Iamb, I said, to no one there...

[felis_ultharus]

On a completely other topic, nothing will make a poet feel more like a manic-depressive than writing a piece heavy on the spondees (--) and pyrrhics (//), rather than the nice, safe, boy-next-door that is the iamb (-/) or even that invert, the trochee (/-).

Yes, I'm trying to master metre, in preparation for working on my long-ignored poetry. I know that most respected poets these days turn up their nose at the stuff, but I strongly suspect that's why the literate general public stopped buying current poetry about a hundred years ago.

Comments

[foi-nefaste.livejournal.com]

I still buy poetry, but I'm not entirely sure I reflect the taste of the general public. (I also have an entirely out-of-control history book habit).

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I read history, too.

There's nothing wrong with free-verse poetry, but I personally prefer craft and form, and I don't think I'm the only one.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Write in dróttkvætt!!!

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Had to look that up -- but it does sound like fun.

Chaucer wrote the first known English sonnet in doubled rhyme royal -- a traditional Scottish form. I may try that, too.

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

I'll admit to not being the hugest fan of poetry. But I love the Fairy Queene and Donne and Tennyson among other things Victorian and earlier, so I don't think it's poetry itself that I don't like but rather the form it has taken in the last century or so. I like narrative poetry but I find people tend to turn their noses up at that these days. So I applaud your use of meter, I like it and I see no problem in using it. ^_^

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Narrative is not my favourite. I like the Fairy Queene in spite of its heavy-handedness. If Jack Chick wrote like that, his tracts might actually be readable.

Donne's work is wonderful -- though his "Batter my heart three-personned God" now reads like some really weird YAOI manga. I like some of the Victorians -- the Mme. Rosetti especially.