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How much can I reasonably control the meter of a poem? could I read:
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
as
*u**u*u*u*u
u*u*u*u*u*u
>* stressed
>u unstressed
in which I emphasize "sing" and give it a short pause simply because it's the start of the poem. I feel like this isn't too unreasonable, the original starts with ἄνδρα (*u). I feel like emphasizing "sing" won't make it sound too silly so long as I give it a pause (try it aloud yourself). The second line I feel can only be read in iambic pentameter, anything else sounds wrong, but Fitzgerald gives the first line some flexibility. Now that I think about it, you might even be able to read it in dactyls if you read it slowly.
*uu*uu*uu*u
u*u*u*u*u*u
Is all this right? or is there something fundamentally wrong about my understanding of scansion?
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Whether a syllable is emphasized or not depends on how it is read.
If you ever heard a Chink try to speak English, they emphasize every damn syllable and it's painful to hear.
Potentially racist comment aside, there is no guide to emphasis in the written word and it's stupid that poetry 'tards think there is.
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>>9154128
Right, but I just want to know if those two readings sound okay (Maybe a little dramatic, but not necessarily unnatural or painful)
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>>9154140
Personally, I'd emphasize "in" above "sing" and "muse"
You can read it however the goddamn fuck you want, is the point. Written poetry is a total sham. If you don't know that by now, you better be teenaged.
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>>9154151
>grammatical context is hugely important in english meter
Absolute drink-the-kool-aid-pls nonsense. Grammar has nothing at all whatsoever to do with what words and syllables people emphasize when the talk.
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>>9154162
okay buddy
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