Debbie

gothicmoth
Member

since 2000-06-05

Posts 89

4 posted 2000-06-13 08:48 PM

Coleridge is one of the best. Thanks for the fun lesson.

Forrest Cain
Member

since 2000-04-21

Posts 306
Chas.,W.V. USA

5 posted 2000-06-13 09:00 PM

Elyse I`m always glad to see what your up to. I think I`ve figured you out. Your not from this planet. yes I mean you must be an alien. But such a lovley planet I bet. Like
you other admirers I dearly love new poetic
words. Thanks for enlightening us. Have you ever read Steven Crane`s war is kind.
example
I saw a man
naked bestial
he set in the desert
and in his hand he held his heart
and ate of it
I said is it good my friend
"no no", he said, it`s bitter
but it`s my heart and I like it.

Your friend and fan forrest

jenni
Member

since 1999-09-11

Posts 478
Washington D.C.

6 posted 2000-06-14 12:49 PM

leave it to coleridge to make this stuff even more confusing, lol.

i've always found it more helpful to think of metrical feet not in terms of "long" and "short" syllables, but in terms of stressed and unstressed syllables.

iambic:  unstressed followed by stressed, as in "re-PLY"

trochaic:  stressed, followed by unstressed, as in "PASS-word"

anapestic:  2 unstressed followed by stressed, as in "in-ter-CEDE"

dactylic:  stressed, followed by 2 unstressed, as in "AN-gel-a"

spondaic:  2 successive stresses, as in "HEART-BREAK"

coleridge gets the long/short classifications from greek and latin, where all these terms come from in the first place; they were supposedly based on the time taken to pronounce different syllables in those languages, and i just don't think that's very useful in the english language.  on the other hand, of course, i certainly ain't no coleridge, lol.

and of course the other thing about meter is how often the basic unit or "foot", iambic, trochaic, whatever, is repeated in a line and from line to line.  philip's poem "angela" is in dactylic tetrameter, with a dactylic foot (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables) being repeated four times in each line.  pete's sonnet, "the poet speaks", is iambic pentameter of course, with an iambic foot (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) being repeated five times in each line.  the rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables in each foot, and the repetition of those feet, give the poem its meter.  at least that's how i always thought of it.

thanks for putting this up here elyse!  i remember sitting in english class one day when my teacher was talking about this stuff and going, "huh?"  wish i had known about coleridge's poem then, it might have saved me a lot of headaches, lol.

jenni

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