Dear Colin,
Ah, my hastiness in posting showed -- I Googled to find common examples of trochaic tetrameter with catalexis and the Blake kept showing up. So much for depending on the world mind for wisdom! I shoulda known better, having taught the poem again this semester (though not for form, but for visual form).
Hey Sam, could you email me the list as well?
Maryann, yeah, I read that as an unalloyed anapest. No headless foot at all.
Roger, I don't disagree, but as you say that's more the exception that proves the rule. I'll allow myself that substitution VERY rarely, and only if it really adds something.
Hmn, this forum reminds me of my one-and-only time at Westchester, walking with Bill Baer and a crowd of others and talking about how lovely it was to be in a place where you could ask a question such as "what're your favorite and least favorite substitutions" and not be looked at like an alien.
Thanks for the fun discussion.
Yours, Tony
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