WHAT’S A POEM’S METRE?
Do we use a measure tape in between the poem’s legs to measure its… between the legs? From armpit to armpit to measure its chest? What do you measure in a word bunch? We don’t count the number of characters to know how much space they use as designers do to fix the lay out.
And for knowing what to measure, we need conventions… or the small little agreements we humans use to name things[1] after. And this is going to be confusing for me since everything is a little different in Spanish.
FIRST CONVENTION
Poems don’t have paragraphs, they have stanzas[2]. Fine then, poem’s paragraphs are called stanzas or strophes. That there are a lot of inconvenient little details like “strophes are the first part of the Iliad[3] or that “strophes are used in free verses without rhyme” is something I will forget about. There is no need to bring up rhyme or no rhyme yet.
stanza /ˈstanzə/
I. noun
1. a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse (is a verse a synonym of stanza dear Oxford?)
2. a group of four lines in some Greek and Latin metres.
SECOND CONVENTION
A line is a verse.
Yes, I know. Everybody knows this. Nonetheless, as Nuval Yoah Harari says; you might spit all the fancy words physicians and experts do and mess it up just because you don’t understand a blah of the really basic stuff by ignoring the basic words. I AM NOT TO IGNORE THE BASICS IN ORDER TO DO FALSIBIABLE.
verse /vəːs/
I. noun — [ mass noun ]
1. writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme
• a lament in verse
• [as modifier ] verse drama.
2. [ count noun ] — a group of lines that form a unit in a poem or song; a stanza
• the second verse.
3. [ count noun ] — each of the short numbered divisions of a chapter in the Bible or other scripture.
• we were each required to recite a Bible verse from memory.
• on the walls were framed verses from the Koran.
A bunch of lines (verses) becomes a stanza or strophe in every line mayor period break.
Very interesting… what’s a syllable?! Again very obvious, right. Explain it to me I dare you.
WHAT’S A SYLLABLE?
And I’m listening to my nephew playing whys game. Why is a syllable a sound? Why can sounds be represented by AN individual character like and “a” or a “g” but we set them together into “a sound” represented by a group of characters like “S.E.T.?
Fine. A SYLLABLE IS ONE SOUND.
TO BE CONTINUED
[1] We’re quite good fighting about this and that but also at getting together to create life complications.
[2] Look at my surprised face, not strophes but stanzas!
[3] Don’t crucify me, I don’t remember what classical book was mentioned. The point is that the name comes from somewhere and it is annoying to remember where from, in THAT super specific way. Poems have a structure and that’s the important part right now.