Comment on Metre - draft 2 by `darkcrescendo

This is excellent. I do a lot of commenting for developing poets--I know, that's all of us, but you know what I mean--and this will be a great resource to offer them.

Several of the young poets I'm watching are keen on writing sonnets. The rhyme scheme they can handle, (although I can't seem to get many of them interested in Petrarchian), but iambic pentameter hangs them up nearly every time. What I've started advising them is to forget the rhymes for a while and just practice writing lots of blank verse. Once they get comfortable with the rhythmic flow of it, they can get back to rhymes, and maybe we'll start talking about voltas and such.

As for me, I must confess I didn't know half of those terms, so this will be a useful resource for me as well. You explain them quite clearly, and your examples bring it all to life. The Coleridge poem alone was worth the reading time.

I found myself wishing you'd said just a tad more at the outset about the necessity of applying a bit of discipline to one's creative efforts. But I suspect that's just my personal pique at the talented but lazy writers here who regard any editing or even basic proofreading as anathema.

Thanks for your continued efforts, which I'm sure will do far more good than will ever be properly acknowledged.

--
Ed
"If you're not confused, you're misinformed." - Tom Clancy
The Trouble with a Love Poem