Keir

My own approach to notating the scansion of a poem is somewhat idiosyncratic: bsky.app/profile/8daw...

Keir (@snapdragons) There's one more poem it's occurred to me to share, as half of it is in hexameter. But only because it's two lines long! This little gem by Ezra Pound: [Scansion = beats in italics; heavy syllables i...

Here I discuss the rhythms at play with lines of different length, and how internal variation can affect the rhythm: substack.com/@snapdragons...

Shakespeare’s Rhythms > “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance” Alexander P... Shakespeare’s Rhythms > “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance” Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism Shakespeare was supremely skilled a...

You might find this a useful read: qr.ae/pCTxPm

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright (Not sure if I spelled that right) What immortal hand or eye Could fashion such a stripy guy? What the hammer that hath hewn it Into such a chonky unit? Did who made the lamb make thee, Or an external franchisee?

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

"Fox in Socks" is just this innocuous, cutely illustrated little book of tongue twisters until you turn to this nightmare-haunting page

Batman by Lee Weeks

Shakespeare’s Rhythms > “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance” Alexander P... Shakespeare’s Rhythms > “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance” Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism Shakespeare was supremely skilled a...

Gaining a deep grasp of the meter certainly enhanced my own enjoyment of Shakespeare: williamshakespeare.quora.com/Shakespeare-...

Keir (@snapdragons) There's one more poem it's occurred to me to share, as half of it is in hexameter. But only because it's two lines long! This little gem by Ezra Pound: [Scansion = beats in italics; heavy syllables i...

Here I delve a little deeper into heavy offbeats and different line lengths: substack.com/@snapdragons...

Any time!

Fittingly, “breaks…” marks a break in the line!

Shakespeare’s Rhythms > “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance” Alexander P... Shakespeare’s Rhythms > “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance” Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism Shakespeare was supremely skilled a...

That final line has two beat shifts. I incline to read it as two catches: trochee-spondee combis.

ON the BALD STREET | BREAKS the BLANK DAY

Alternatively, it could open on a pump: the first beat pumped forward.

on the BALD STREET | BREAKS the BLANK DAY

I explain beat shifts here:

And perhaps more of a linger on "us". It makes a difference visually, and may influence how we read the line in terms of emphasis. But that core 4/3 rhythm remains.

She moved the last two syllables of the first line to the second. If "The Dews" had remained on the opening line, this stanza would be identical to the rest. Because we automatically count in fours, we still hear 4 beats followed by 3; the difference it makes is visual.

Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only le –

The poem as a whole is in common meter (alternating 4 & 3 beat lines), though only the even numbered lines rhyme, which is more characteristic of ballad meter (loose common meter, making free use of anapests).

There is an alteration to the 4th stanza:

This is Rosie and Pancho. Rosie has spent days digging a suspiciously Pancho-sized hole. Did not help the premeditated charges by putting him in it to check her measurements. 13/10 for both (TT: sophie.molkenthin)

A drawing of Kathy from the comic strip Kathy (a white woman with brown hair and droopy eyes) dressed in a gown with puffy sleeves standing next to Heathcliff the orange cat from the comic strip Heathcliff. Heathcliff is wearing a black waistcoat. They’re standing against a foggy background with trees and red outlined letters say Wuthering Heights, an homage to the poster for the new Emerald Fennel film adaptation of the 19th century novel. Smaller black text above has the author’s name, Charlotte Brontë.

The thing about being an artist is that sometimes you’ll have a really silly/cursed image enter your head and spend hours of your life drawing it. Hours you’ll never get back.

Anyone?

Kiss

Kiss 1902 #artbots #munch
https://botfrens.com/collections/90/contents/993743

Never ask a man his age, a woman her salary, or GPT-5 whether a seahorse emoji exists

An oil painting of a sheet ghost cat

Ghost cat oil painting on this #caturday

I'm delighted to have kindled your enthusiasm!

Keir (@snapdragons) There's one more poem it's occurred to me to share, as half of it is in hexameter. But only because it's two lines long! This little gem by Ezra Pound: [Scansion = beats in italics; heavy syllables i...

I had a conversation with an aspiring poet recently, which you might find interesting: substack.com/@snapdragons...

Though that's an unnatural delivery: in normal speech we would typically stress "heard", not "be".

A little alteration fixes that:

i WISH this COULD be HEARD wiTHIN my TEXT

How do you use 2+ syllable words in iambic pentameter? Keir Fabian's answer: It’s a really common misapprehension amongst beginners that words need to fit inside the foot divisions. What defines a meter is beat placement. Foot division is merely a conveni...

I covered all the usual stumbling blocks here (including stress recognition), but if you have any questions, feel free to ask: qr.ae/pvC4Jn

You might find it easiest to master iambic tetrameter first (four beats to the line, instead of five).

Everyone struggles to begin with. You'll pick it up!

This evening one of the very kind con organizers took us to the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, which is amazing and you should go and Gustav Vigeland was extraordinarily talented and probably does not deserve the narrative I constructed looking at his work.

But Bluesky! You deserve EVERYTHING!

The Waterfall, 1912 #franzmarc #cubism

Cover to THE COMIC READER 206

Spider-Man and friend

Nothing going on is that hard to understand as long as someone with some credibility has the desire to explain it and the space to do so and I’m glad this NBC station did this for their viewers

Text reads Thou antique gear, why dost thou cumber My chamber with thy useless lumber? My father housed thee on this spot, And I must keep thee, though I need thee not! Thou parchment roll that hast been smoked upon Long as around this desk the sorry lamp-light shone; Much better had I spent my little gear, Than with this little to sit mouldering here; Why should a man possess ancestral treasures, But by possession to enlarge his pleasures? The thing we use not a dead burden lies, But what the moment brings the wise man knows to prize.

The best part of Goethe's masterpiece is the bit where Faust pauses while summoning a demon to bitch about having too much crap in his attic