Tzara
Continental
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2005
- Posts
- 7,644
Actually, I do say "Sunday", at least usually.
I think.
But whether one pronounces it "Sunday" or "Sundy" affects how you would rhyme the poem, not the metrics or stress of the poem. That would be affected if you pronounced the word like Sunday or Sundy, which I suppose you might, but I suspect you don't.
The problem is that the stress patterns are difficult to hear and this is obviously frustrating people. For example, one of the requirements for the double dactyl form is that a line in the second stanza must contain a single, double dactylic word.
The single word part is clear enough, I should think. And given that a dactyl is a three-syllable metrical foot, it shouldn't be too hard to expect that one would also recognize that the word would have to be exactly six syllables in length. (Though there might be some argument based on pronunciation as to how many syllables a particular word has.)
The big problem is the stress pattern, which as Liar pointed out, is waltz-like for a dactyl: one two three. This is difficult for people to hear and could be affected by accent or dialect. The word au·to·bi·o·gra·phy is, for me, double dactylic; the word per·pen·dic·u·lar·ly, though it has six syllables, is not in my pronunciation, double dactylic.
My point about all of this is not to be rigid about meter, which for most forms is fairly adaptable (go back to the Shakespeare sonnet posted by Angie, for example), but to (1) Try to get people over their fear of metrical requirements (though I seem just to be making that worse) and (2) Get us to come to some kind of agreement about things to avoid the infighting that the other Survivor contest always has, where contestants are continually complaining (or whining) about how they are being treated (always badly by contest moderators out to get them) or how others are being treated (always being shown preferential treatment so that the complainer is again getting shafted).
As Liar points out, we haven't even touched on the issues about what constitutes acceptable rhymes, which will likely have the same kinds of complaints. The reason I wanted to avoid the Japanese forms was that for them, conformance to form is even more subjective than metrical or rhyme requirements.
And then, there's the whole "what's a poem?" question about free verse. Even if there is a requirement for a certain number of lines (which I think puts an unnecessary restriction on the poem), someone could write (for a ten line minimum):
Some
roses
are
orange
or
are
those
really
just
poppies?
Regardless of what rules we adopt, whether strict or lax, there are liable to be complaints, hurt feelings, etc. I just think we should try to come to some kind of resolution about this as best we can before the contest starts.roses
are
orange
or
are
those
really
just
poppies?
I like form myself. I tend to think analytically rather than emotionally, so writing to a form presents me with a technical problem that I try and solve. I know this is unappealing to many, probably most, people attracted to poetry.
Anyway, that's my daily blather on the topic. The group needs to decide on rules that will make the game as enjoyable as possible for the largest number of people.
That's all.
