Metrical anomalies

[billy]

One of Shakespeare's sonnets starts with a line that has only one iamb in it despite the overall meter being iambic pentameter, yet the line is famous and everyone seems to like it:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
LET ME / NOT to / the MAR / riage of / TRUE MINDS

One of the techniques of good poets is to insert rhythmic explosions into their poems. It is the amateurs who write in perfectly regular meter. (Not always, of course. Pope's metrics were very regular, but then, some people think his poetry sounds monotonous.)

sorry but you're scansion here seems to read wrong, i'm no expert but even i see a big fuck up with the first foot and a half.

i read this as almost perfect iambic, three strong iambs an two weaker iambs. me and to are stressed as are of and minds. true minds being one of the weak iambs. (of course i could be wrong and that's okay, it's not one of the easiest lines to scan) it's about which words william is giving emphasis to. when spoken true would be more muted than minds. minds being the most stressed word of the line.

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mot to blow your trumpet for you, after i read this a good while ago, i did some digging and found a fair bit of corroboration, Google is indeed friendly. and it make a lot of sense after reading a fair few sonnets. most fit your patter and the ones that didn't were a bit harder than the others to scan...my scansion sucks. but i know see more than i used to.

OK milo, let's see you sub trochee instead of iambs.
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You can't substitute anapest in IP, if you do it isn't IP is it? You can substitute a foot of anapest in a sonnet.
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For someone who has shown little ability to write in meter, he sure talks a lot about it.


dale the evil

here is the general guideline I wrote for acceptable substitution in ip and posted to this site about a dozen times and while it isn't iron clad, it is a pretty good set of generally accepted principles:

Rules for ip:

Lines should have 5 iambs and nothing else.

Exceptions:

there are some acceptable substituions in ip. Substitutions should be used to add emphasis or add to the reading. Substituions should NOT be used because the author cannot find an acceptable iamb.

acceptable sub:

1. Trochees can be substituted for any of the first 4 feet though earlier is better. 1 trochee/line

2. Double iambs (pyrrhic-trochee) should be used SPARINGLY.

3. Headless iambs can be used for first foot (9 syllable iambic line starting with a hard accent). NOT to be used in first line.

4. Fem endings.

5. Spondees can be used as a sub for any foot although shouldn't occur in the first line and no more than 1 per line. Also, shouldn't occur in line with a troche.

as you can see, the only line that has only 3 iambs has a double iamb sub and it is to be used sparingly (once per poem would be overkill)

the only time it is acceptable to use 3 iambs in ip is with what is called a double iamb (pyrric/spondee)