07-08-2019, 05:03 AM
I'd been wanting to get back to Steele's concept of supplementary stress. I call it Steele's, but I'm not sure he was the first write of it. His book was the first place I had learned of it, though. I learned more about it by reading books from other authors, however.
A lot of writers learn the basics of meter, then figure, "That's it!" or decide to eschew meter completely. Meter, however, is part of English's basic structure. For those of us who learn English growing up, it is instilled in us as we learn the language. We use the rules automatically, but we often don't stop to think about them. Steele developed (?) a scansion technique which allows us to examine our lines for not only accent, but also for the level of stress we apply to a line. I've found it helpful in developing an ear for the levels of stress we use in a line. I no longer use the technique as much any more, as I can hear the results better now than I could when I was younger (through practice), but occasionally I'll run scan a line in my head to find out why I don't like it. I think the technique is useful for establishing rhythms, which are based on the foundation of meter. So, I thought I'd discuss it here in case someone finds it useful.
English is an accentual (not stress) language, and most of the time we speak we speak in iambs - the first syllable of a 'foot' is unaccented, the second accented. I say basically - because it is not tightly consistent. There are exceptions. If we listen for the syllables with the strongest accent, we get this:
I'd been /wanting /to get/ back to/ Steele's con/cept of/ supple/mentar/y stress. (bold represents the accented syllable).
Ok. Those don't look like iambs, they look like trochees (first syllable accented, second syllable unaccented.) But the pattern alternates mostly every other syllable, which is what is important for our purpose for our purpose as writers. But, just for the sake of discussion, let's call the first foot a short foot (consisting of only one syllable), and the last foot an anapest (two unaccented syllables and one accented), so the basic scan will look like this.
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/a-ry stress.
But again, we don't speak in terms of an-again off-again accents. Nor we should we write in that manner. But if we're not careful, especially when writing metrical poetry, we can write in a manner which exacerbates the beat. It sounds kind of sing-songy. One complaint about metrical poetry is the feel of a heavy beat. Good poetry, metrical or otherwise, shouldn't IMO. So how do we keep that from happening?
Let's start talking about stress. If we use numbers to indicate level of stress (and work on the assumption ALL syllables are stressed to some degree), syllables that fall on the accent will have more stress than those which don't:
2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/a-ry stress.
But if we listen carefully, we can hear in the sentence different levels of stress - not just two levels. Where do they come from?
Let's look at words with more than on syllable - each of which have their own accent; sometimes a secondary accent. 'Concept': we accent the first syllable. 'Supplementary': 'ment' gets the strongest accent, but there is another, lighter accent on 'sup', as well as on 'y'. Not sure of the accent(s) on a word? Check a good dictionary. They mark the accents in the pronunciation.
SO let's overlay these accents onto the stress. 'Meant' has a light stress, we'll add one increment of stress onto the syllable. 'Con' and 'sup' are stronger accents, so we'll 2 increments of stress, resulting in:
2 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 2 1 4 1 3 1 2 1
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/ar-y stress.
What about one syllable words? How are they accented? We tend to accent words that have meaning, or content, such as nouns verbs and adjectives. Non-content words (articles, prepositions, etc) are not. So let's go back to the line, and add a stress level to each word that isn't a non-content word.
3 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 4 1 3 1 2 3
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/ar-y stress.
Are there other forms of stress? Sure. Sometimes we intentionally over stress a syllable to make a point: I wanted the RED dress. Also the concept of line stress: that one syllable in a line gets more stress than any others. And if you're not writing metrical, just ignore the foot dividers when you're done.
3 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 4 1 3 1 1 3
I'd been wanting to get back to Steele's concept of supplementary stress.
The scanned stress should be very close to what you hear when you speak the line (no system's perfect)
So after all this, how does this help us as writers? Try applying this technique to some lines you've written. If you come up with a stress pattern that only comes up with two numbers, or is 'choppy', like 1-3-1-3-1-3, it will probably feel boring after a bit. Look for lines that flow smoothly - kind of like a melodic line in music. If the line's choppy, look at rearranging words, or introducing different words: especially words of multiple syllables. I think you'll find your lines will become more interesting.
Does everyone need to do this? No - poets who have been writing for some time learn to hear the subtle stress levels. There are probably some blessed people with a natural ear. I've only met one such person, and I was insanely jealous lol. For the rest of us, give it a try. See what happens. If you think ut doesn't help, you've lost nothing but a little time. I think most people, however, will get something out of it.
More later on pauses, rests, caesuras and other factors that affect rhythm.
A lot of writers learn the basics of meter, then figure, "That's it!" or decide to eschew meter completely. Meter, however, is part of English's basic structure. For those of us who learn English growing up, it is instilled in us as we learn the language. We use the rules automatically, but we often don't stop to think about them. Steele developed (?) a scansion technique which allows us to examine our lines for not only accent, but also for the level of stress we apply to a line. I've found it helpful in developing an ear for the levels of stress we use in a line. I no longer use the technique as much any more, as I can hear the results better now than I could when I was younger (through practice), but occasionally I'll run scan a line in my head to find out why I don't like it. I think the technique is useful for establishing rhythms, which are based on the foundation of meter. So, I thought I'd discuss it here in case someone finds it useful.
English is an accentual (not stress) language, and most of the time we speak we speak in iambs - the first syllable of a 'foot' is unaccented, the second accented. I say basically - because it is not tightly consistent. There are exceptions. If we listen for the syllables with the strongest accent, we get this:
I'd been /wanting /to get/ back to/ Steele's con/cept of/ supple/mentar/y stress. (bold represents the accented syllable).
Ok. Those don't look like iambs, they look like trochees (first syllable accented, second syllable unaccented.) But the pattern alternates mostly every other syllable, which is what is important for our purpose for our purpose as writers. But, just for the sake of discussion, let's call the first foot a short foot (consisting of only one syllable), and the last foot an anapest (two unaccented syllables and one accented), so the basic scan will look like this.
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/a-ry stress.
But again, we don't speak in terms of an-again off-again accents. Nor we should we write in that manner. But if we're not careful, especially when writing metrical poetry, we can write in a manner which exacerbates the beat. It sounds kind of sing-songy. One complaint about metrical poetry is the feel of a heavy beat. Good poetry, metrical or otherwise, shouldn't IMO. So how do we keep that from happening?
Let's start talking about stress. If we use numbers to indicate level of stress (and work on the assumption ALL syllables are stressed to some degree), syllables that fall on the accent will have more stress than those which don't:
2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/a-ry stress.
But if we listen carefully, we can hear in the sentence different levels of stress - not just two levels. Where do they come from?
Let's look at words with more than on syllable - each of which have their own accent; sometimes a secondary accent. 'Concept': we accent the first syllable. 'Supplementary': 'ment' gets the strongest accent, but there is another, lighter accent on 'sup', as well as on 'y'. Not sure of the accent(s) on a word? Check a good dictionary. They mark the accents in the pronunciation.
SO let's overlay these accents onto the stress. 'Meant' has a light stress, we'll add one increment of stress onto the syllable. 'Con' and 'sup' are stronger accents, so we'll 2 increments of stress, resulting in:
2 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 2 1 4 1 3 1 2 1
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/ar-y stress.
What about one syllable words? How are they accented? We tend to accent words that have meaning, or content, such as nouns verbs and adjectives. Non-content words (articles, prepositions, etc) are not. So let's go back to the line, and add a stress level to each word that isn't a non-content word.
3 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 4 1 3 1 2 3
I'd /been want/ing to/ get back/ to Steele's/ concept/ of sup/plement/ar-y stress.
Are there other forms of stress? Sure. Sometimes we intentionally over stress a syllable to make a point: I wanted the RED dress. Also the concept of line stress: that one syllable in a line gets more stress than any others. And if you're not writing metrical, just ignore the foot dividers when you're done.
3 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 4 1 3 1 1 3
I'd been wanting to get back to Steele's concept of supplementary stress.
The scanned stress should be very close to what you hear when you speak the line (no system's perfect)
So after all this, how does this help us as writers? Try applying this technique to some lines you've written. If you come up with a stress pattern that only comes up with two numbers, or is 'choppy', like 1-3-1-3-1-3, it will probably feel boring after a bit. Look for lines that flow smoothly - kind of like a melodic line in music. If the line's choppy, look at rearranging words, or introducing different words: especially words of multiple syllables. I think you'll find your lines will become more interesting.
Does everyone need to do this? No - poets who have been writing for some time learn to hear the subtle stress levels. There are probably some blessed people with a natural ear. I've only met one such person, and I was insanely jealous lol. For the rest of us, give it a try. See what happens. If you think ut doesn't help, you've lost nothing but a little time. I think most people, however, will get something out of it.
More later on pauses, rests, caesuras and other factors that affect rhythm.
There is no escape from metre; there is only mastery. TS Eliot