A recent note from Terese led me to have a look at this thread, and I'm afraid I must correct Tim's correction of Terese. "My Mother" is metrical, strictly speaking--it is in syllabics, 7-syllable lines (though I took the liberty of adding or dropping a syllable occasionally when it seemed necessary). Syllabics is usually an honorary meter in English.
The only time I really hear it is in the short lines, seven only rarely, usually five. (Elizabeth Daryush has some very beautiful lyrics in rhymed 5-syllabe lines.) Mostly it's a controlled way of writing free verse.
And another small correction: i use both initial capitals and lower case for both free verse and metrical.
Since Tim mentioned the difficulty of a villanelle in trimeter, I thought I'd copy out this short one, which I realized after I finished it must have been influenced by Robinson's great villanelle, "The House on the Hill"
NO MORE
Once they have closed the door,
That is the final day
And time will be no more.
Forget "the other shore"—
No earth, no sea, no way
Once they have closed the door,
No after, no before,
Nothing for clocks to say,
For time will be no more—
Vain the discarded core,
Useless the feet of clay
Once they have closed the door.
For soldier, queen and whore,
All persons of the play,
Time will be no more.
No time now to restore
This burden, this cliché.
Soon they will close the door
And time will be no more.
(Sorry it copied out so unreadable, but I couldn't move the line to the left margin and I couldn't delete it. I hate
computers.)
(Amazing--it came out right in being transferred to the thread. I love computers.)
[This message has been edited by robert mezey (edited July 09, 2004).]
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