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

[David Graham]

On Jul 23, 2008, at 4:13 PM, Rsgwynn1 at cs.com wrote:
> One thing that prosody/scansion never touches is the difference  
> between long and short vowel sounds in English, the different  
> "pitch" that syllables can have in speaking, the difference in pace  
> between monosyllables and polysyllables in a line of verse.  Accent  
> may be the primary component of rhythm and meter, but it surely  
> isn't the only one.  Unfortunately we really don't have any good  
> way to "scan" these other variables.
--------------------

I remember Pinsky's book as being good on the pitch of vowels--not  
scanning them, but explaining how they affect rhythm and tone.  With  
examples.  Nims's *Western Wind* also takes proper account of the  
variables beyond pure stress.


========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
==========================================




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20080723/b65394bd/attachment.html