The Justice line with its preceding line:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTFor hours the convoys had rolled by
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTLike storm clouds in a troubled sky
The lines are strict tetrameter---in must
get the metrical accent, though of course it's a
very light one. You might say the line the
way Rhina scanned it, but your ear should be satis-
fied it has the expected four accents and each in
its expected place. Caleb, I really don't
know what clouds wants---for all I know,
every iamb dreams of becoming a trochee---but
because of its lowered stress in relation to
storm, it is just not quite strong enough
to get the metrical accent. Another example of
this very common phenomenon:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTHe burned his house down for the fire insurance
---for gets the (very light) metrical accent, not
down.
And Carol, that late caesura in Stevens' line, right
before the final trochee, is lovely, yes, but it's
not necessary to have one. Here are two lines that
end with scazons, trochees in the final foot---one
is my rendering of a Borges line, and the other is
Dick Barnes' rendering of a Borges line:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTWould lose his senses and his rash eyesight
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTAnd who can tell me if the dark archive
And one could easily find many more examples of scazons
with no preceding caesura.
[This message has been edited by robert mezey (edited September 13, 2001).]
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