Line length in poetry

[milo]

I suppose tetrameter is quick and bouncy, light. But we were talking about free-verse, where the movement is much more difficult to control.

I was going to segregate according to that but I am not a big believer in "free verse means I get to pretend meter doesn't exist". Good free verse acknowledges meter and still uses it for effect but also uses the variation of meter as an additional tool. That being said, I figure the overall effects are the same, just more open to the control of the writer.

Right. Of course. That's why it's more difficult. It's like playing jazz versus blues.

So how would a mostly iambic line measure against an anapest line, so forth. I think if you have the same amount of natural stresses, or "beats", but with more unstressed syllables between them, it would speed up the recital, like playing 16th notes.

anapests quicken the pace. Especially with the same number of /words/.

I believe I posted a couple anapestic sonnets here as well as an anapestic villanelle and an anapestic teza rima and you can definitely feel the quickened pace.

A friend of mine wrote the same (essentially) poet as both anapestic and iambic, I will hunt it down and post it later.