meter in "Sir Thaddeus"

[IHIVG]

Ah, 'art' is archaic 'are' here!!! Thank you. Of course I thought of it as a NOUN! Now THAT makes sense.
... my country, you
Are like good health...

Back to the Baltics. The way people pronounce Lithuania always sounded 4-syllabic to me -- [li-thuei-ni-a]. That's why I couldn't understand the stress on 'li'. The dictionary gives [li-thju-ei-ni-a]. (although this 'thju' is almost imperceptible in speech isn't it?)
Now I can see why 'li' has a slight stress given that Lithuania has 5 syllables:

O Lithuania my country thou. and this makes iambic tetrameter for me.
Now the only thing that I don't understand is the stress on the last 'a'.
Do you accentuate it when you read the line? It just sounds awkward to me if I do.

[BobK]

Ah, 'art' is archaic 'are' here!!! Thank you. Of course I thought of it as a NOUN! Now THAT makes sense.
... my country, you
Are like good health...

Back to the Baltics. The way people pronounce Lithuania always sounded 4-syllabic to me -- [li-thuei-ni-a]. That's why I couldn't understand the stress on 'li'. The dictionary gives [li-thju-ei-ni-a]. (although this 'thju' is almost imperceptible in speech isn't it?)
Now I can see why 'li' has a slight stress given that Lithuania has 5 syllables:

O Lithuania my country thou. and this makes iambic tetrameter for me.
Now the only thing that I don't understand is the stress on the last 'a'.
Do you accentuate it when you read the line? It just sounds awkward to me if I do.

We speakers of English aren't very good at pronouncing other languages' diphthongs! Mrs Thatcher used it almost as a weapon of war 'Gal-ti-e-ri'; the message was 'You foreigners may think it has only three syllables, but I shall do what's right!'

I don't stress the 'a' at the end. I think you're confusing word stress with poetical stress. Perhaps they are more closely linked in your language's literature. The 'a' is not stressed; is just has more weight than 'my'.

b

[Alan Holpinburgfurt]

i feel stupid for asking but is this written by shakespear? i didnt study this kind of stuff much.

[birdeen's call]

Hi, Alan. Could you please type more carefully? Capital letters and apostrophes won't harm you.

No, it wasn't written by Shakespeare. It was written by Adam Mickiewicz.

[Frank Antonson]

I have been too lazy to read all of the posts, but I immediately thought that so much may have depended upon the performance of the speaker, that is, to recite to a beat.

[5jj]

I have been too lazy to read all of the posts, but I immediately thought that so much may have depended upon the performance of the speaker, that is, to recite to a beat.

One reason I abstain from participation in such discussions on metre, apart from my ignorance, is that I feel that sometimes what the poet intends and what the reader feels may be two different things.

I gave up any serious attempt to decide what type of metre was used when I read once:

If we read the first two syllables of an amphibrachic line as an iambus, the remainder of the line may be considered as anapæstic, e.g. –

There cáme│to the beách │a poor éx│ile of É│rin,
The déw│on his thín│robe was heá│vy and chíll.

Similarly, if we read the first two syllables of a dactylic line as a trochee, the remainder of the line may be considered as amphibrachic, e.g. –

Bríghtest│and bést of│the sóns of│the mórning.

Daniel, the Rev. Canon (1904) The Grammar, History and Derivation of the English Language, London: National Society’s Depository


It seems that you pays your money and you takes your choice.

[303111064]

I feel it's difficult.