[Shaun J. Russell]

Originally Posted by Perry James

I have to turn off my computer in a moment, but before I do, let me say that the line above ends with a stressed syllable, so the "and" can't take a stress.

I don't mean to cast any aspersions, but any word can take a stress. Literally any word. Scansion is a tool, applied retroactively to figure out where stresses are, but the art of poetry itself means that anything goes. If it makes more sense for one line to end in a stressed foot, and the next line to begin with a stressed foot, so be it. Hopkins does it all the time.

But that scansion shows five feet, not four.

I think you might be mixing up terms here. Feet can have multiple stresses.

I think that first foot is a dactyl. I consider dactyls to be illegal in IP always.

What Nemo said. As a metrical poet, I can do whatever the heck I want, metrically, if it serves my purpose.