Accentual Verse

[ellajam]

I would disagree that it is not a poem. Also, if you write consistent metric poetry and include 1 or 2 lines where the foot count is off - it does stick out, quite obviously i might add.

No problem on calling it a poem, but we all know not every poetic device improves every poem, they can wreck one just as easily.
I know that in metric poetry a foot off sticks out, I've tripped over my own plenty trying to learn it. But I'm not talking about metered poetry. I don't know how to label some of the poems I write, they sort of come from a perverted tanka force, but that really only matters to me. They sink or rise on their totality.
So are you saying that you don't think it will have any effect on the poem if most lines have 3 stresses and some have 2 or 4?

That is pretty much what I am saying. If you are writing free verse than the break is one of your most important elements and to subrogate it to a beat count is to produce inferior poetry. Others, it would seem, disagree. i wish I still had the writing from my accentual verse days but, unfortunately, it fell to the purge.

There's no way I would sacrifice breaks for this. I love my breaks, and take them often, I was just thinking of trying to maintain the integrity of the poem while swapping out a word or two in spots to change the stress patterns. It's not all or nothing, yanno.