Hi Jason:
I am no metrical expert, but I read both passages as iambic with an additional syllable on some lines--like fingers. You don't make it easy on yourself though--those are both passages chuckafull with modified and complex nouns, so it is easy to read it a different way. But as Carol has told me, VOCAL stress is not the same as a METICAL BEAT. Ask Carol to explain this when she has time. I would screw it up, but her explanation cleared up a good deal of confusion for me. The meter of a piece is the foundation--it doesn't change, but you can change the vocal stresses. They often act in counterpoint to each other. It makes a passage more rhythmically interesting and keeps it from going all singsongy on you. Williamson likes puns and word games--so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he also likes to fool around with vocal stress to vary that underlying metical beat pulsing through the lines.
Say it out loud. Luckily I live alone so no one will smirk as I sit here and tap the beat out with a pencil on the desk or say it deliberately singsongy like that Little Rascals' episode. That helps. And Alicia is right: start small--I started with children's poems because unlike Mr. Williamson, they are very simple in their meter (little kids like a strong beat--one reason Dr Suess is a genius). Then read more outloud. Out loud is the important part--you have to HEAR the words in your ear as well as in your head. And, most important, trust your ear. I must admit I haven't done the other thing Tim and his cronies such as Mr. Hecht suggest--memorizing poems. That is because I am basically lazy. LOL. But I can see how it is good advice. If you memorize the poems, it will get into your bloodstream faster. I wouldn't worry about the terminology--learn to hear the beat. If ain't got that beat swingin' it is gonna sound all wrong. The terminology is liable to be confusing. I know I still have to run for the prosody manual for the terms.
Hope that helps. There are tons of threads on this if you go through the archives. Try putting in something like "scansion" or "substitutions" into the search field. I bet you will get back 40-100 threads.
nyctom
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