Metrical anomalies

[Brownlie]

I have probably experimented with deviations in standard meter within metrical verse more than most writers you would ever read. I may have even been successful more than the average. What I don't do is call them by what they are not. Speaking of which, I believe I still have a copy of an old sonnet with a little metrical deviation somewhere around . . . here:

The Prisoner

Oh, won’t you please stop
writing, she says as she looks
at her feet, twists her thumbs like a top,
the world, already, is too full with books
as the sink’s full of pots,
then she stops and she puts
her hands on her hips
and she pouts up her lips
and begins to recite my do’s and do nots
like the fireplace, still choking on cinders and soots
though by the looks of the lawn it’s been months since it took
a flame to keep warm
and would it harm
me to look away from the screen for a minute to talk
after all, no one reads, no one hears the click of the lock.


now, perhaps if our new metrical master can explain all the deviations in meter here . . .

I've seen that poem before.

It is one I've frequently leaned on to teach metrical deviation though you would think I would write some fresh material.

Well, you know what you're up to, this has been a good thread so far. Very amusing and elucidating.