Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Cantor
S1 and S6 are headless - not only don't I have a problem with that, but - particularly in a longer poem - I think it helps to sometimes break up the ba-DUM, ba-DUM, ba-DUM of iambic pentameter.
|
The only problem with headlessness—Matt mentioned this recently—is metrical ambiguity when the first syllable of the line isn’t naturally stressed. I’d naturally read S1L2, for example, as tet with an initial anapest, and it’s only later, when I learn that pent is the base meter, that I can go back and re-scan the line as headless pent. Either way, though, varies the meter and reads well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Cantor
I did close up "spotlit" originally, and my computer said I was a moron, and it should be separated.
|
Your spellchecker would be happier with “spotlighted,” but the dictionaries I’ve checked allow “spotlit” as well. As you say, though, leave it to the editor.