Hmm. Well, the envoy is there to replace the last duchess with a new one. But I'd be reluctant on reading aloud to give the game away at once. How about a dactyl? THAT'S my last DUCHess? The bottom line being, that opening line is very fluid. And it matters a good deal to the duke that she was a duchess.

Cheers,
John

I think we are saying the same thing, John. Inverting the first foot of IP turns an iamb into a trochee. This gives the pattern DUM de de Dum. It's a standard variation. Call the first three syllables a dactyl if you want, but I think that is an error of classification.

Clive

I just now noticed this post. Thanks.

I don't think TS's four-tiered meter system is complicated at all.

This is your scansion of the first line of "My Last Duchess":

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
THAT'S my / LAST DUCH / ess PAINT / ed on / the WALL

From this I am able to deduce that you take issue with TS's adherence to the rule that there should never be three unstressed syllables in a row.

TS's four-tiered meter system allows for a very light (but natural) stress on "on", which is, as you say, promotable. It being promotable, why on earth wouldn't it be promoted here? Your "system" would appear to be more complicated than TS's.

Duncan

To cut to the chase, I scan this in strict IP. The music and cadence and all the other elements that make a poem are played against this strict IP, which is useful here to see that some words have more syllables than what's normal to some contemporary readers, such as "unused."

SONNET 48

How careful was I when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.

One of the truly great things about formal poetry, as has become evident throughout this thread, is that we can all agree that something is "metrical," and we can even agree on the precise meter that something is in, and yet we can have different ways of scanning that meter.

This sonnet is such a great example of the delightful imperfection of scansion. I would take a metrical bullet for anyone claiming this is strict IP, and yet when I read it aloud, I can't help but emphasize the first TWO words in L9, and more in L10, like so:

THEE HAVE I NOT lock'd UP in ANy CHEST,
SAVE WHERE thou art NOT, [brief pause] THOUGH I FEEL thou ART,

In other words, I would call the poem IP -- STRICT IP, even -- yet how I would read it aloud is not necessarily quite so strict. Honestly, this is one of the beauties of meter, and is at least part of the reason why I'm doing my doctorate in early modern poetry.

Hi E. Shaun, sure, you could emphasize any syllable more than another, but I still don't think that changes the underlying strict meter. If you listen very closely and quietly in your mind, for instance, there's the very slightest greater stress on "my" in this line:

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall

That doesn't mean the speaker is proclaiming loud ownership. But when you say the line quietly in your mind, without trying to interpret or stage it, you can hear - especially if you try to give the first four syllables equal stress in a kind of mechanical manner - that "my" naturally does get a slightly stronger stress. In other words, scansion is a counting technique that has little to do with interpretation.

I think it helps to think of it in terms of Tim Steele's method of scanning both beats and volume (I forget if that's what he calls it). As you probably remember, Steele does a scansion that gives to each syllable a volume measurement on a scale of 4, with 1 being the softest and 4 being the loudest. What's interesting is that some metrically unstressed syllables could be scanned as a 3, while some syllables taking a metrical beat could be scanned as a 2. What counts for metrical purposes is the volume relative to the immediately adjacent syllables. You can have a 3-4 iamb, but you can also have a 1-2 iamb. And it might even happen in the same line.

Bravo, the magical mixes of meter in the many minds!

Timothy Steele recommends that the strength of syllables be measured on a scale of one to four, i.e. weak (1), semiweak (2), semistrong (3), and strong (4). Steele would perhaps analyze "That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall" as being five iambs with strengths of 1 2/ 3 4/ 1 3/ 1 2 / 1 3, and call the first foot a light iamb and the second foot a heavy iamb. The stressed syllable in the light iamb is often a case of promotion. He gives no examples of a heavy iamb being followed by a light iamb.

To give examples of this light/heavy iamb combination, here's Millais' "If I should learn, in some quite casual way". There are six instances of it in the sonnet, and in each case the stressed syllable in the light iamb is a case of promotion. (L1, 3rd/4th; L5, 3rd/4th; L7, 4th/5th; L8, 4th/5th; L9, 1st/2nd; L11, 1st/2nd)

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you were gone, not to return again—
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man— who happened to be you—
At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry
Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—
I should but watch the station lights rush by
With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.

The next poem in her collection has a title, “Bluebeard”, after a character from a French folktale who kills a succession of wives when they disobey him and enter a room he has warned them not to enter.

This door you might not open, and you did;
So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed... . Here is no treasure hid,
No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring
The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain
For greed like yours, no writhings of distress,
But only what you see... . Look yet again—
An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.
Yet this alone out of my life I kept
Unto myself, lest any know me quite;
And you did so profane me when you crept
Unto the threshold of this room to-night
That I must never more behold your face.
This now is yours. I seek another place.

There are few fireworks in this metrically speaking, just eight trochaic substitutions, which suits the bleak tone of the piece. However, we do have, again, six instances of a light iamb followed by a heavy iamb, where in each case the stressed syllable in the light iamb is a case of promotion (L1, 2nd/3rd; L2, 4th/5th; L4, 2nd/3rd, L6, 4th/5th; L11, 4th/5th; L12, 3rd/4th). Here these gradual increases of stress can be said to represent the fatal steps that Bluebeard’s wife takes into the forbidden room. The first two instances occur at the start and at the end of the passage where Bluebeard bids his wife “enter now” (lines 1-2), and the last two instances occur at the start and at the end of the passage that returns to the fateful moment “when you crept / Unto the threshold of this room...” (lines 11-12).

Duncan