This is an anapest – a foot generally used to create suspense (unless the poem is primarily anapestic). “We romped until the pans” – “until the pans” do what?

#LITERARY SUSPENSE IN ACTION

Please note: there are other possibilities for this poem in particular since there is a lot of elision and one must consider the rhythm of the waltz: some might scan the line

“we ROMPED unTIL the PANS” – which more closely follows the schwas and stresses on until and applies a touch of elision to romped.

This line is an anapest – as a rule of thumb, anapestic feet create suspense, especially when placed at the end of a line. This foot is right before the concluding line of the poem – fitting both the rule of thumb and the structure of a drunken waltz.

Elision in action again to merge “with” and “a” – thus this line is an iamb instead of an anapest.

“Beat time” – this line is about beating a ¾’s time (on the speaker’s head) but since it acts as a sort of implied metronome I chose to keep the line purely iambic.

BUCK is the stress in this line while “le” adds an unstressed syllable to the end of the line – this is generally allowed in poetry since the sound is so soft but in this poem it highlights the fact “Papa” is drunk."

Combined – ped a BUCKle – results in an iamb:

unstressed-stressed-and a unstressed syllable we don’t have to count.

These two syllables are very weak and can be pronounced as a single syllable via elision – thus I count them as one unstressed syllable.

AKA it would be pronounced sort of like “SCRAP’d a” – the soft -ed ending would barely be enunciated.

The spondee emphasizes the harm done to the speaker.

Due to the waltz imitation of the meter, I chose not to stress many syllables I would normally stress. Adherance to meter is important in this poem, so unless there is a very compelling reason to deviate from an iamb, I chose to avoid doing so.