You wouldn't welch for $3.50.... I think.

Four lines in Iambic Pentameter. No rhyme. The content means little. It can be nonsense.
tat Dum, ta Dum, ta Dum, taDum, ta Dum

Soon.
.

and welcome.

The emphasis is on meter and rhyme can screw with meter. Please don't do it.

you're in.

and lends itself to different themes and structures. A learning of the basics allows you to pick the right one.

It need never inhibit, only enhance creative expression.

for me sometimes a meter attaches it self to the merest glint of a concept and a poem is born, at others I build a construct and design a meter to fit it.

the poetic process, along with music is the most elusive, esoteric and barely frangible of artforms.

but no epics please!

and welcome

Reckon you can whip up a quick quatrain in Iambic Pentameter before we move on to Trochaic? Remember rhyme and even meaning don't matter much, it's about getting a feel for the sound of the meter.

Remember when posting each quatrain do not post to this page, post as a normal poem to the Stream but to scroll down to the 'Workshop' drop-down and select 'Basic and Essential Meter'.

Iambic and Anapaestic, mix quite well, both ending in stressed syllables and make for strong rhyming.

Trochaic, and Dactylic mix quite well, both ending in unstressed syllables and make for subtle rhyming.

When you learn something well enough you don't have to think about it.
You will have noticed there is very little formal meter in my poetry but because I know it it slips in when appropriate.
Many poets have an objection to learning meter because they think it will restrict them into formalism. Quite the the opposite, it expands your creative abilities.

.

Do that first exercise Mario, here, I'll repeat it for you-

The first exercise is just four lines in Iambic Pentameter.

Iambic means ta DUM, Pentameter means there are five of them per line.

Please don’t try to rhyme, it only detracts. And don’t worry too much about meaning, it is the sound that counts.

ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/
ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/
ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/
ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/ ta DUM/

Note, that the syllables can split words and include polysyllabic words

I gave Robert Frost as an example.

You are very very fond of giving advice to everyone else, Mario, and seldom listen or respond to others. Anyone would think you were a half-way competent poet. Let's see if you can put your pen where you mouth is.

You post your exercises to the Stream, selecting the Workshop drop-down, not here on the workshop thread.
Get it?
(I am exercising every effort of will I have to not abuse you about everything you are at the moment )

Let's nothing personal intervene, let's work on the beauty and elegance, and sometimes visceral savagery of our craft.

What I would ask you to do is make an attempt at the exercises in this workshop and I promise you fair, non-personal critique. I truly believe, from knowledge, experience, vast reading, academic study and a modicum of personal talent that meter is way the most important tool of our art. I apologise for attacking you over a simple mistake, post your exercises to the Stream with this workshop selected, not on this thread.

'Promise' is a much misused word but I promise you it will improve and enlarge the range of your work.

Read other peoples submissions at https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/view/23136 and see how I put a lot of work into parsing them, even doing readings when I think it will help. Especially check out tyros's two quatrains of perfect Trochaic Pentameter!
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/poems/she-dreams

Remember we are not trying to write good poetry here, we are learning the sound and feel of meter.

Are we ok then?

Iambic is the most natural meter, resembling the human heartbeat. It also makes rhyming easier.

However all the other meters serve a function in terms of the way the message and feel of the poem is conveyed. The best example I can think of is Longfellow's 'Hiawatha'. Trochaic and Dactylic are useful for epic and balladic poetry as they lead more naturally from one line to the next.

Workshops on meter have always been the most exhausting and frustrating I have ever done.
Most poets think it is 'rules' that limit their creativity. My Masters thesis on poetry proved to the world art community that meter is the prime driving force of poetry. But rhyme is easy. Prose broken into lines is easy.

Fuckit, I am near despair but yes, I'll come back with another workshop, only if people express interest when I blog my intentions.
No more exercises in this one, sorry. I put a lot of myself into this and it is not easy. I'm tired.

Thank you so much for learning the one thing I wanted to impart.
That by learning meter it becomes an intellectual 'muscle memory' that helps your poetry flow more melodically.

Any more feedback or requests from anyone?

Meter only works when it is used consistently, that's why I chose quatrains as the minimum framework.
Yes, meter works especially well in free verse as it is less obvious than rhyme and Iambic is the most natural meter, both for the English tongue and because it resembles the human heartbeat. It can mix well with Anapaestic as both stress the last syllable but clashes with Trochaic and Dactylic which stress the first syllable.

Listen, poetry is a craft and skill like any other. Who without any learning can pick up a palette and paint brilliantly? Or take a lump of clay and shape a David, let alone sculpt it from a flawed piece of marble. We're not talking rules we're talking skills and craftsmanship.

Once again I refer to the concept of 'muscle memory'. If you read some examples of various meters and consciously try to write in those meters, no matter how crappy the poems turn out, your mind learns to 'hear the sound' and almost unconsciously insert it where appropriate.

I have only ever met two poets who had an innate, unlearned grasp of it, both natural poetic geniuses, both members of Neopoet. Lonnie and Esker. Both recently deceased to our great loss. However as far as I know meter does not cause premature death. It's just that most poets live hard and die young. But that is not a prerequisite either, hard living junky William Burroughs lived to 84. Even I've made it to sixty despite all expectations [grins].

Thanks for your feedback and yes, I will run more. Even leading up to that master of original, almost indefinable meter, Gerard Manly Hopkins and his 'sprung meter'.

not many people are confident parsing meter, for which poetry as a whole suffers.

You can still post your trochaic if you like, let me know when you do and I'll check it out.