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

[Skip Fox]

Stressing is different with different readers, though basically the same. If
we were reading 

 

"An aged man is but a paltry thing "

 

with "aged" being 2 syllables, a dramatic interpretation might stress "is"
in a performance, but a normal reading would not. I'm with you. The "is" is
softer than "man" or "but" even after a long caesura? (If "aged" is a single
syllable, then u / / u / u / u /.)

 

"My life a long dead calm of fixed repose"

 

I have it exactly as you do, though they say it's hard to string three
stresses together ( as in "Petals on a black, wet bough").

 

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

 

A variant on "eight."  It's a tad more dramatic to stress it, but still
within the bounds of the normal reading voice.

 

Once upon a time we knew that the trees have different voices.

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Grumman
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:42 PM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Re: a dead ear for scansion

 



Rsgwynn1 at cs.com wrote: 

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?

I think you can scan them two ways, one as all iambs if you want aesthetic
distancing, and one as Sam has them, if you want to return toward prose.  I
suggest calling the first, "the base meter," the second, "the counter
meter."  The context establishes the first, the mood counters the second to
it.

--Bob G.

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