ugh please give me a hand w/ lit hw

[zixxer]

I know i did this in like 2nd grade... in John Donne's "holy sonnet 10" does he manipulate the standard 'iambic pentameter'?


thanks for letting me sleep


HOLY SONNETS.

X.


Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke ; why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die.

 

[zixxer]

up for the morning crowd

 

[mooglekit]

It's Iambic pentameter with occasional trochaic feet, which are inversions of the syllabic emphasis, from (assume / is the stress) x/x/x/x/x/ for iambic pentameter to x/x/x/(/x)x/ for a pentameter that is mostly iambic with a trochaic foot stuck in there. For example:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
x / x / x / x / / x <--- You can see the Trochaic foot at the end of the line

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
x / x / x / x / / x <--- Again with the line ending in a Trochaic foot

You can figure out the rest...Hope that helps tho. (Pardon the poor formatting...posts don't maintain whitespace well...)

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: mooglekit
It's Iambic pentameter with occasional trochaic feet, which are inversions of the syllabic emphasis, from (assume / is the stress) x/x/x/x/x/ for iambic pentameter to x/x/x/(/x)x/ for a pentameter that is mostly iambic with a trochaic foot stuck in there. For example:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
x / x / x / x / / x <--- You can see the Trochaic foot at the end of the line

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
x / x / x / x / / x <--- Again with the line ending in a Trochaic foot

You can figure out the rest...Hope that helps tho. (Pardon the poor formatting...posts don't maintain whitespace well...)

awesome.. makes perfect sense. Thanks!