I grant that archive and eyesight have
stronger than usual second syllables, mainly because
of quantity. But neither could ever really be pro-
nounced as an iamb. The difference between a trochee
and what I call an inverted iamb is subtle, but no
less real for being subtle. (If anyone can come up
with a clearer or better term than inverted iamb, I'd
be glad to adopt it.) Here for example is a line
with a sudden trochee, a clear trochee (and not following
a caesura)---my rendering of a Borges line:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTHis work finished, he slipped away unseen
No question that the second foot is a trochee. Now, here's
an ambiguous line, where the the second foot could be
read either as a trochee or an inverted iamb:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTThe new day, and the shape of his own hand
And here's one that is an inverted iamb and nothing
else---reading it as a trochee would make for a less
delicate and interesting reading:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTTo fleeting forms, a bonfire, a tornado
Strange as it may seem at first, the fourth foot is
not a trochee but an inverted iamb. The second
syllable of bonfire is clearly subdued to
the first, and because of that, the article, yes,
the little article a gets the metrical accent
(though it's barely audible---it's as if the ear is
merely satisfied that there's an accent in there
somewhere and that the line goes on its iambic way,
all iambic). I hope that's clear.
As for what may account for accent other than the
position of the syllable, Solan, a tough question,
but offhand I'd say other things that might impinge
are quantity (rarely) and rhyme and the inflection
of the sentence. As I understand it, the three main
components of stress are intensity (volume), duration,
and pitch. Anyone of those might help determine
stress and yet not interfere with the accentual order.
For example, if you read in isolation the line
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTAnd offer to put me gently out of my pain
you'd read it as a loosely iambic line, with a clear
accent and a coinciding stress on pain,
especially since it happens to be a rhyme word. But
the whole passage goes:
I can't help owning the great relief it would be
To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.
But then next day as I come back into the sane,
I wonder how I should like you to come to me
And offer to me gently out of my pain.
You see, pain still gets the accent by virtue
of position and rhyme, but the stress is really on
my (in contrast to their), the stress
being mostly a matter of pitch. I'd call it, yup, an
inverted iamb. Now if all this seems complicated
and obscure, don't worry about it---time and reflection
and reading a lot of poetry with close attention to the
movement of the lines will teach you most if not all of
what you need to know. As for these theoretical bits,
they're only important as a way of explaining how best
to read some lines. And they're not always clear-cut.
Once we get away from the abstract simplicity of the
meter, we get into an area where we are at a loss to
explain; we don't really understand the inner laws of
verse. Again, that wonderful Frost passage:
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTRegular verse springs from the strain of rhythm
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTUpon a metre, loose or strict iambic.
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTFrom that strain comes the expression
BANNED POSTBANNED POSTBANNED POSTBANNED POSTBANNED POSTstrains of music.
The tune is not that metre, not that rhythm,
But a resultant that arises from them.
Yes, the resultant---the real sound of the line,
where all the fun is, and all the mystery.
[This message has been edited by robert mezey (edited September 14, 2001).]
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