Anapestic observations

[semperfiona]

Yesterday, in the process of writing my sonnet, I did a little research on meter in poetry. I'd forgotten the names and character of the various metrical forms.

Iamb: daDAH
Trochee: DAHda
Spondee: DAH-DAH
Pyrrhic: da-da
Anapest: dadaDAH
Dactyl: DAHdada (as followers of my journal already knew ;-) )

The interesting part is that I was reading Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat Comes Back to Rosa last night, and I noticed that it is very strongly anapestic--"oh my MY no no NO...said the CAT as he SAT..." etc.--though he also breaks the meter occasionally for variety or emphasis. I'm feeling an urge to play with that meter in a Seussian poem sometime soon.

I also observe that the word "anapest" is itself a dactyl, amusingly enough since the meter is exactly reversed. And "iamb" is a trochee, likewise reversed.

Comments

[semperfiona]

Interesting...that disagrees with the pronunciation guides at dictionary.com but certainly makes much more sense. I can't say I've heard any of the words pronounced at all in many years (since high school English, anyway), so I don't remember what I have heard.