@Bradapalooza Dope! I was actually going to suggest doing something in this forum, but it seems like you’re already on it :p
I personally don’t quite feel comfortable enough with stressed (i.e. not length) based meter to fully jump in. Also, greek makes me tend to hear dactyls and anapests in too many places, while my little english training also makes me beat things into iambic pentameter. Like,
by the DArk WEbs || her NApe caught IN his BILL,
However, if it weren’t for the first two lines making me think in iambic, I would equally read
her NAPe CAUght in his BILL
which as you note in your leda essay, is a more dynamic and compelling reading.
I def want to check out that hollander book you recommended though.
But in the meantime, would you consider maybe writing a dumbed down version of this? a more straightforward, sort of layman’s introduction to english meter? Like our glossary of poetic terms?
I think it’d be really helpful for us english meter nubes. Maybe you could explain things like, for example in this clever little couplet:
In the hexameter rises the fountains silvery column
In the pentameter aye, falling in melody back.
Why is “in” stressed in some places, but not in others? English can make things stressed or unstressed by position, I’m guessing? Are there general rules or is it more a poem by poem sort of thing?