Jason,
Nyctom is quite right--vocal and metrical stress (despite what some may say) is NOT the same. When vocal and metrical and semantic stress all coincide, over and over, you get sing-song verse. In this trochaic tetrameter (catalectic, as Bob would have me point out), all the stresses coincice:
TY ger, tY ger, BURN ing BRIGHT
If Blake had kept that up through the entire poem, it would be quite annoying. But in the next line we have:
IN the FOR est OF the NIGHT
Where we more more monosyllables, and the prepositions IN and OF are promoted to stressed, though they are small words, and of slightly lesser importance, than, say, nouns or verbs.
Both lines are metrically the same, but to me have very different sounds. Some of what makes the difference in lines is speed, for instance. If there are many unstressed words that are, however, important and full of long vowels or consonants, you get a slow line. If a line is full of small and short syllables (even the stressed ones), and multi-syllabic words that trip off the tongue, the line speeds up. To me that is rhythm, rather than meter.
Re how you scan your sample passages:
the KIDS are GOOD at this. their NIMble FINGers
You only have four stresses here--a problem, since we are in iambic pentameter. THIS, a pronoun and semantically very important, gets a stress also. Remember that, especially in ip, regarding monosyllables, they will tend to be stressed or unstressed simply by a process of alternation, based on what preceds them--unless there is very strong semantic evidence to the contrary (and "the", for instance, is almost never stressed):
the KIDS are GOOD at THIS, their NIM ble FIN gers
This is a line where semantic, vocal, and metrical stress coincide--thus it has a strong pulse and skims along. Also a good opening line, as it is so metrically sure-footed. It sets the beat.
DOUBle and FOLD and DOUBle FOLD the PAGes,
I'd scan the same as you. A trochee for iamb switch in the first foot is such a common variation that it is hardly considered one (and this is one substitution we should be seeing more of on the metrical boards).
MAKing MIMetic Icons for ALL Ages.
Again, the trochee/iamb switch in first foot. Your scansion here is fine--though I might have
MAK ing mi MET ic IC ons FOR all AG es
(Note that, VERY often, prepositions are promoted, despite how we tend to say them in speech. Though your ALL AG es is also perfectly possible, and perhaps closer to speech.)
the FLOOR of the SCHOOL is LITTered with DEAD RINGers:
I'd probably scan that one the same as you--though on some days I might promote "with" slightly and demote "dead." If "dead" is unstressed, though, it is a heavy and emphatic unstressed syllable, slowing the line down.
Now here you have LOTS of heavy UNSTRESSED syllables. That is what is tripping you up.
This is how you scan it, putting in more than five stresses a line sometimes (problematic for pentameter):
SONGBIRDS that REALly FLAP their WINGS, RARE CRANES,
BLEACHED bonSAI TREES, PALE GHOULS, TWO kinds of HATS,
DWARF STARS, WHITE ROSes, PERsian COPyCATS,
SMALL PACKet BOATS, WHOLE FLEETS of FLYable PLANES.
Here is how I "scan" it:
SONG birds that REAL ly FLAP their WINGS rare CRANES
bleached BON sai TREES, pale GHOULS, two KINDS of HATS
(or perhaps TWO kinds of HATS)
dwarf STARS, white ROS es, PER sian COP y CATS
small PACK et BOATS whole FLEETS of FLY ab le PLANES
Personally, for me a spondee (two stressed syllables back to back in one foot), is usually a rhythm, not a meter, thus usually consists of a heavy, slow unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable (also, often, heavy and slow). For me, "bleached" "pale" "dwarf" "white" "small" "whole" are unstressed syllables that are nevertheless very important and slow down how we say the line. Notice, as Steele would point out, that these are also all modifiers, and of slightly less semantic importance than the nouns they modify. Not everyone uses this method--many prefer the traditional Greek feet, and lines with five feet but more or even fewer than five stresses. I think this is confusing for beginners, and that this method--pentameter equals FIVE and ONLY FIVE stresses a line, though employing heavy unstressed syllables--is more pragmatic.
Hope this is of some help.
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