Dear Tim
This looks likely to be an interesting and useful exercise.
A couple of points….
You say that it is a “merit of trimeter and dimeter is that you CAN’T flunk Golias’ razor when you employ our shortest lines”. As far as trimeter is concerned, I think you can. Indeed, you might well want to. A much more important controlling issue is the length and complexity of the sentence. In my view, metre is very much a secondary issue – which is one reason why the Razor can be useful in discussing prose. The real issue is always the nature of the fit between sentence and metre. Many different kinds of expressive fit are possible. I am wary of prescription.
As to the wonderful Frost poem you cite, its subject and diction are certainly grave, but I am with Tim Steele insofar as my ear catches a certain nervous insistence here. It is notable that all the lines are end-stopped. It is the combination of this rhythmic-syntactical feature with the short lines which gives the poem its characteristic timbre. As for“Easter 1916”, Yeats allows himself much freedom in the metre: indeed, I would describe the metre of this fine poem as accentual trimeter rather than accentual-syllabic. This, too, has its effect on its tone, which for me is a kind of haunted, driven quality.
No doubt these are, to some extent, subjective matters. I merely register my own sense.
Good luck with this project.
Kind regards
Clive
[This message has been edited by Clive Watkins (edited May 23, 2004).]
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