Short Assignment #2

Recall that poetic meter plays on the difference between an ideal form and real language’s deviations from that form.

Recall also the indicators of stress in English:

- Multisyllabic words have relatively unambiguous stress patterns (e.g. you can say “PATterns,” but not “patTERNS”).

- You can usually substitute a schwa (the neutral vowel) for an unstressed vowel (e.g. “vowel” is usually pronounced “vowəl”). This is not always the case; for instance, in the word “infinity,” the final y is clearly unstressed, but you cannot substitute a schwa for it.

- Lexical words – words with “meaning,” e.g. nouns, action verbs, adjectives, adverbs – are more likely to be stressed than nonlexical words, e.g. function words like prepositions, helping verbs, conjunctions, and articles. For example, in the sentence “I walked to the room,” “I,” “to,” and “the” are not stressed, but “walked” and “room” are stressed.

Choose ten consecutive lines from “Thanatopsis” and scan them.

1. What is the overall metrical pattern of these lines?

2. Examine the “exceptions” in your ten lines:

    a. List all examples of lines that seem to have too many syllables.

    b. List all examples of lines that seem to have few syllables.

    c. List all examples of feet that do not seem to fit the overall metrical pattern of your selection.