Week 4: Fox & Grapes, Poetic Meter Analysis

[mjwheelers]

Hello,
We had a question about Week 4: The Fox and the Bunch of Grapes, Day 3 Analysis & Imitation of POETIC METER.

When marking the stresses and breves, we noticed an irregularity on Line 4:

"Observed that their fullness now increased,"

We marked it as follows:

U / U / U / U / U
Ob served that their full ness now in creased,

But when you read it as such, it is stilted.

Is this one of those cases where there is a "kink in the armor" of the poetic meter, where it is not completely regular?

As a side, I found reading this poem a challenge because I didn't know whether to pause at the end of each line or at the grammatical breaks (commas, periods, semi-colons). I admit I am learning right along with my daughter in this area.

Thanks for your help,
Kim

[Carolyn]

It's definitely stilted if you force it into iambic meter, isn't it? Instead of forcing the poem into the meter, we recommend reading it aloud, and then marking it to correspond to the way you read it.

As you study poetry more, you'll find that often there are reasons why a poet breaks with the dominant meter -- but that's not a concept to worry about in your beginning studies.

Carolyn

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Kim,

The poem in question is a translation of a Latin poem by Valerius. So already from the start there is an issue of translation, if nothing else.

Poetic meters, as a rule, do not follow the rule. It is only children's nursery rhymes and other very simple poems that are completely predictable according to the meter ascribed to the poem. Most 'artful' poetry will have selective deviations which are there for emphasis. Any time you break the original meter, for a word or for a whole line, you are calling attention to something.

When you read, you never break at the end of a line. You read as you would prose, and you break when you hit the end of a sentence.

Lene

[mjwheelers]

Carolyn and Lene,

Thank you both for your replies. That answers our questions. We appreciate your time and dedication to mentoring families.

Homeschooling is for the parents too- right ?? !!!

Blessings,
Kim

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

;D Well, I always thought, by the time all my students are graduated, I will finally be well educated.

Lene