[Bards] Need help with formats

[Jay Rudin]

Mostly.  That line could be in an iambic tetrameter verse, but it contains one metrical variation.  It actually scans as:

iamb, iamb, trochee, iamb
(da-DUM, da-DUM; DUM-da, da DUM)

This is a very common variation, useually at the beginning of a line or (as here) right after a pause halfway through the line.  This pause is called a ceasura.  The substitution is called a trochaic inversion.  There's one after the ceasura in the following line:

To be, or not to be.  That is the question.
(da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM. DUM-da, da-DUM-da)

Note also the feminine ending on the last foot.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: GottfriedSBK 
  To: Ansteorran Bardic list 
  Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 8:32 AM
  Subject: Re: [Bards] Need help with formats


  Iambic tetrameter would be:

  he came, he saw, conquered, the end.

  True?

  Gottfried
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