Sure it's a spondee, Janet, and I accent the same words you do. A spondee's a 2-syllable foot with more-or-less equal stress on both syllables (though some theorists consider the term irrelevant for metrical classification because they argue that one syllable or the other always dominates slightly). But whether you call it a spondee or an iamb or a trochee, it's still got only one beat. The line's trimeter. I have no doubt this was done intentionally, just don't think it works. Line 6, on the other hand, reads perfectly naturally to me as tetrameter, and I'm willing to bet the writer intended it as tetrameter.
Carol
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Hybrid Mode
