R.,
I more-than-less agree that poets intend one reading even if multiple readings of a line might be possible--that there is one best way to read a line. I'm still trying to "hear" how the first syllable of "about" can be accented over the last syllable...which only means that my own ear might not "hear" in the way a master's might hear. [This last is in reference to a different thread...] The Frost lines certainly are loose; how am I to know how Frost intended them? The whole subject is quite frustrating for me. I tend to "hear" this in the first three lines of that poem:
The BUZZ saw SNARLED and RATtled IN the YARD
And MADE dust and DROPPED STOVE-length STICKS of WOOD,
Sweet-SCENTed STUFF when the BREEZE DREW aCROSS it.
--so I "hear" ionics in the second and third lines, which give the lines a swing. The second line continues an accent pattern on the verbs (the action of the saw), especially also because this continues the iambic pattern of L1 into the first foot of the second line. To what degree are strong stresses demoted in these lines in adherence to an iambic meter? I can force a reading that is strictly iambic, but I can't really "hear" it without difficulty. I understand what Mr. Mezey's saying about strong stresses falling a bit short of the beat or a bit after the beat; but my ear struggles to accept that in every potential instance in these lines.
Ah well.
C.
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