Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore scansion

[Kate]

I'm having trouble with the scansion for this poem. Actually, what I lack is confidence. Is there someplace where one could find the poem with the meter already marked? In the instructor's guide it gives the meter, but I'm not finding many of the feet follow the iambic form. Then I wonder if I'm doing it "wrong", and wonder whether I can check it somewhere..

Any help?

Thanks!

Kate

[Carolyn]

Kate,

This poem does not scan regularly. Although the meter is predominantly iambic, the first line (Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore) is trochaic.

I don't know of anyplace that the poem is scanned. Here's a short section of it.

GODfrey | GORdon | GUStavus | GORE
no DOUBT | you've HEARD | his NAME | beFORE
was a BOY| who NEV | er would SHUT | a DOOR!
the WIND | might WHIS | tle the WIND | might ROAR
and TEETH | be ACH | ing and THROATS | be SORE
but STILL | he would NEV | er SHUT | the DOOR.

Carolyn

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Kate,

The point of the exercise is to find the stresses and the breves as Carolyn did in her post for you.

THEN when you decide on the meter, this one gets tricky. (So pat yourself on the back for lacking in confidence. This one is a matter of CALL.)

Yes, the first line appears trochaic, and you may classify it as such.

BUT... and you knew there would be a but... the rest of the poem with one additional syllable breve in line three (was as BOY), is iambic.

Most meters are not 100% regular. Often it's the author's artistic flair that allows for regularities. He calls attention to what he is saying in a particular line by purposely breaking his meter so you will notice. THAT is not the case with Godfrey Gordon here. More likely it's sort of a child's 'street rant' that was fit to a known meter. It was meant to be iambic through and through, but the first name "Godfrey" just didn't fit. It is lacking the first breve to make a proper iamb, and in the case of "was a BOY" again, you see that an extra breve was just added in to get the sentence to fit.

SOOOOO, in this case, don't waste any tears, don't pull out your hair, don't fret over the meter. Mark the stresses and breves, find a dominant meter, and be done.

IF on the other hand you were analyzing something like Tennyson's Eagle.... or The Charge of the Light Brigade (appended below), also by Tennyson....

HE clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

... you can bet your bottom dollar that any irregularity in meter, any deviation from what you discovered to be the 'rule' is there for a reason. Tennyson didn't write by accident, his poems are not sloth, he doesn't violate rules for lack of talent or because he doesn't care.

So my advice is to distinguish between simple nursery rhymes or children's games or 'sloppy poets' and let their meter do what it does for convenience's sake, but when you're with Robert Frost, Spenser, Tennyson, Emerson, etc... identify your stresses and breves, then THINK about the words involved where there are gross deviations and consider what the poet might have had in mind.

Does that answer things or just complicate the issue?

Lene



.................

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

[Kate]

Thanks Carolyn and Lene..

I can remember, now, that this is one area that made poetry so difficult (and unpleasant) to me as a highschooler; my personality is such that I thrive on order and pattern, so it is difficult for me to "let go", if that makes sense.

Fine for me, I'll get over it, lol, but my student (ds 10) is much in the same mold as I. I recognize that in my case a late introduction to poetry and one that did not address this issue had long-term effects -- I don't want to make the same mistakes with my child. I think this is a topic that we will have to discuss directly...

[Carolyn]

Kate,

I am very much a lover of order as well, and my son is even more so than me. What has helped me is realizing that saying that the meter is iambic doesn't mean "The Exact Meter Of Every Foot In This Poem Is Iambic". It's a convenient shorthand for saying that "over 50% of the feet in this poem are iambic, or at least, 50% of the lines in the section of the poem that I am looking at."

Poetry is an art, not a science. And this science brain just has to wonder sometimes at the things artsy brains do. "To confuse me" is a perfectly valid answer to the question "Why does the poet deviate from a strict iambic rhythm."

Carolyn