AG: How is that (verse form).., let’s see, what would the meter be then, I wonder..? We don’t have the…It’s amazing – such a perfect poem and they don’t even have it in the anthology!
Student: Tetrameter?
AG: “or like/the fresh/spring’s/gau/dy/hue/ Or silver drops/ of morning dew – It’s iambic tetrameter?
Student: (counts it out) Yeah
AG: Yeah, except it begins occasionally with a stressed word – “Like to the falling of a star”
Student: For…
AG: No, not that line. That line is reversed. You’re shifting it… “Like to/the falling/of a star”, you’re going to do it ideally, but pronounced “Like/ to the falling of a star”. So it would be – Bom (like, “Like”) – Bom! -dum-dum da-dum da-dum. So, actually what it is it’s a trochee, like “Tyger” – “Like to”” (“Tyger”/”Like To”) – then it goes on, “the fall/ing of/ a star” – no, “the falling/of a star“. – “Like to the/falling of a/star”, actually. You could also interpret it as trimeter – “like/fall/star” – trimeter what? – “like to the/falling of a/star” – you could say dactylic – “like to the/falling of..” – two dactylic measures and on stark iambic. Or you could say – “like to/the falling of..” – “Like to the/falling of a…” – It’s more toward dactylic – “Like to the falling of a/ star”. But then it gets back to, “Or like the fresh”… no, it actually continues – “As the flight of as eagles are” (because he doesn’t say, “or as..” – like “as the flight of eagles are”, so he parallels, the second line parallels that cadence) – “As the/flight of/eagles are” – actually, the second line would be more like trochaic, trochee, like “Tyger, tyger, burning bright” – “As the/flight of/eagles are” – “Tyger,/tyger,/burning bright” – Follow? – “As the/ flight of/eagles/are” – “Tyger,/tyger,/burning bright” – da-da/ da-da/ da-da da/ That’s called the trochaic meter Everybody know the trochaic?..nowdays? Are we all pretty familiar with these names? or is it still a big mystery? (it’s not incomprehensible, I mean, there’s only two of them, there’s iambic and trochaic, and one goes one way and the other goes the other way) . Iambic – light and then heavy, Trochaic – heavy then light. Example…
Student: And Anapest?
AG: Pardon?
Student: Anapest
AG: Well those are the two-syllable meters, and then an anapest. same thing, except…Da-da-da is the anapest, and da-da da is the dactyl (We’re going to pass out a big sheet with all the names).
[Audio for the above can be heard here. beginning at approximately seventy-one-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately seventy-four-and-three-quarter minutes in]