The Ode Less Travelled Part 4

Here are a few examples of hendecasyllabic iambic pentameter, quoting some of the same poets and poems we quoted before. They all go:

OUT WITH YOUR PENCIL AND MARK THEM UP: don't forget to don't forget to SAY THEM OUT LOUD SAY THEM OUT LOUD to yourself to become familiar with the to yourself to become familiar with the effect effect of the weak ending. of the weak ending.

So priketh hem nature in hir corages;Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages13CHAUCER: The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales, General PrologueA woman's face with Nature's own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my pa.s.sion; Hast thou, the master-mistress of my pa.s.sion;SHAKESPEARE: Sonnet 20 Sonnet 20That thou shall see the diff'rence of our spirits,I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:SHAKESPEARE: The Merchant of Venice The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1How heinous had the fact been, how deservingContempt, and scorn of all to be excludedMILTON,14Samson AgonistesOur Brethren, are from Thames Thames to to Tweed Tweed departed, departed,And of our Sisters, all the kinder hearted,To Edenborough Edenborough gone, or Coacht, or Carted. gone, or Coacht, or Carted.DRYDEN: 'Prologue to the University of Oxford' 'Prologue to the University of Oxford'What can enable sots, or slaves or cowards?Alas! not all the blood of all the HOWARDS.POPE:15 Essay on Man Essay on ManIt gives to think that our immortal being...WORDSWORTH:16The PreludeA thing of beauty is a joy for everIts loveliness increases: it will neverPa.s.s into nothingness;KEATS: Endymion Endymion, Book OneAnd like the flowers beside them, chill and s.h.i.+ver,ROBERT F FROST: 'Spring Pools' 'Spring Pools'With guarded unconcerned accelerationSEAMUS H HEANEY: 'From the Frontier of Writing' 'From the Frontier of Writing'There's far too much encouragement for poetsWENDY C COPE: 'Engineers' Corner' 'Engineers' Corner'

Subst.i.tutions I hope you can see that the feminine ending is by no means the mark of imperfect iambic pentameter. Let us return to Macbeth, who is still still unsure whether or not he should stab King Duncan: unsure whether or not he should stab King Duncan: To p.r.i.c.k the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itselfAnd falls on th' other.How now! what news?

We have cleared up the first variation in this selection of three lines, the weak or unstressed ending. But what about this 'vaulting ambition' problem? Keats has done it too, look, at the continuation to his opening to ambition' problem? Keats has done it too, look, at the continuation to his opening to Endymion Endymion: A thing of beauty is a joy for everIts loveliness increases: it will neverPa.s.s into into noth nothing ness ness; but still still will will keep keepA bower quiet for us, and a sleepFull of sweet of sweet dreams dreams, and health health, and qui quiet breath breathing The first feet of lines 3 and 5 are 'inverted iambs' or trochees trochees. What Keats and Shakespeare have employed here is sometimes called trochaic subst.i.tution trochaic subst.i.tution, a technique, like weak endings, too common to be considered a deviation from the iambic norm. It is mostly found, as in the above instances and the following, in the first foot first foot of a line. You could call it a trochaic subst.i.tution, or the of a line. You could call it a trochaic subst.i.tution, or the inversion inversion of an iambit amounts to the same thing. of an iambit amounts to the same thing.

Mix'd in each other's arms, and heart in heart, in each other's arms, and heart in heart,BYRON: Don Juan Don Juan, Canto IV, XXVIIWell have ye judged, well ended long debate, have ye judged, well ended long debate,Synod of G.o.ds, and like to what ye are,MILTON: Paradise Lost Paradise Lost, Book IIFar from the madding crowd's ign.o.ble strife from the madding crowd's ign.o.ble strifeGRAY: 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? I compare thee to a summer's day?SHAKESPEARE: Sonnet 18 Sonnet 18 That's an interesting one, the last. Shakespeare's famous sonnet opens in a way that allows different emphases. Is it Shall Shall I compare thee, Shall I compare thee, Shall I I compare thee or compare thee or Shall I Shall I compare thee? The last would be a compare thee? The last would be a spondaic subst.i.tution spondaic subst.i.tution. You remember the spondee, two equally stressed beats?17What do you feel? How would you read it out? There's no right or wrong answer.

Trochaic subst.i.tution of an interior interior foot is certainly not uncommon either. Let's return to the opening of Hamlet's great soliloquy: foot is certainly not uncommon either. Let's return to the opening of Hamlet's great soliloquy:

Here, the fourth foot can certainly be said to be trochaic. It is helped, as most interior trochaic switches are, by the very definite caesura, marked here by the colon. The pause after the opening statement splits the line into two and allows the trochaic subst.i.tution to have the effect they usually achieve at the beginning of a line. Without that caesura at the end of the preceding foot, interior trochaic subst.i.tutions can be c.u.mbersome.

That's not a very successful line, frankly it reads as prose: even with the 'and' where it is, the instinct in reading it as verse is to make the caesural pause after 'makes'this resolves the rhythm for us. We don't mind starting a phrase with a trochee, but it sounds all wrong inserted into a full flow of iambs.

That's better: the colon gives a natural caesura with which to split the line allowing us to start the new thought with a trochee.

For this reason, you will find that initial initial trochaic subst.i.tution (i.e. that of the first foot) is by far the most common. trochaic subst.i.tution (i.e. that of the first foot) is by far the most common.

Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour:England hath need of thee: she is a fenWORDSWORTH: 'Milton!' 'Milton!'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!KEATS: 'Ode to Autumn' 'Ode to Autumn'

Just as it would be a pointless limitation to disallow unstressed endings unstressed endings to a line, so it would be to forbid to a line, so it would be to forbid stressed beginnings stressed beginnings. Hence trochaic subst.i.tution.

There's one more inversion to look at before our heads burst.

Often in a line of iambic pentameter you might come across a line like this, from Shakespeare's Sonnet 1: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes How would you scan it?

'Contracted to to thine own bright eyes' is rather ugly, don't we think? After all there's no valuable distinction of meaning derived by hitting that innocent little particle. So has Shakespeare, by only the fifth line of his great sonnet sequence already blown it and mucked up his iambic pentameters? thine own bright eyes' is rather ugly, don't we think? After all there's no valuable distinction of meaning derived by hitting that innocent little particle. So has Shakespeare, by only the fifth line of his great sonnet sequence already blown it and mucked up his iambic pentameters?

Well no. Let's scan it like this:18 That third foot is now pyrrhic pyrrhic, two unaccented unaccented beats: we've taken the usual stress off its second element, we have 'demoted' the foot, if you like. We have, in metrical jargon, effected beats: we've taken the usual stress off its second element, we have 'demoted' the foot, if you like. We have, in metrical jargon, effected pyrrhic subst.i.tution pyrrhic subst.i.tution.

This is most likely to occur in the third or fourth foot of a line, otherwise it disrupts the primary rhythm too much. It is essential too, in order for the metre to keep its pulse, that the pyrrhic foot be followed by a proper iamb. Pyrrhic subst.i.tution results, as you can see above, in three three unaccented beats in a row, which are resolved by the next accent (in this case unaccented beats in a row, which are resolved by the next accent (in this case own own).

Check what I'm saying by flicking your eyes up and reading out loud. It can all seem a bit bewildering as I bombard you with references to the third foot and the second unit and so on, but so long as you keep checking and reading it out (writing it down yourself too, if it helps) you can keep track of it all and IT IS WORTH DOING IT IS WORTH DOING.

Incidentally, Vladimir Nabokov in his Notes on Prosody Notes on Prosody is very unkind about calling these effects 'subst.i.tutions'he prefers to call a pyrhhic subst.i.tution a 'scud' or 'false pyrrhic' and a trochaic subst.i.tution a 'tilted scud' or 'false trochee'. I am not sure this is any clearer, to be honest. is very unkind about calling these effects 'subst.i.tutions'he prefers to call a pyrhhic subst.i.tution a 'scud' or 'false pyrrhic' and a trochaic subst.i.tution a 'tilted scud' or 'false trochee'. I am not sure this is any clearer, to be honest.

Anyway, you might have spotted that this trick, this trope, this 'downgrading' of one accent, has the effect of drawing extra attention to the following one. The next strong iambic beat, the own own has has all the more emphasis all the more emphasis for having followed three unstressed syllables. for having followed three unstressed syllables.

If the demotion were to take place in the fourth fourth foot it would emphasise the foot it would emphasise the last last beat of the line, as in this pyrrhic subst.i.tution in Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', which as it happens also begins with a beat of the line, as in this pyrrhic subst.i.tution in Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', which as it happens also begins with a trochaic trochaic switch. R switch. READ IT OUT LOUD:

Both the excerpts above contain pyrrhic subst.i.tution, Shakespeare's in the third foot, Owen's in the fourth. Both end with the word 'eyes', but can you see how Shakespeare's use of it in the third third foot causes the stress to hammer harder down on the word foot causes the stress to hammer harder down on the word own own and how Owen's use of it in the and how Owen's use of it in the fourth fourth really pushes home the emphasis on really pushes home the emphasis on eyes eyes? Which, after all, is the point the line is making, not not in their hands, but in their in their hands, but in their eyes eyes. (Incidentally, I think the trochaic subst.i.tution in the first foot also helps emphasise 'hands'. Thus, when read out, the line contrasts hands and eyes with extra emphasis.) Owen's next line repeats the pyrrhic subst.i.tution in the same, fourth, foot.

Shall s.h.i.+ne the holy glimmers of good-byes.

A stressed of of would be a horrid example of what's called a would be a horrid example of what's called a wrenched accent wrenched accent, an unnatural stress forced in order to make the metre work: scudding over the 'of' and making the foot pyrrhic does not sacrifice the metre.

Owen was a poet who, like Shakespeare, really knew what he was doing really knew what he was doing. These effects are not accidental, the subst.i.tutions do not come about by chance or through some carefree inability to adhere to the form and hoping for the best. Owen studied metre and form constantly and obsessively, as did Keats, his hero, as indeed did all the great poets. They would no more be unaware unaware of what they were doing than Rubens could be unaware of what he was doing when he applied an impasto dot of white to give s.h.i.+ne to an eye, or than Beethoven could be unaware of what happened when he diminished a seventh or syncopated a beat. The freedom and the ease with which a master can do these things belies immense skill derived from practice. of what they were doing than Rubens could be unaware of what he was doing when he applied an impasto dot of white to give s.h.i.+ne to an eye, or than Beethoven could be unaware of what happened when he diminished a seventh or syncopated a beat. The freedom and the ease with which a master can do these things belies immense skill derived from practice.

Incidentally, when Rubens was a young man he went round Rome feverishly drawing and sketching antique statues and Old Master paintings, lying on his back, standing on ladders, endlessly varying his viewpoint so as to give himself differing angles and perspectives. He wanted to be able to paint or draw any aspect of the human form from any angle, to master foreshortening and moulding and all the other techniques, spending months on rendering hands alone. All the great poets did the equivalent in their notebooks: busying themselves endlessly with different metres, subst.i.tutions, line lengths, poetic forms and techniques. They wanted to master their art as Rubens mastered his. They say that the poet Tennyson knew the quant.i.ty quant.i.ty of every word in the English language except 'scissors'. A word's quant.i.ty is essentially the sum of the duration of its vowels. We shall come to that later. The point is this: poetry is all about of every word in the English language except 'scissors'. A word's quant.i.ty is essentially the sum of the duration of its vowels. We shall come to that later. The point is this: poetry is all about concentration concentration, the concentration of mind and the concentration of thought, feeling and language into words within a rhythmic structure. In normal speech and prose our thoughts and feelings are diluted diluted (by stock phrases and roundabout approximations); in poetry those thoughts and feelings can be, must be, (by stock phrases and roundabout approximations); in poetry those thoughts and feelings can be, must be, concentrated concentrated.

It may seem strange for us to focus in such detail on something as apparently piffling as a pyrrhic subst.i.tution, but I am convinced that a sense, an awareness, a familiarity and finally a mastery of this and all the other techniques we have seen and will see allow us a confidence and touch that the uninformed reading and writing of verse could never bestow. It is a little like changing gear in a car: it can seem c.u.mbersome and tricky at first, but it soon becomes second nature. It is all about developing the poetic equivalent of 'muscle memory'. With that in mind, here are some more lines featuring these stress demotions or pyrrhic subst.i.tutions. I have boxed the first two examples and explained my thinking. Here is one from the Merchant's Tale:

You would not say 'a roaring AND AND a cry' unless the sense demanded it. Chaucer, like Owen, shows that a demotion of the a cry' unless the sense demanded it. Chaucer, like Owen, shows that a demotion of the fourth fourth beat throws more weight on to the fifth: beat throws more weight on to the fifth: CRY CRY. Owen demonstrates that it is possible with the second beat too.

'Come gargling from from the froth-corrupted lungs' seems a bit wrenched. The demotion allows the push here on 'garg' and 'froth' to a.s.sume greater power: 'Come the froth-corrupted lungs' seems a bit wrenched. The demotion allows the push here on 'garg' and 'froth' to a.s.sume greater power: 'Come garg gargling from the froth froth-corrupted lungs lungs'.

Look at these lines from a poem that every American schoolchild knows: 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening', by Robert Frost. It is the literary equivalent of 'The Night Before Christmas', quoted and misquoted every holiday season in the States: The woods woods are are love lovely, dark dark, and deep deep,But I I have have pro promises to keep keep,And miles miles to to go go be be fore fore I I sleep sleep, To read the phrase 'promises to to keep keep' would be an absurd wrench, wouldn't it? Clearly that's a pyrrhic subst.i.tution too.

The opening line of Shakespeare's Richard III Richard III has a demoted third beat: note that the first line begins with a trochaic subst.i.tution: has a demoted third beat: note that the first line begins with a trochaic subst.i.tution: Now is the is the win winter of our dis discontent So here is a summary of the six new techniques we've learned to enrich the iambic pentameter.

1. 1. End-stopping: how the sense, the thought, can end with the line.

2. 2. Enjambment: how it can run through through the end of a line. the end of a line.

3. 3. Caesura: how a line can have a break, a breath, a pause, a gear change.

4. 4. Weak endings: how you can end the line with an extra, weak syllable.

5. 5. Trochaic subst.i.tution: how you can invert invert the iamb to make a trochee. the iamb to make a trochee.

6. 6. Pyrrhic subst.i.tution: how you can downgrade downgrade the beat of an interior (second, third or fourth) foot to turn it into a doubly weak or the beat of an interior (second, third or fourth) foot to turn it into a doubly weak or pyrrhic pyrrhic foot. foot.

Poetry Exercise 4 You can probably guess what I'm going to ask for here. Sixteen unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. The idea is to use pyrrhic and trochaic subst.i.tutions (five points for each), weak endingsthat extra syllable at the end (two points for each) but all without going overboard and losing the primary iambic rhythm. You can also award yourself two points for every successful enjambment.

Before you embark upon your own, we are going take a look at and mark my attempt at the exercise. I have sought inspiration, if that is the word, from the headlines on today's BBC news website and would recommend this as preferable to staring out of the window chewing the end of a pencil awaiting the Muse's kiss. Four news stories in all.

Policemen, in a shocking poll revealedThey have no time for apprehending felonsCriminals now at last are free to work.Why can't the English play the game of cricket?Inside a tiny wooden urn are buriedThe Ashes of a great and sporting nation.19Babies are now available in femaleOr male. Hard to decide which s.e.x I'll pick.Maybe I'll wait till gender is redundant.Towards the middle of a mighty oceanSquats a forgotten island and its people;The sea that laps the margins of the atollBroadcasts no mindless babble on its waves;No e-mail pesters the unsullied palm grovesNewspaper stories pa.s.s it quietly by.How long before we go there and destroy it?

I know. Pathetic, isn't it? I hope you are filled with confidence. Once again, I must emphasise, these are no more poems than practise scales are sonatas. They are purely exercises, as yours should be. Work on solving the problems of prosody, but don't get hung up about images, poetic sensibility and word choices. The lines and thoughts should make sense, but beyond that doggerel is acceptable.

GET YOUR PENCIL OUT and mark the metre in each line of my verses. It should be fairly clear when the line starts with a trochee, but pyrrhics can be more subjective. I shall do my marking below: see if you agree with me. and mark the metre in each line of my verses. It should be fairly clear when the line starts with a trochee, but pyrrhics can be more subjective. I shall do my marking below: see if you agree with me. P P for a pyrrhic subst.i.tution, for a pyrrhic subst.i.tution, T T for a trochaic. for a trochaic. H H for hendecasyllable (or for hypermetric, I suppose). for hendecasyllable (or for hypermetric, I suppose). E E is for enjambment. is for enjambment.

That's a pretty clear pyrrhic in the second foot: no need to stress the 'in' and I reckon the rest of the line recovers its iambic tread, so five points to me.

Straight iambics, just two points for the hypermetric ending.

Five points for the initial trochee.

Five for the opening trochee (I think you'll agree that it is 'why can't', not 'why can't', not 'why can't can't') plus two for the weak ending.

Iambics: just two for the ending (it's a bit like scoring for cribbage, this...)

Five for the pyrrhic and two for the ending. 7

High-scoring one here: five for the trochaic switch in the first foot, five for the pyrrhic in the fourth: plus two for the ending and two for the enjambment. The question is: does it still feel iambic with all those bells and whistles? My view is that it would if it were in the midst of more regular iambic lines, but since it is the first line of a stanza it is hard for the ear to know what is going on. A trochaic first foot allied to a weak ending gives an overall trochaic effect, especially when the middle is further vitiated by the slack syllables of the pyrrhic. Also, the end word 'female' is almost spondaic. So I shall deduct deduct five for bad style. five for bad style.

A trochaic switch mid line for five points: since it follows a caesura the rest of the line picks up the iambic pulse adequately.

Trochaic of the first with pyrrhic of the fourth again. For some reason I don't think this one misses its swing so much as the other, so I'll only deduct three. Then again, perhaps it keeps its swing because it isn't a real pyrrhic: hard not to give a push to the 'is' there, don't we feel?

I make my score 106. I'm sure you could do better with your sixteen lines. To recap: 16 lines of iambic pentameter 5 points for trochaic and pyrrhic subst.i.tutions 2 points for enjambments 2 points for feminine endings Be tough on yourself when marking. If, in a bid to make a high score, you have lost the underlying rising tread of the iambic pentameter, then deduct points with honesty. Have fun!

III.

More Meters Octametershexametersheptameterstetrameterstrimetersdimetersmonometers Why five five feet to a line, why not four or six? Three or seven? Eight even. feet to a line, why not four or six? Three or seven? Eight even.

Why not indeed. Here's a list of the most likely possibilities: 1 BeatMonometerHe bangs bangsThe drum drum.2 BeatsDimeterHis drum drumming noise noiseA wakes wakes the the boys boys.3 BeatsTrimeterHis drum drumming makes makes a a noise noise,And wakes wakes the the sleep sleeping boys boys.4 BeatsTetrameterHe bangs bangs the the drum drum and and makes makes a a noise noise,It shakes shakes the the roof roof and and wakes wakes the the boys boys.5 BeatsPentameterHe bangs bangs the the drum drum and and makes makes a a dread dreadful noise noise,It shakes shakes the the roof roof and and wakes wakes the the sleep sleeping boys boys.6 BeatsHexameterHe bangs bangs the the drum drum and and makes makes the the most most ap appalling noise noise,It shakes shakes the the ver very roof roof and and wakes wakes the the sleep sleeping boys boys.7 BeatsHeptameterHe bangs bangs the the wretch wretched drum drum and and makes makes the the most most ap appalling noise noise,Its rack racket shakes shakes the the ver very roof roof and and wakes wakes the the sleep sleeping boys boys.8 BeatsOctameterHe starts starts to to bang bang the the wretch wretched drum drum and and make make the the most most ap appalling noise noise,Its dread dreadful rack racket shakes shakes the the ver very roof roof and and wakes wakes the the sleep sleeping boys boys.

I have hardly given more information in the octameter, heptameter, hexameter or pentameter than there is in the tetrameterof course the boys are sleeping sleeping, you can't wake someone who isn't, and a very very roof is still a roof. I have made up my own nonsense specifically to show the variation in feel when the sense or narrative is broadly the same and the number of feet marks the only real difference. Generally speaking, and I do mean very generally, the pentameter is used for 'serious' poetry, for contemplative, epic, heroic and dramatic verse. That doesn't mean that the other measures can't be. We will come to how we choose a particular form or line of verse later. At the moment we are more interested in discovering and defining terms than ascribing value or function to them. The technical difference is what concerns us, the stylistic difference is for a later section of the book. roof is still a roof. I have made up my own nonsense specifically to show the variation in feel when the sense or narrative is broadly the same and the number of feet marks the only real difference. Generally speaking, and I do mean very generally, the pentameter is used for 'serious' poetry, for contemplative, epic, heroic and dramatic verse. That doesn't mean that the other measures can't be. We will come to how we choose a particular form or line of verse later. At the moment we are more interested in discovering and defining terms than ascribing value or function to them. The technical difference is what concerns us, the stylistic difference is for a later section of the book.

Six feet give us a hexameter hexameter, the line of choice in most cla.s.sical verse:

As a single line it works fine. The experience of writing whole poems in hexameters, in six footers, is that they turn out to be a bit c.u.mbersome in English. The pentameter seems to fit the human breath perfectly (which is why it was used, not just by Shakespeare, but by just about all English verse dramatists). French poets and playwrights like Racine did use the hexameter or alexandrine alexandrine20all the time, in English verse it is rare. What's so different about French, then? I think the most important reason is, as I made clear earlier, that French words tend not to be so varied in their accentuation as English. Why is this relevant? Well, it means that French poetry, since so many words are equally stressed, relies more on what is known as 'quant.i.tative measure'divisions based on the temporal duration of long and short vowels.21 This is how cla.s.sical Greek and Latin poetry was constructed. Most English verseas I hope we have discoveredis metred by This is how cla.s.sical Greek and Latin poetry was constructed. Most English verseas I hope we have discoveredis metred by syllabic accentuation syllabic accentuation, the rises and falls of stress.

You can certainly try to write whole English poems composed of iambic hexameter, but I suspect you'll find, in common with English language poets who experimented with it on and off for the best part of a thousand years, that it yields rather clumsy results. Its best use is as a closing line to stanzas, as in Hardy's 'The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the t.i.tanic t.i.tanic)': And consummation comes and jars two hemispheres.

Keats ends each stanza of 'The Eve of Saint Agnes' with an alexandrine in a style derived from the verse of Edmund Spenser.

She sigh'd for Agnes' dreams, the sweetest of the year.

Alexander Pope in his (otherwise) pentametric An Essay on Criticism An Essay on Criticism was harsh on these Spenserian mannerisms and included this self-descriptive hexameter: was harsh on these Spenserian mannerisms and included this self-descriptive hexameter: A needless Alexandrine ends the song,That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

There are very few examples of eight-beat eight-beat lines in English verse. Tennyson's 'Locksley Hall' is a rare successful example of a lines in English verse. Tennyson's 'Locksley Hall' is a rare successful example of a trochaic octameter trochaic octameter:

In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the Robin's breast;In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

Another very familiar example is Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven':

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

You will notice Poe chooses to end the even-numbered lines strongly, docking the final weak syllable, as Tennyson does for every line of 'Locksley Hall'. You might also notice how in reading, one tends to break up these line lengths into two manageable four-stress half-lines: Poe's lines have very clear and unmistakable caesuras, while Tennyson's are less forceful. The four-stress impulse in English verse is very strong, as we shall see. Nabokov, in his Notes on Prosody Notes on Prosody, suggests that the hexameter is a limit 'beyond which the metrical line is no longer felt as a line and breaks in two'.

Heptameters, seven-stress lines, are possible, and certainly do tend to 'break in two'. They are known in the trade as 'fourteeners', referring to the usual syllable count. Here's a line from Hardy's 'The Lacking Sense'.

a.s.sist her where thy creaturely dependence can or may As you can see, it is perfectly iambic (though one could suggest demoting the fourth foot to a pyrrhic):

Actually, fourteeners were very popular in the sixteenth century, although Shakespeare disdained their use, a fact which has been adduced by some to d.a.m.n the claims of Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, as the real author of the Shakespearean canon, for Oxford loved them: My life through lingering long is lodged, in lair of loathsome ways,My death delayed to keep from life, the harm of hapless days.

This preposterously over-alliterated couplet hardly seems Shakespeareanin fact, Shakespeare mocked precisely such bombastic nonsense in 'Pyramus and Thisbe', the play-within-a-play performed by Bottom and the other unlettered 'rude mechanicals' in A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream, having great fun at the expense of Oxfordian fourteeners and their vulgar alliterations: But stay: O spite! But Mark, poor knight, What dreadful dole is here?Eyes, do you see? How can it be? O dainty duck, O dear.

You may notice that Hardy's example is a 'true' heptameter, whereas Oxford's lines (and Shakespeare's parody of them) are in effect so broken by the caesuras after the fourth foot that they could be written thus: My life through lingering long is lodged,In lair of loathsome ways,My death delayed to keep from life,The harm of hapless days.But stay: O spite! But Mark, poor knight,What dreadful dole is here?Eyes, do you see? How can it be?O dainty duck, O dear.

We can do the same thing with Kipling's popular 'Tommy', which he laid out in fourteeners: Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleepIs cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bitIs five times better business than paradin' in full kit.Yes, makin' mock o' uniformsThat guard you while you sleepIs cheaper than them uniforms,An' they're starvation cheap;An' hustlin' drunken soldiersWhen they're goin' large a bitIs five times better businessThan paradin' in full kit.

What we have there are verses in lines footed in alternating fours and threes: tetrameters tetrameters and and trimeters trimeters, a metrical scheme you will see again and again in English poetry. Such four and three beat lines are also common in verse designed for singing which, after all, uses up more breath than speech. It would be rather difficult to sing a whole heptametric line without turning purple.

The long and winding road The long and winding road and You are the suns.h.i.+ne of my life could be called (by an a.s.s) iambic trimeters and tetrameters respectively, while be called (by an a.s.s) iambic trimeters and tetrameters respectively, while That's the way I like it and I can't get no satisfaction are trochaic trimeter and tetrameter. Of course, it is fundamentally daffy to scan lyrics (a word derived from the Greek lyre lyre, the harp-like instrument used to accompany song) since it is the musical beat that determines emphasis, not the metrical stress. You could never guess the very particular emphasis on 'get no' just by reading the lyrics of 'Satisfaction' unless you knew the tune and rhythm it was written to fit.