Metrical anomalies

[milo]

I'm sure milo would concede that changes and variations in meter and rhythm have been successful in the past, in many different forms. But he has put a lot of time and effort into helping beginners here learn about meter, rhythm, and scansion; he isn't going to let others get confused by compromising on the very definition of IP just to suit another's fancy.

I have probably experimented with deviations in standard meter within metrical verse more than most writers you would ever read. I may have even been successful more than the average. What I don't do is call them by what they are not. Speaking of which, I believe I still have a copy of an old sonnet with a little metrical deviation somewhere around . . . here:

The Prisoner

Oh, won’t you please stop
writing, she says as she looks
at her feet, twists her thumbs like a top,
the world, already, is too full with books
as the sink’s full of pots,
then she stops and she puts
her hands on her hips
and she pouts up her lips
and begins to recite my do’s and do nots
like the fireplace, still choking on cinders and soots
though by the looks of the lawn it’s been months since it took
a flame to keep warm
and would it harm
me to look away from the screen for a minute to talk
after all, no one reads, no one hears the click of the lock.


now, perhaps if our new metrical master can explain all the deviations in meter here . . .