[Pedro Poitevin]

I've noticed that many Sphereans say that they don't like hexameter in English, so I suspect that heptameter is out of the question. Is it not? I ask because not long ago I wrote an heptameter "sonnet" (if there is such a thing) in English. Why? Well, because I needed it to be heptameter. You see, it had to be a square. Fourteen lines, fourteen syllables in each line. In that way, I could encrypt a line along the syllabic diagonal, saying something meaningful in the context of the poem.

The poem concerns Georg Cantor, a mathematician whose diagonalization method proves there are more real numbers than natural numbers. A generalization of his method actually shows that there is an infinite hierarchy of infinities. The "sonnet" has lots of slant rhymes, gestures at Cantor's descent into madness, has nice enjambments playing with the concept of descent, and conceptualizes this hierarchy of infinities as an abyss. It obliquely refers to a number that is the key to Cantor's method, but it does not seem to tell the reader how to find said number-- until the reader reads the diagonal (Obviously, this would not work with a nonsquare poem.)

My question is whether the heptameter kills the poem before it arrives. Should I make it a Décima in pentameter?

[David Rosenthal]

Pedro,

Wow. That description of the poem is almost enough -- who needs the actual sonnet? But seriously, if you were really able to pull all that off, who cares if it's in dodecameter.

But to answer the general question, I tend to have trouble reading lines longer than pentameter. I have always considered it a personal flaw. Sometimes I can read hendecs, but I usually turn them into loose iambics in my mind. I have the same problem in free verse too -- long lines are almost more difficult for me than long poems. Oddly though, Spanish hendecs don't bother me in the same way.

Which, I suppose, is to say if everyone were me, heptameter wouldn't be a good idea. But lucky for you, most people are not me.

On the other hand, I actually think décimas work best in tri or tet, but if you can compress all of what you described into a pent décima, with that killer rhyme scheme, I say go for it.

David R.

[Lance Levens]

Pedro,

Check out the Sonnet Comparison Chart on Poetry Magnum Opus. There are many ways to write a sonnet--including hex.

Lance Levens

[Susan McLean]

To my ear, heptameter works better as a meter in English than hexameter does. That is because the tet/tri combination is very common in English, and that sounds a lot like heptameter when you hear it rather than seeing it. Alicia Stallings has done a translation of Lucretius in fourteeners (rhymed heptameter couplets). I have translated a few Latin epigrams into heptameter, though I usually boil them down to pentameter. I generally avoid hexameter because it slows the line down so much. An occasional hexameter in a Spenserian stanza doesn't bother me, but I tend to find long poems in hexameter to be tedious.

Susan

[David Rosenthal]

Originally Posted by Susan McLean

To my ear, heptameter works better as a meter in English than hexameter does. That is because the tet/tri combination is very common in English, and that sounds a lot like heptameter when you hear it rather than seeing it.

That is an excellent point. I frankly haven't read much heptameter, but I bet it would work if I heard it this way.

David R.

[Spindleshanks]

Hi Pedro.

Heptameter seems to work for the 14 by 14 editors. Among the current selections is a fourteener, Giants. I would take that as formal endorsement of the metre, along with a bow.

Peter

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

I write heptameter a lot, though sometimes divide it into ballad metre for easier reading. Here's a sonnet in heptameter of mine that was published in Candelabrum:


Lucky Charms

The sun had been surrounded by a gang of clouds out west;
I felt serene and thought about the way that I would rest.
The moon appeared, invigorated by a day in bed;
I sensed I’d better find a place that I could lay my head.

The silence of the countryside was music to my ear;
I listened briefly to a blackbird singing loud and clear.
The roaring of a car nearby turned out to be a brook;
I noted I was thirsty and resolved to take a look.

The water was delicious, and the air was sweet and good;
I walked upstream and came upon the shelter of a wood.
The ground was buried under leaves, a million lucky charms;
I tumbled down and pulled them to me with my legs and arms.

The stars conspired to close my eyes, and there, beside a log,
I found myself enchanted by the calling of a dog.

Duncan

[Allen Tice]

I'm very interested professionally (in two ways) to see the poem. Will you post it (or email me a copy via PM)? Fourteen syllables are good, conceptual infinities are good, too. You could toss in a reply here if you want on how different infinities (seen from different foundations) can be larger or smaller than each other.

Go, guy!

[R. Nemo Hill]

I love a breathlessly long line! The Flea just accepted a long 3 part poem of mine (The Banyan Tree And the Bathers) which is in heptameter and which ups the ante even further with eighteeners and [gasp ] even nineteeners thrown in for good measure.

"Then all the noise and movement of the street before me seemed a sort of dance,
this melody inaudible maintaining order in this realm of chance."

Nemo

[Chris Childers]

Susan said what I would have. Heptameter is better than hexameter in English for the reasons she states.