I have to agree with Bob that meter and rhythm are properly at war in the vast majority of first-rate poetry. And meter is simple, whether it be Homer's (and Virgil's) dactyllic hexameters or Murphy's iambic dimeter. Rhythms in poems are far more complex. The rhythm of the line, of the stanza, of the sentence, the much larger rhythm of the entire emotional argument of the poem. Rhythm follows argument, follows the complex thoughts of the human brain, accords with syntax and all the complexities of our speech. Meter, which gives all these rhythms their magic, is basically metronomic. It is the numbers. It is the net on the tennis court where Frost played to win.
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