I scan it as:
fail, and sodden branches buckle under
a dark sky-born birth, tethered to the land.
FAIL, and/ SODden/ BRANCHes/ BUCKle/ UNder (all trochees -- DA dum -- a backwards iamb)
a DARK /sky-born BIRTH, /TETHered /TO the /LAND. (iamb, anapaest, trochee, trochee, trochee -- though the last one is tailless)
Actually, scanning it out like that, if you get rid of the a at the start of the line, dark slips down to unstressed so you end up with:
dark SKY/ born BIRTH (caesura) TETH/ered/TO the/ LAND
which actually shifts it back to an iambic line, just with a caesura that acts as the first half of that foot.
PS. Scansion is a tricky beast that relies heavily on accent, so don't take my word for it. If it sounds right when you read it aloud, always go with that.
fail, and sodden branches buckle under
a dark sky-born birth, tethered to the land.
FAIL, and/ SODden/ BRANCHes/ BUCKle/ UNder (all trochees -- DA dum -- a backwards iamb)
a DARK /sky-born BIRTH, /TETHered /TO the /LAND. (iamb, anapaest, trochee, trochee, trochee -- though the last one is tailless)
Actually, scanning it out like that, if you get rid of the a at the start of the line, dark slips down to unstressed so you end up with:
dark SKY/ born BIRTH (caesura) TETH/ered/TO the/ LAND
which actually shifts it back to an iambic line, just with a caesura that acts as the first half of that foot.
PS. Scansion is a tricky beast that relies heavily on accent, so don't take my word for it. If it sounds right when you read it aloud, always go with that.
It could be worse