Tagged: enjambment

Exercise #3 (pages 31-33)

This exercise was to write five pairs of blank iambic pentameter in which the first line of each pair is end-stopped and there are no caesuras, followed by five pairs with the same meaning but with enjambment and at least two caesuras.  Should take no more than 45 minutes.

Subjects for the pairs:

  1. Precisely what you see and hear outside your window.
  2. Precisely what you’d like to eat, right this minute.
  3. Precisely what you last remember dreaming about.
  4. Precisely what uncompleted chores are niggling at you.
  5. Precisely what you hate about your body.
  1. Outside the Window
    The sun and shade transform my neighbors’ wall
    and fall like spotlights on my lawn as well.
  2. What I’d Like to Eat
    I smell spaghetti cooking on the stove
    and can not think of any better dinner.
  3. A Recent Dream
    Last night I dreamed that zombies swarmed around.
    I made my house a fort and hunkered down.
  4. Pesky Tasks Overdue
    “Five Hebrew Songs” were not that hard to learn
    Which makes them easier to practice less.
  5. My Body
    I pack sufficient weight for two or three
    And also hate my hairy, scaly feet.
  1. Outside the Window
    The world’s a stage!  The sun and shade behave
    Like spotlights.  Lawn and wall must take a bow.
  2. What I’d Like to Eat
    A promise made, that’s how I view the smell
    Of dinner.  Ah, spaghetti tastes so good!
  3. A Recent Dream
    So glad to wake before undead can take
    My fort of dreams.  It was a close escape.
  4. Pesky Tasks Overdue
    Fear motivates, it’s true.  I wish I feared
    Whiteacre’s songs, and thus would practice them.
  5. My Body
    About myself, it’s feet I hate, not just
    The kind in shoes, but width around my girth.
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Exercise #4 (pages 50-54)

Exercise was to write 16 unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, using pyrrhic and trochaic substitutions (5 points each), weak endings (two points each) and enjambment (two points each).   Inspired by Fry’s examples, I also based my lines on news stories.

Green Day musician, Armstrong, wore his pants
Quite low and was surprised a flight attendant
Told him to raise them.  His response was cheeky
And she was not amused, but made him leave.
Southwest said sorry, sucking up to him.

The outcome of a fight ‘twixt motorcycle
And tractor is not hard to picture, yet
A man (I tell myself it’s sad, not funny)
Tested this theoretical arrangement
By accident, the outcome no surprise.

A helpful teen, while cleaning out a closet
Found an old casket, black and stained and dusty.
Inside, she found a pile of human bones.
Foul play is not suspected, I still say
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Has some explaining that they need to do.

Total points: 74 (Fry beat me, with 106)