Joanna ----------
Wow! That's some real English teacher stuff. I had a lot of trouble in poetry classes with the terminology. Half the time I didn't know what they were talking about.
I found the reference to the above, on wiki (iambic):
``Here is the first quatrain of a sonnet by John Donne, which demonstrates how he uses a number of metrical variations strategically:
/ ? ? / ? / ? / ? / Bat- ter | my heart | three- per- | soned God, | for you | ? / ? / / / ? / ? / as yet | but knock, | breathe, shine | and seek | to mend. | ? / ? / ? / / / ? ? / That I | may rise | and stand | o'er throw | me and bend | ? / ? / / / ? / ? / Your force | to break, | blow, burn | and make | me new. |
Donne uses an inversion (DUM da instead of da DUM) in the first foot of the first line to stress the key verb, "batter", and then sets up a clear iambic pattern with the rest of the line (da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM). In the second and fourth lines he uses spondees in the third foot to slow down the rhythm as he lists monosyllabic verbs. The parallel rhythm and grammar of these lines highlights the comparison Donne sets up between what God does to him "as yet" ("knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend"), and what he asks God to do ("break, blow, burn and make me new").''
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter
The spacing on the original got messed up...
This is such a deeply formal system that I always wondered if these guys just wrote something out and went back to work to refine it piecing words back into a form. Wondering if they got good enough to barely refine it at all...
It's definitely a high renaissance craft and a little like Brunelleschi's use of rhythm and proportion. It takes a lot of practice by hand to get a real hold of and to figure out how B's architecture looks so great.
So, if B and company can get good enough to just draw it out, it seems poets can do the same.
Blew another day not getting anything done.
CG