[MacArthur]

If I was writing a practical manual on metrics for poets (or editing one) I’d devote an entire second chapter to the phenomena of Metrical Promotion and Demotion (or Subordination). I would hammer it home with example after example.
Most prosody texts I’ve seen give quite serviceable and correct explanations of the facts…for a few sentences or paragraphs—and Tim Steele’s “All the Fun…” goes on for a couple of (excellent) pages. Nothing wrong with the job done—except most beginning poets clearly haven’t understood it, don’t employ it systematically, and can’t control its natural occurrence. It’s apparent from comments I’ve seen (mostly on Sonnet Central) that many amateur poets consider the inclusion of promoted stress in lines as a sort of Metrical Flaw…to be avoided.

By example, Promotion:
…for lovers, a require ment is tact—
for others the require ment to act…
(from an unfinished/unpublished— and, probably, unworthy— poem of mine)

The all time master of Metrical Promotion would likely be Shakespeare— almost any complete line of blank verse in “The Tempest” contains at least one (if not two or three) elegant examples.

Demotion: My candidate for greatest is Mr. Suave-n-Smooth himself, Alfred Lord Tennyson:

The long day wanes, the slow moon climbs the deep
Moans round with many voices…

…two of the three demoted syllables are nouns, and they all take long vowels!

Recently a remarkable (good) sonnet was posted on Metrical Order by David Anthony. It’s curious to see how it works. The argument is not fresh (every capital defense attorney sums up this way), the narrative detail is minimal and imagery non-existent, the diction and rhymes are commonplace, and there are no obvious ingenuities of meter.
Yet it maintains a tone of gravity and significance without sounding preachy. How?
I believe it’s the combination of entirely regular Iambic Pentameter (no substitutions I can detect…not even a feminine ending) with the systematic and artful employment of promoted stress. There is some medial pausing and a mild degree of enjambment on some lines— but the Promotions do most of the work of relieving the rhythm. Except, appropriately, in the last line.

Out of the Night

(on the Execution of Timothy McVeigh)

We saw your death— they showed it on TV—
and had revenge, if vengeance was our goal.
You thanked the gods, whatever gods may be,
and spoke of your unconquer a ble soul.
We shared a God— no, not the one whose whole
existence was compassion ate, who tried
by promis ing redemption to console
his wayward children, and was cruci fied.
We chose your sterner de i ty as guide,
with ancient tribal precepts, and a sword.
Though hope and chari ty did not abide,
faith lived when our uncompro mi sing Lord—
not often merci ful, but always just—
demanded eye for eye, and dust for dust.

The least radical promotion is TV (that's more or less how we say it), and the most radical is inconquerable (which is scarcely heard, but mostly just assumed). The rest cover the range and shift around the line.
What do you think?




[This message has been edited by MacArthur (edited July 16, 2001).]