[New-Poetry] Re: a dead ear for scansion

[Skip Fox]

But in a normal (non dramatic) reading, we don't stress "is" as much as
"man" or "but." Maybe an actor might stage "is" loud as part of his
interpretation, but no normal reading (even with a length caesura) would
stress it as much.

 

The world is too much with us late and soon.

 

 

The only one would stress "much" would unstress the previous tow syllable
and he's probably an old hippie . ;)

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Rsgwynn1 at cs.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:30 AM
To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Re: a dead ear for scansion

 

In a message dated 7/23/2008 11:11:46 AM Central Daylight Time,
chris.lott at gmail.com writes: 



an aged man is but a paltry thing,
a tattered coat upon a stick, unless




I'd scan both of these as more or less regular I5.





and






  u    /   u   /      /       /     u   /     u   /



Thy life a long dead calm of fixed repose;



One spondee for an iamb.

  u       /        u     /        /         /        /        /    u   /



and strains from hard-bound brains, eight lines a year





Two spondees in a row.  Pope also illustrates the slow-down effect in:

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw




How do you (or anyone else) scan them?


You could always attend the West Chester Poetry Conference, Chris!

Sam

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