Notes from the meter notebook

[temperance14]

Per Stephen Fry I ought to practice beats
and Exercise-The-First, heroic lines:
here follows notes I've dragged from brain to pen
in prior weeks of scratching lobes and nerves--
and often writing soaking in the tub:

No use--my mind can't think in five iambs
This thirty second rule is foolish crap!
I've only written five of Fry's required.
The last of them, the sixth was awkward speech.
I'm wrinkling; hands becoming numb too soon.

Supposed to use iambic beats each day
So now this Thursday morning, desperate.
In trying for a steady rising beat
but fail because I have trochaic mind.
My thoughts condense to four and not to five
or overflow into the fifth to seep
and dribble unintended triplets
or bleed enjambments, not intended yet.

*******
So, caved into tetrameter
and rondelets to praise Him:

Mister Fry can go to Hell
He demands heroic meter
Mister Fry can go to Hell
Anacreontics ring my bell
I ought to use a rising beat, or
Pad my verse with scuds to cheat--or
Mister Fry, just go to hell!

***************

For those who wish to try their hand at verse,
the basic exercise is strict iambs.
Just single lines or couplets, nothing more--
at endings stop without enjambment,please.
(I should have left caesuras out, as well.)
Do twenty lines at half a minute each.

Comments

[kelsied.livejournal.com]

I wonder if my odd facility
with iambs and the like seems somewhat mean
to friends and family who lack this knack.

But lest it seem I shun pentameter,
I note I find the word far dammiter.
Including it has set me back, alack!

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

It seems to demonstrate the fact
that English generated thought
will glide or strut in marching time,
and count to four in beats and lines.

[kelsied.livejournal.com]

Evaluating just the facts, it seems
that what this process lacks is just that thing --
A break in line that makes sense at the pro-
per time.