[Michael Cantor]

Pick whatever meter works best for you, and make sure that the preceding lines establish that. There are probably about eight people in the world who (a) know what "boustrophedon" means, (b) use it in a poem, and (c) worry about the meter. And most of them are already on this thread (Julie hasn't shown up yet.) In other words - what Matt said. Go with what works best for the poem and direct the meter accordingly. And if anybody disagrees with your meter choice, get even with them swiftly and quietly!

[Edmund Conti]

It depends. Are you reading it backwards or forward?

[Ann Drysdale]

Thank you so much. Aaron for the Frost-precedent and Michael for the carte blanche. I am in your debt, all of you.

[John Isbell]

FWIW - i.e., not very much - I have a poem which states, "Still the tractor rolls / in boustrophedon down the beach," and that's how I scan it.

Cheers,
John

[Michael Cantor]

Sorry, John - I should have mentioned you as one of the Octet of Enlightenment.

[Julie Steiner]

In Greek, the accent's on the final syllable, because it's an adverb:

βουστροφηδόν (boustrophēdón), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”) + στροφή (strophḗ, “turning”) + -ηδον (-ēdon, “adverbial suffix”).

I suppose that's an argument for pronouncing it "boo-STROH-fee-DON" in English, which keeps the stress on the final syllable despite English's abhorrence of three unstressed syllables in a row.

The main argument for "boo-stroh-FEE-don" is probably that the "e" is an eta rather than an epsilon, and Greek accents don't recess past the penultimate syllable if that syllable is long. (But anyone who moves the stress from the last syllable of this word is disregarding the original Greek, anyway, and it seems silly to make a point of pedantically adhering to one rule while ignoring another.)

Also, in English, it's not an adverb--it's a noun. So whatever.

Bottom line: I think you can make a case for whichever you'd like.

[John Isbell]

I feel relieved to know, Julie, that my stress here isn't wildly out of left field. Otherwise I'd have to revise the thing.
Michael, I've never been in an octet before. Thank you!

Cheers,
John

[Ann Drysdale]

Thanks, Julie, though I feel I am using the word adverbially...

[Erik Olson]

I hear boustrophedon either as two unaccented syllables, though with the first slightly more stressed than the second, followed by an accented and an unaccented syllable; or alternatively, simply as two trochees, thus boustrophedon. An example of the first and of the second second. The received pronunciation in English allows at least that much variability, so I would stress whichever way accommodates the meter at hand in the context. If that helps any.

[Jim Moonan]

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It is a new word for me.
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Into the shoebox it goes.
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