[New-Poetry] Questions on form

[Bob Grumman]

Chris Lott wrote:
> On Jan 1, 2008 7:28 PM, Jason Quackenbush <jfq at myuw.net> wrote:
>   
>> I count "William," "different" as a three syllable words and "beautiful"
>> and "Everyone" as four syllable words. so there are four lines in this
>> that have eight syllables. which is what i mean by "shoehorning" which
>> is what you have to do if you want to say that every line here is in
>> regular 7 syllable units. and you have to do that if you want to use
>> traditional bivalent scansion toaccount for what feels like the
>> regularity in this.
>>     
>
> That's 4 for 4 in syllable counts being different from mine.. William
> and different are 2 syllable words in my mouth, beautiful and everyone
> are 3... I'll have to start listening more closely, but I can't think
> of anyone I know who adds the extra syllable in there when speaking.
> Or I just don't hear them :)
>
>
>   
My pronunciation is the same as yours, Chris.  Aside from that, it seems 
to me the whole idea of meter IS the "shoehorn" syllables--make the 
engagent hear the meter, not the "real" pronunciations.  It regularizes 
a part of the poem which lets the images or ideas or diction of the poem 
go irregular, and it also heightens the language by making it slightly 
strange.

--Bob
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