[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Originally posted by Alan Sullivan:
That's because you haven't considered "line-wrap," a concept I only absorbed a year or so back. Juxtapose a feminine line ending with an initial iamb, and you get another pair of unstressed syllables, this time bridging the line break. Call it a "ghost anapest."

Alan,

Similarly to the idea of "line wrap," I wonder about other instances when a "ghost foot" might be good for effect, even within a line. For instance, a line which contains for the second and third foot a trochee/iamb combination might also contain a "ghost anapest" which would possibly resonate with an anapest in the next line.

--I've been a little bit obsessed by such considerations, lately. I posted a poem called "Barracks" at The Deep End with these two consecutive lines:

the dark: wearing T-shirts and boxers, forms
bend to polish boots and buckles, place pins

Although this might not be an ideal example, I've wondered if the "ghost anapest" in the combination WEARing t-SHIRTS might resonate with the next line's -les place PINS. Perhaps a better example would be a poem in which the trochee/iamb and the anapest in the next line occurred at similar places within the individual lines.

I've also wondered about the reverse construction: iamb/trochee might contain a "ghost spondee" on the stressed syllables.

Curtis.


[This message has been edited by Curtis Gale Weeks (edited February 01, 2002).]