Here, we’re tasked with two quatrains of 8-syllable iambic tetrameter, two quatrains alternating between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, and two quatrains featuring trochaic tetrameter (one quatrain with pure trochee, and one with docked weak endings on lines 2 and 4). Lines can be either rhymed or unrhymed. Once again, I spent most of the “poem” writing about the poetry techniques with which I was experimenting, though this one is a bit on the more reflective side, and I did digress into a discussion of my to-do list.
This line contains eight syllables.
Feels short after pentameter.
What does those two beats less produce?
I need to internalize it.
Two challenges I feel in this.
To finish a phrase in eight beats.
And to bear the stresses in mind.
More practice will address them both.
These lines read slower than in ten.
An odd effect, it’s true.
We’ll see if trimeter’s the same.
Each beat’s elongated.
I’ll switch the order here.
From four-three to three-four iambs.
Another tool to use.
A different effect produced.
Trochees are tricky to get right.
I might want the stress to begin.
Others don’t know to read it so.
How to make it more obvious?
My to-do list for the week is overlong.
Only three days (and Sunday afternoon).
I prefer busyness to being bored.
But, a brief respite will do us well.
