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Sun 3 Dec, 2006 07:37 pm
I'm struggling to determine the meter for the following poem: I have 12 syllables per line but it seems very unique. Any and all help appreciated.
Around me roared the nearly deafening street.
Tall, slim, in mourning, in majestic grief,
A woman passed me, with a splendid hand
Lifting and swinging her festoon and hem;
...
Will we not meet again this side of death?
Far from this place! too late! never perhaps!
Neither one knowing where the other goes,
O you I might have loved, as well you know!
every second line is not iambic though
I get iambic pentameter (the most common meter in English poetry)
as predominant here. It's not unusual for a poet to vary the meter here
and there to avoid a sing-song quality.
Basically iambic pentametre also...with flexible stress patterns in some lines, as is common.
dlowan wrote:Basically iambic pentametre also...with flexible stress patterns in some lines, as is common.
I like the idea of flexible stress.
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