A Modest Proposal (Meter Discussion)

[shemthepenman]

Leanne, thank you for such a balanced and informative reply - that begins to make sense of it for me. I am, obviously, brand new to the idea of meter and when I discovered two days I was not only accidentally doing it but doing it wrong, I did a quick look-up in dictionaries and came away with my rigid ideas about the relation of iambs to syllables; various reputable sources do specifically equate meter to syllable counts. But your explanation - especially in the third paragraph - makes sense of that. I will take your advice and look at the material you and milo have on the site over the weekend.

Thank you again for such a generous and informed response.

seriously, does it really matter what you call it, in this case. The poem was relatively amusing, at best. and metre and feet and perfection are all just out dated philosophical concept from the 16 hundreds that people who know everything about it and are good at it promote to make themselves feel special (anyone who is an expert in poetic metre is like a champion tiddlywinks player; or even worse, the fellow that knows about the champion tiddlywink player). The fact is, literally no one else gives a fuck and a poem is not won or lost on this social construct. The idea that metre or rythme or rhyme makes a peom is just absolute shite. Revolt!