Tim wrote on Oct 14
th, 2009 at 3:38am:
Eric,
So, it's not so much unstressed, stressed as it is where the 'heaviest' of the stress falls. The heavier the stressing, the more it's like listening to Beethoven; there are still swings, but those percussionists are hard at work, no?
If I understand the explanation above, you've just given me a light bulb moment. My next question: how does one discern a spondee? Or more importantly, when is substitution allowed (say a spondee for an iamb).
Thanks again.
Namaste,
~Tim
When is it permissible to sub a spondee for an iamb?
When it works ... and the readership lets you get away with it. One place it can maybe count on working is in the opening lines, where the reader is expecting a strong statement anyway.
Lets ask Liz; She's got a pretty good record for stretching the rules of meter in her sonnets, and while some critics say she just didn't nave much of an ear for iambic, I tend to believe that she had a rarely developed ear for when a lapse will work. Let's look at this one...
When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curvëd point, -- what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay
Rather on earth, Belovëd, -- where the unfit
Contrarious moods of men recoil away
And isolate pure spirits, and permit
A place to stand and love in for a day,
With darkness and the death-hour rounding it. Dunno about the rest of y'all, but I read the 2nd thru 6th beats as stressed..."our two souls stand up" with a minor drop for 'two', granted, but certainly
'souls stand up' comes across as three strong beats. I think one reason it works is because it's
three strong words . our two
souls stand up...no one, hearing or reading that passage is even going to be looking for the stresses to back off.
Again (and again and again and again) Work by Feel! Your reader will forgive the technical if the work makes them feel the target emotion. And again (and again and again and again) read the works of the great sonneteers.
EBBrowning offers example after example of meter that lapses from the iambic and is still accepted as great sonneting. Watch what they do, how and where they do it. The examples are really the best learning tools around.