Two requests, Tim. Peter Earsman has a thread on General Talk entitled Relentless Meter, and it's about the liveliest metrical discussion we've ever had. You're being cited, and it behooves you to weigh in. Second, a first for the Lariat Board. David Anthony has posted a new sonnet on Alan's Metrical Order Board which some of us think is one of the best things ever posted in this shop. I think it illustrates the infinite variablity of the pentameter line and even better illustrates something you've not yet talked about here, the working of grammar, sentence, syntax against the confines of lines and quatrains. Here it is, and I hope you'll comment:

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 unconquerable soul.
We shared a God--no, not the one whose whole
existence was compassionate, who tried
by talking of redemption to console
his wayward children, and was crucified.
We chose your sterner deity as guide,
with ancient tribal precepts, and a sword.
Though hope and charity did not abide,
faith lived when our uncompromising Lord--
not often merciful, but always just--
demanded eye for eye, and dust for dust.