Is that not to confuse 'metric' with 'metrical'? Implicitly, the decima
would be a series of piles of syllables, with no recognizable organization
of stress. But if the piles are recognizably piles nonetheless, then there
must be something else going on in lieu of stress.
P
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
> poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Marcus Bales
> Sent: 02 August 2005 20:37
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: FW: any formalists in the crowd? -- thanks to
> Annie Finch!
>
> But counting syllables is meter. It's that way in French,
> too, isn't it?
>
> Marcus
>
>
> On 2 Aug 2005 at 14:35, Mark Weiss wrote:
>
> > Right you are. And there is no meter in this sense in
> Spanish--it's simply not a consideration. The decima--the
> classic line--is 10 syllables, and nothing else.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Richard Jeffrey Newman <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Aug 2, 2005 11:08 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: FW: any formalists in the crowd? -- thanks to
> Annie Finch!
> >
> > Marcus, you wrote:
> >
> > >>Meter comes in many forms. Is there really no meter in Spanish?
> > Someone said there's no meter in Hebrew.<<
> >
> > This depends, does it not, on what you mean by meter? In music,
> > traditionally anyway, and unless a piece has no time signature, the
> > meter is set at the beginning of a piece, and it is either
> 4/4, 2/4, 3/8 or whatever.
> > The composer may play with the boundaries of that meter in
> any number
> > of ways by varying rhythm and phrasing, but the meter remains the
> > same. And so, if by meter in poetry we mean the same kind of formal
> > framework--i.e., iambic pentameter, five iambic feet to a
> line--then,
> > while I cannot speak for Spanish, I think it is safe to say
> that there
> > is no meter in Biblical Hebrew poetry--I will not speak
> Hebrew poetry
> > of other eras because I am not sure; but I am pretty sure I
> remember
> > this about the poetry of the Hebrew Bible--just as there is
> no meter
> > in Walt Whitman. This does not mean there is no rhythm and
> it does not
> > mean that Whitman was not consciously using rhythm and playing with
> > the ghost of meter in some of his poems, but if his poems
> were musical
> > scores, my own sense is that they would have to be written
> without a time signature at the beginning.
> >
> > Richard
> >
>
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