Concerning meter

[Sperk]

I've dug through threads on meter, I've read chapter 12 in Sound and Sense, but I still have a burning question:

Often, I will see critiques on this site that say something to the effect of "your line begins with a headless trochee."

Take, for example, the line...

My April opens rested eyes

I'm not sure if I should read this to be

iamb/iamb/iamb/iamb

or

headless trochee/trochee/trochee/trochee/tailless trochee

Generally, I will read a line like the one above the first way (full of iambs) but often I am surprised to see a critter break it down the second way. I usually will break the line into whatever comes first. For example if it starts with a unstressed/stressed, i will break it into iambs. Does anyone have any pointers that could help my ear?

Thanks,
Scott

[Clive2]

Scott - anyone who breaks the line up the second way is, in my opinion, seriously misguided. Of course it's four iambs. Some people have an unfortunate tendency to want to see rare or unusual feet where there are none.

I don't do foot scansion any more. These days, I listen for beats and forget about naming the feet.

[Sperk]

Right on--I completely agree with you. Maybe its possible that the crits I've seen this in were below standard. There's so much to learn...

Thanks for your reply Clive. Anybody else want to weigh in?

Scott

[TB]

I'm with Clive. That's a definite diDUM /diDUM /diDUM /diDUM and I think trying to make it into di /DUMdi /DUMdi /DUMdi /DUM is just plain silly.

However I'm the kiss of death to scanning so you'll probably get someone far more experienced than me weighing in saying that I'm quite wrong.

[Howard Miller]

There's a current discussion about this issue on page 2 of this Scansion Mansion thread (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11749).

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

Hello Sperk,

Here's my take on this:

My April opens rested eyes

I'm not sure if I should read this to be

iamb/iamb/iamb/iamb

or

headless trochee/trochee/trochee/trochee/tailless trochee

I agree with the first scansion, and I think I know why some people erroneously (IMHO) scan it the other way.

This has to do with the fact that the three words in the middle ("April", "opens", and "rested") are themselves trochaic. Some people may be reluctant to split such words between feet, even when it is natural to do so.

The main problem I have with the trochaic scansion is that it indicates that there are five feet, even though there are four stresses. This is a nonsensical interpretation (if this is to be interpreted as "accentual" meter at all), when a normative iambic scansion exists that has four feet for four stresses, without having to resort to metrical gymnastics.

(I suppose this is the principle of Occam's Meter.)

BrianIsSmilingAtYou

[Sperk]

Great. Thank you everyone for all your help.

Howard- Actually, the thread you referred me to is one of the ones that spurred me to ask this question. I just hadn't read the updated thread in some time and didn't see the full-blown conversation that had taken place. Thanks for bringing me up to speed.

TB- Thanks for weighing in. Let's see now, that's two votes for "are you outta your mind?"

Brian- Deep inside, I was hoping you would reply to this. You commented on something I wrote many months back with an outstanding degree of knowledge on meter. Thanks for your take on my problem.

Overall, I've decided that whether its the first way or the second, the stresses still fall on the exact same beats--so I'm content with either. It is justs some people's desire to dig too deeply that confused me. Thanks again everyone.

[Howard Miller]

"Overall, I've decided that whether its the first way or the second, the stresses still fall on the exact same beats--so I'm content with either. "

Hearing where the stresses fall is the important part and is what ultimately matters. The rest is just a question of nomenclature; that's always a debatable subject, and one to which there are often differing but equally-valid answers.


Howard