09-06-2011, 05:07 AM
A lot of people will have you believe that meter is all about the number of syllables -- but although we have all these technical names for different kinds of metric "feet", at the end of the day the syllables are far less important than the stresses, or the beats.
When you say a line aloud, have the rhythm fixed in your head already. If the stresses don't fall in the right places without you having to change the emphasis on certain words, it's not right. It's very hard to explain it in text, but the best thing to do is keep making mistakes so we can fix them and show you what you're doing, since you're the one who can hear it
Also, some of the changes we'll suggest might have to do with the way two words sound together. Sound is king in poetry -- no matter how clever a phrase, if it sounds horrible when you read it you're not going to be impressed.
When you say a line aloud, have the rhythm fixed in your head already. If the stresses don't fall in the right places without you having to change the emphasis on certain words, it's not right. It's very hard to explain it in text, but the best thing to do is keep making mistakes so we can fix them and show you what you're doing, since you're the one who can hear it
Also, some of the changes we'll suggest might have to do with the way two words sound together. Sound is king in poetry -- no matter how clever a phrase, if it sounds horrible when you read it you're not going to be impressed.
It could be worse