Pick whatever meter works best for you, and make sure that the preceding lines establish that. There are probably about eight people in the world who (a) know what "boustrophedon" means, (b) use it in a poem, and (c) worry about the meter. And most of them are already on this thread (Julie hasn't shown up yet.) In other words - what Matt said. Go with what works best for the poem and direct the meter accordingly. And if anybody disagrees with your meter choice, get even with them swiftly and quietly!

It depends. Are you reading it backwards or forward?

Thank you so much. Aaron for the Frost-precedent and Michael for the carte blanche. I am in your debt, all of you.

FWIW - i.e., not very much - I have a poem which states, "Still the tractor rolls / in boustrophedon down the beach," and that's how I scan it.

Cheers,
John

Sorry, John - I should have mentioned you as one of the Octet of Enlightenment.

In Greek, the accent's on the final syllable, because it's an adverb:

I suppose that's an argument for pronouncing it "boo-STROH-fee-DON" in English, which keeps the stress on the final syllable despite English's abhorrence of three unstressed syllables in a row.

The main argument for "boo-stroh-FEE-don" is probably that the "e" is an eta rather than an epsilon, and Greek accents don't recess past the penultimate syllable if that syllable is long. (But anyone who moves the stress from the last syllable of this word is disregarding the original Greek, anyway, and it seems silly to make a point of pedantically adhering to one rule while ignoring another.)

Also, in English, it's not an adverb--it's a noun. So whatever.

Bottom line: I think you can make a case for whichever you'd like.

I feel relieved to know, Julie, that my stress here isn't wildly out of left field. Otherwise I'd have to revise the thing.
Michael, I've never been in an octet before. Thank you!

Cheers,
John

Thanks, Julie, though I feel I am using the word adverbially...

I hear boustrophedon either as two unaccented syllables, though with the first slightly more stressed than the second, followed by an accented and an unaccented syllable; or alternatively, simply as two trochees, thus boustrophedon. An example of the first and of the second second. The received pronunciation in English allows at least that much variability, so I would stress whichever way accommodates the meter at hand in the context. If that helps any.

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It is a new word for me.
.made been has day My
Into the shoebox it goes.
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