just a poetry gimmick blog

send me texts to metrically analyze! i prioritize tumblr-born metrical poetry but also end up posting lots of things that don't originate on tumblr or aren't poetry.

[i-scan-your-poems]

running this blog ain’t much but it’s honest work

[homoquartz]

iambic pentameter is fake and i’m tired of being gaslit about it

[i-scan-your-poems]

Hello! A little while ago you got an ask from someone looking for a post of 'bad' poetry and I might know the one? Not sure if this was what you were looking for but I thought I'd send it in anyway just in case you're still looking :)

thank you!

[i-scan-your-poems]

could you scan the poem in the park by gwen harwood? we did it for class today and i'm curious to see if i got the metrical analysis and notation and whatnot right

Sure! I read this as iambic pentameter with some substitutions. You might divide the feet differently than me where there are substitutions! Because it's metrical but loose, I've marked with parentheses some places where dialectal differences or just stylistic ones could change the number of syllables, like in the word smile or flickering. Here's my take:

◡ – ◡ / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – She sits in / the park. / Her clothes / are out / of date. ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – Two chil/dren whine / and bic/ker, tug / her skirt. ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – A third / draws aim/less pat/terns in / the dirt – ◡ / ◡ – / ◡ – / – / ◡ – Someone / she loved / once passed / by – / too late ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ ◡ / ◡ – / (◡) ◡ – to feign / indiff/erence to / that ca/sual nod. ◡ – / ◡ – (◡) / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – ◡ “How nice” / et cete/ra. “Time / holds great / surprises.” ◡ ◡ / – – / ◡ – / ◡ ◡ / ◡ – ◡ From his / neat head / unques/tionab/ly rises ◡ – / ◡ – / – ◡ / ◡ – / ◡ – a small / balloon… / ”but for / the grace / of God…”

◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – (◡) / ◡ – / ◡ – ◡ They stand / a while / in flicker/ing light, / rehearsing ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – the child/ren’s names / and birth/days. “It’s / so sweet ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – to hear / their chat/ter, watch / them grow / and thrive, ” ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – (◡) / ◡ – ◡ she says / to his / depar/ting smile. / Then, nursing ◡ – / ◡ – (◡) / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – the youn/gest child, / sits sta/ring at / her feet. ◡ ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – To the wind / she says, / “They have ea/ten me / alive.”

Rhyme scheme: ABBA CDDC EFGEFG

[trench-knife]

one of my worst writing sins is abusing my power to create compound words. i cannot write the sentence "The sun shone as bright as honey that afternoon." no. that's boring. "The sun was honey-bright that afternoon" however? yes. that sentence is dope as fuck. i do not care if "honey-bright" is a word in the english dictionary. i do not care if the sentence is grammatically correct. i will not change. i will not correct my erred ways. the laws of the english language are mine.

[portland-sunshine]

Not a sin at all!

This is what's called a poetic epithet, and it happens all the time in writing. Consider, for example, Homer and his wine-dark sea, or Shakespeare and his death-mark'd love.

If you were then to start using them instead of the word they're describing, you'd be making a kenning. For example, if instead of describing the sun as honey-bright, you said "the honey-drop in the sky". Kennings are best known from Norse writings, like "the path of serpents" for gold, or "Grímnir's lip-streams" for poetry itself.

So you're not sinning, you're participating in an ancient literary tradition!

[i-scan-your-poems]

Scansion:

◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – The sun / was ho/ney-bright / that af/ternoon

Metrical form: iambic pentameter

[naamahdarling]

I'm going to spend a long time thinking about this one.

[i-scan-your-poems]

Scansion:

– ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ touch your / birth to / see Who / hates you?

Metrical form: trochaic tetrameter

[i-scan-your-poems]

how do you know all this

I learned the basics of English meter as a tween, from literature class and from being a theater nerd who went to Shakespeare camp. Now I'm a PhD candidate in Classical Philology, so I've learned a lot about Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, including its metrical forms, though meter beyond the basics is kind of a niche interest in classics. But mostly I just find it interesting, so I've read independently here and there: discussions of the metrical features of poetry I read, wikipedia, etc. There are people who know a lot more than me—especially about English meter, which is different from Greek and Latin in many ways!

[i-scan-your-poems]

Sorry, what's "A1 N1 V A2 N2"?

I meant the numbers to be subscript but tumblr doesn't let you do subscripts. What I meant was (Adjective that modifies Noun 1) (Noun 1) (Verb) (Adjective that modifies Noun 2) (Noun 2) and I forget the context but this was probably incomprehensible to anyone except me and maybe syntacticians? Idk, I feel like people use subscripts to mark co-referential words in some linguistics fields.

[i-scan-your-poems]

I’m appreciating the double-dactyl trend on tumblr this week. It’s been a while since we’ve had a metrical poetry meme.

[i-scan-your-poems]

Hi! May I please request this one for analysis: https://www.tumblr.com/kata4a/821326703628582912/higgledly-piggledy-english-is-rather-less-easily ?

Additionally, do you happen to know what they mean by iambic tradition? I know what an iamb is, but is the second verse not still dactylic? I feel really stupid but I just don't understand 😓

This is a modern poetic form called the “double dactyl”. It consists of two four-line stanzas of dactylic dimeter (hence the name), except that the last line of each stanza omits the last two syllables/is catalectic/has a masculine ending/is choriambic monometer/however you want to describe it. And the ends of the two stanzas rhyme with each other (so ABCD EFGD rhyme scheme). Typically there’s at least one line that’s just one 6-syllable word, and typically you start with some silly words like “higgledy-piggledy”.

By iambic tradition they mean the traditional verse forms in iamb-based English-language poetry. Iambic meters, especially iambic pentameter, are quintessential English poetry meters and are often thought of as going fairly well with the natural prosody of English, making them reasonably easy to write in. However, iambic meters in English also traditionally allow plenty of substitutions, like replacing an iamb with a trochee or spondee or pyrrhic or anapest.

So the poem as I understand it is saying: dactyls feel harder to use in English than some other meters, but to be fair, maybe even iambs aren’t actually that easy to write strictly in, or we wouldn’t allow all kinds of feet in allegedly iambic poems.

[lh7]

@kata4a you got peer-reviewed!

[i-scan-your-poems]

This isn’t peer review, it’s a literary commentary.

[i-scan-your-poems]

Hi! May I please request this one for analysis: https://www.tumblr.com/kata4a/821326703628582912/higgledly-piggledy-english-is-rather-less-easily ?

Additionally, do you happen to know what they mean by iambic tradition? I know what an iamb is, but is the second verse not still dactylic? I feel really stupid but I just don't understand 😓

This is a modern poetic form called the “double dactyl”. It consists of two four-line stanzas of dactylic dimeter (hence the name), except that the last line of each stanza omits the last two syllables/is catalectic/has a masculine ending/is choriambic monometer/however you want to describe it. And the ends of the two stanzas rhyme with each other (so ABCD EFGD rhyme scheme). Typically there’s at least one line that’s just one 6-syllable word, and typically you start with some silly words like “higgledy-piggledy”.

By iambic tradition they mean the traditional verse forms in iamb-based English-language poetry. Iambic meters, especially iambic pentameter, are quintessential English poetry meters and are often thought of as going fairly well with the natural prosody of English, making them reasonably easy to write in. However, iambic meters in English also traditionally allow plenty of substitutions, like replacing an iamb with a trochee or spondee or pyrrhic or anapest.

So the poem as I understand it is saying: dactyls feel harder to use in English than some other meters, but to be fair, maybe even iambs aren’t actually that easy to write strictly in, or we wouldn’t allow all kinds of feet in allegedly iambic poems.

[catchymemes]

[wumbreon]

May we all know decadence such as this

[i-scan-your-poems]

Scansion:

◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – The god/less beast / enjoys / its wret/ched meal

Metrical form: iambic pentameter

Other notes: I can't do subscript on tumblr, I guess, but check out the A1 N1 V A2 N2 structure.

[i-scan-your-poems]

There's this sentence from Richlin 2017 Slave Theater in the Roman Republic where she says "whether there is something cross-culturally and transhistorically irritating about trochaic septenarii is a matter for sociolinguists" and anyway I forgot where I was going with this post and if I was going anywhere with it but I would totally hit someone on here with this quote except that no-one ever posts trochaic septenarius/versus quadratus/catalectic trochaic tetrameter/whatever you'd prefer to call it cross-linguistically on here. And I actually don't think there's anything inherently irritating about them

[netherator]

wait catalectic trochaic tetrameter is the meter of the white gilgamesh poem. people hate that rhythm?

[i-scan-your-poems]

It's less about it being aesthetically disliked and more about it (or its variants) being used in a few different folk traditions of taunting/teasing/annoyance. In Roman comedy this meter comes up a lot in verbal duels (think of a Roman equivalent of rap battles) and in the versus quadratus form it's used for ritual mockery of triumphant generals. In modern English, Richlin compares it to stuff like "John and Mary sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" and "we want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher". These are obviously not all exactly the same rhythm and these rhythms are obviously used for other things. Like "Ode to Joy" and "Clementine," either of which you can sing a versus quadratus to the tune of! And, not to put words in Amy's mouth, the remark I quoted is surely a bit facetious.

[i-scan-your-poems]

There's this sentence from Richlin 2017 Slave Theater in the Roman Republic where she says "whether there is something cross-culturally and transhistorically irritating about trochaic septenarii is a matter for sociolinguists" and anyway I forgot where I was going with this post and if I was going anywhere with it but I would totally hit someone on here with this quote except that no-one ever posts trochaic septenarius/versus quadratus/catalectic trochaic tetrameter/whatever you'd prefer to call it cross-linguistically on here. And I actually don't think there's anything inherently irritating about them

[sickjacket]

having fun with the laboratory danger sign generator

[i-scan-your-poems]

Scansion:

◡ ◡ – ◡ ◡ – ◡ you will not see them coming ◡ ◡ – ◡ ◡ – they will look like old friends ◡ – ◡ ◡ – ◡ their voices will echo ◡ – ◡ ◡ – their bodies can bend

Metrical form: anapestic and amphibrachic dimeter

Rhyme scheme: ABCB

Other notes: I like how there are feminine endings/unstressed endings in the odd-numbered lines and masculine endings/stressed endings in the even-numbered rhyming lines, but how there's an extra unstressed syllable at the beginnings of lines 1-2 and not 3-4. It creates a symmetry where each line is unique, and each line shares elements of its structure both with the line adjacent to it and with the corresponding line in the other couplet!

[i-scan-your-poems]

so curious what metre/s is the spongebob theme in i need to know

Scansion:

◡ – ◡ / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – Who lives in / a pineap/ple under / the sea? – – / – – SpongeBob / SquarePants ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – Absorbent / and yellow / and porous / is he – – / – – SpongeBob / SquarePants ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – If nauti/cal nonsense / be something / you wish – – / – – SpongeBob / SquarePants ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – / ◡ – ◡ / ◡ – Then drop on / the deck / and flop like / a fish – – / – – SpongeBob / SquarePants

Metrical form: Amphibrachic tetrameter catalectic, with a trochaic dimeter refrain. There is a substitution of the second amphibrach for an iamb in the last full line, with the effect of dividing the line into two equal parts.

[gavamont]

Wizard brewing wizard lager

Leave you barking like a dogger

Tastes so smooth you’ll call it poggers

The hops have you leaping like a frogger

Not available at Publix or Kroger

When a wizard is brewing a wizard lager

[i-scan-your-poems]

Metrical form: trochaic tetrameter

Rhyme scheme: AAAAA(?)A. Bit of a slant rhyme in my dialect.