I have a very elementary question about meter. Since there is only one primary stress in English words, how does one fit longer words into an iambic line? For instance, the word octopus (which I did actually use in one poem) scans Xoo, and the word declaration scans ooXo. I've read that a certain amount of variation is permissible, and even desirable in metrical verse, but does that mean that one can only employ a certain number of these kinds of words in a single poem? What if one wanted to write a piece that used declaration, fascination, trepidation, etc. as end-rhymes but did not want to vary the meter of the entire piece to scan as those words do?
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Longer words with secondary stresses can fit into both duple and triple meters. In duple meters the secondary stresses count as full stresses; in triple meters the secondary stresses "step down" to unaccented syllables.
The octopui are lucky when they beg
Because they have a hand for every leg.
When the octopus begs it's a luckier fate,
For his mendicant status gets totaled as eight.
At the ends of lines, the words you mention could work as both double and triple rhymes (triple in dipodic meters).
We stood around and viewed with fascination
The former star who ran a filling station.
While we stood around and wondered with a sort of fascination
We observed a former movie star reduced to has-been station.
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