A way to introduce prosody
March 22, 2018

This afternoon I was imagining ways to teach younger people some of
the elements of prosody (which is the correctly ridiculous word for
analytical poetics).


"Write a sentence with exactly 8 syllables. No, make that 2 or 3
sentences."

"Write 2 or 3 sentences with exactly 6 syllables."

"Pick one sentence of each length group. Change round your sentences
to sound with alternated stress [iambic]. Or reverse it if you wish
to [trochaic]."

"Now modify just one more time so that the sentences will rhyme."
(It's not so hard with 30 years of practicing to use your ears.)


To fill up the rest of the hour, we'll experiment with caesurae and
dactylic feet. Next week: Some of the poetic techniques of ancient
Hebrew which remain visible even after translation into English.