Speaking of listening to Shakespeare, Joanna, Charles Olson did,
especially to the late plays, & wrote about it in a most interesting
fashion. Pointing out precisely how ol' Willie got way off the supposed
metrical mark.
On 2-Aug-05, at 1:43 PM, Joanna Boulter wrote:
> That's very interesting, about the Spanish decima line. But where did
> the idea come from, that the 10 syllable line not only counts as metre
> but is the *correct, indeed the only permissible, metre for English
> blank verse and for all places where an iambic pentameter is required?
> I mean, for pete's sake, don't these people ever *listen? To
> Shakespeare, for instance?
>
> I got myself involved with a writing group some time ago, led by a
> woman who regards herself as a formalist. She wanted us to try sonnet
> form -- you know -- here's the rhyme scheme, and it's iambic
> pentameter, off you go. So I come back with one that gets me my
> knuckles severely rapped, because out of my 14 lines one has 11
> syllables and one has 9. Never mind that the two extra are both so
> light as to count as two halves; never mind that the 'short' line
> conatins a syllable which is so long and weighty that it needs an
> entire foot to itself. She rewrote the thing so as to 'correct' the
> metre, and ended up with most of the stresses on weak syllables, while
> I sat and growled. But I refused to alter it.
>
> I don't mean that 10 syllables ought not to be done, but I do think
> the stresses ought to be handled with awareness. Otherwise you're
> writing syllabics, and that's a whole nother animal.
>
> joanna
>
Well it was never just ten syllables, anyway, & she should have known
that. It *sounds like you were listening much more carefully than she
was....
Doug
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
(780) 436 3320
I give up these words easily, they are easy
to give up, like changing currency before
a border: the cursive line between mountain
and sky, say, as perfect a mismatch as any
made in heaven.
Méira Cook
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