The problem with Craft books like Grammar books that preceded them is, they focus on the mechanics of writing without starting from a focus on what the writer wants to say. Burns noted that types of poems used types of metrical patterning, this post will borrow from Kipling's poem 'to a boy' to look at what metres say
Trochee ( stress, unstressed) trips, says Kipling, , so my imagining is this would convey 'being in love', 'joyous about something' etc
Spondee (stress, stress) solemn, stalks, says kipling. For me a spondee asserts, creates a finality as in 'so there'
Iambs ( unstressed, stressed) march says kipling. For me they also convey a horses gallop, steam engines rhythmic chugg, sounds of mechanical engines. That these sounds are rarely heard these days is why a large number of people now don't know what an Iamb is.
Three feet metre
Anapest (unstressed, unstressed stressed), leaps and bounds says kipling . Fry gives an example of the metre as ' in a spin' and 'understand' which shows the two moods that I think anapests capture.
Dactyl (stressed, unstressed unstressed) Fry gives word example 'agitate'. Spinning pool also says what the metre captures.
Amphibrychys ( unstressed, stressed, unstressed) hastes with a stately stride says Kipling. The loss of statecraft in the modern world males Fry example immoral more pertinent.
There are others read Fry's Ode Less Travelled p120 for them.
When starting to write you start with the story. Stories create rhythms, the point to this post is to consider how sound arrangement along a line augments meaning. Do you agree? Does the different metres above mean different things to you.
The biggest problem with what I am writing is that accents change stresses of a word. I find Auden difficult because I can't create an Oxford accent in my head.
Interested in your comments. Please write if don't agree at all oe else I will keep filling up this thread.
I feel lost sometimes, when writers discuss the mechanics of metre. I understand how it's supposed to work but when I put pen to page, I lose it. I love when people who understand metre, read poetry (like Adam) and capture the rhythm.