A Plea for the Naming of Metrical Feet

A Plea for the Naming of Metrical Feet

As a passionate poetry student today,
There's a few things I've got on my mind...

Why are "iamb" and "trochee" both trochees?
A "Dactyl" a trochee, an "Anapest" dactyl,
A "Spondee" a trochee as well?

An "Amphibrach" dactyl, "Molossus" an amphibrach,
"First Epitrite" is a primus paeon?

Why must "Bob" and a "Brach" both be bobs,
but a "Dibrach" a trochee, "Dispondee" an amphibrach, too.
Of paeonic types, we've secondus and tertius,
("Dichoreus" and "Alexandrine").

The "Major Ionic" is practically sapphic,
The "Tertius Paeon" a dactyl-trochee...

These labels won't do, and we should start anew,
With some patterns with names that remember themselves.
The trochee is fine, but the others must answer;
For names that mislead are a crime and disaster
For those who are learning to rhyme and to master
The dizzy, confusing and utterly time-wasting
Names of the meters that make up the lines
Of the metrical feet of the poem divine!

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All poetry and text © Copyright Patrick L. Mills 2024. All Rights Reserved.