Stephen Fry on Meter, Part 6
As I mentioned previously, I’m working through Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled very slowly to absorb as much wisdom as I can about writing poetry. This week’s post covers Chapter 1, Section 6, on syllabic verse.
This is a very short section, and interestingly for me, it basically describes a lot of the poetry that I write. When I’m not writing fully free verse, I often pick a syllable count for my lines and use that as my “form.” So it’s neat to give that a name. This is also where forms like haiku fall, as they are poems in which the syllable count is key. (There’s also an explanation of how this works in many languages that are not English, but not so well in English.)
The exercise relevant to this section is simply taking some syllable counts and a theme and working within those constraints. This was possibly the easiest exercise of all of them for me, because I wasn’t having to count meter! I think the first one turned out better than the second, mostly because the theme was one I preferred.
If it’s going to rain hard,
I’d like it to come
with thunder and lightning, please.
I like a good show
with my storms, that will then
lull me to sleep and
grant the sweetest dreams that I
manage to recall.
The chapter ends with a “Table of Metric Feet,” which is valuable for recalling what the different sorts are called. And while I definitely learned quite a bit in this chapter, I don’t feel as though I’ve really mastered meter. But, as Stephen Fry says, I’ve probably gotten a bit more confidence about using meter and knowing what I’m doing with it.
Next up is a chapter on rhyme, which has only three sections. I’ll continue working through it slowly, because rhyme is another thing I find somewhat difficult to do WELL. I’m good at rhyming words, I just feel like a lot of my rhymed poetry is very basic rhymes. And I’ve gotten advice on this from other poets, so I’m interested to see what Stephen Fry will add to my toolbox!
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