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Unread 05-23-2004, 03:22 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: New York
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One of my favorite trimeter poems is another by Frost. It doesn't seem "nervous" to me, and it's also a good example of sustaining long sentences over many lines. The first sentence ends on L11 and draws to a truly moving close. L11 is trimeter, I know, but it almost takes on a tet quality as each word is a monosyllable and the pace slows down: "of SO MUCH WARMTH and LIGHT". I also love the title:


Happiness Makes Up In Height What It Lacks In Length

O stormy, stormy world,
The days you were not swirled
Around with mist and cloud,
Or wrapped as in a shroud,
And the sun’s brilliant ball
Was not in part or all
Obscured from mortal view—
Were days so very few
I can but wonder whence
I get the lasting sense
Of so much warmth and light.
If my mistrust is right
It may be altogether
From one day’s perfect weather,
When starting clear at dawn
The day swept clearly on
To finish clear at eve.
I verily believe
My fair impression may
Be all from that one day
No shadow crossed but ours
As through its blazing flowers
We went from house to wood
For change of solitude.

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