using other forms besides iambic pentameter.

[rayheinrich]

... I'm not masquerading as some exalted poetry guru ...

While I would not, under any conceivable condition or credible contingency, ever, in any way whatsoever, veil myself in the veneer of a virtuoso versifier; I could, however, presume to proffer some particular (and possibly pertinent) pointers:

As is well know, snobby know-it-alls are prone to making disparaging remarks about the veracity of the information contained in the English Wikipedia because the common rabble is (not 'are') allowed to enter and edit most of its articles. (The German Wikipedia gets higher marks because its articles can only be entered by vetted editors and can only be displayed after a peer review. [Germans are SUCH persnickety fussbudgets.])

Here's one technique (of many) that exalted masquerading gurus use for getting around the "Wikipedia is not a reliable source and doesn't make anyone sound like an expert when they quote it" problem:

Step by step example using the "poetry foot" thing.


1. Find the correct technical terms to use: Do a Google search of Wiki (yes, that's right, Wiki) using: 'wiki poetry foot thing'.
2. Click on the first result: 'Foot (prosody) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'
3. Read the first few lines of the article and pick out some likely technical terms to substitute for "poetry foot thing". Lets go with 'foot prosody metrical unit' and do another google search using them.
4. Now here's the best part: Go down the results item by item and look for the urls of universities. You might have to go through quite a few pages but referencing a university as a source is a good way to convince the rest of the rabble that you know what you are talking about and a great way of frustrating those snobby know-it-alls. I say 'frustrate' because the truth is you will never convince them that you know what you are talking about as any such thoughts are immediately suppressed by their massive egos. No, the objective of this technique is to convince the rest of the rabble to fart in their general direction.

Going down the list we find:

Guide to English prosody
www.uv.es/~tronch/stu/GuideEnglishProsody.html?

What a find on the first try! Though the university (highly accredited) is located in Spain and does not nave good name recognition in the U.S. (and probably Britain?), the very first lines in the guide contain these references:

B&P Brooks, Cleanth, and Robert Penn. Understanding Poetry. London: Holt, Rinehart & Wilson, 1968.

P&B Preminger, Alex, and T. V. F. Brogan. The New Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Shapiro, K. A Prosody Handbook. New York: Harper & Row 1965

Wales, Katie. A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman, 1991.


I'd recommend using "The New Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics" as it contains the words "Princeton University".

So there you have it, the source hunt is over.

By the way:
The guide that follows the references, while not a tutorial, contains an excellent outline of English prosody and would be quite useful for anyone who already knows a bit about the subject.