How to Edit Poetry and Meter

The name of this blog is “good word editing,” but lately I’ve talked more about conceptual editing than mechanics. And I’ve talked a bit about poetry.

In an email recently, someone asked, “How do you edit poetry? How do you know what to cut and what to keep?” Then I read Randy Ingermanson’s discussion of anapests yesterday and got to thinking about how much I love poetry and meter.

First, I won’t claim to know how to write great poetry or edit great poetry. I’m an amateur poet at best. I also won’t bore you with my theory of imagery and metaphor right now. Instead, I’m going to assume you read good poetry (subscribe to Poetry Magazine and 32 Poems) so you understand the basic principles of the form.

That said, there are two main tricks I’ve learned to use when I edit a poem.

First, trust the reader. I let the poem sit for a few days, then return and look for the moral. If I’ve stated the moral as clearly as an Aesop’s fable, that’s the first thing I cut. In poems, I never tell the moral. The power is in the image. Trust the truth of the image alone. If you capture an honest picture or an honest image, it will be more powerful than any truth you can impose on it.

Second, edit for meter. This is a little trickier and takes some explanation.

I prefer to write blank verse, so my poems often have meter but not end-rhyme. (End rhyme is when the words at the end of the lines rhyme in some kind of repeating pattern AABB, ABAB, or something.)

Here’s how I do it.

I print a copy of the poem that is double spaced. Sometimes I also write it out by hand and skip lines. Then, in the space between lines, I scan the meter and try to make sure there are five feet per line. Usually, I approximate iambic pentameter. I figure iambic pentameter was good enough for Shakespeare so it is good enough for me.

Iambic pentameter means the dominant metrical foot is an iamb, and that there are five (penta) iambs per line. Anapestic pentameter would have five anapests. Dactyllic pentameter would have five dactyls. Vermicious knid pentameter would have five vermicious knids.

(Vermicious knids aren’t really metrical feet, but they should be.)

And don’t stress yourself out. Writing with a dominant meter is hardly an exact science.

The dominant meter of a poem is like the drum beat of a song. Think about it. You have the regular beat that occurs most of the time, and the variations on that beat that occur throughout the poem. Like the special drum riff in a song. Any time you vary the meter from the dominant pattern, the variation is going to receive a slight emphasis.

The drum riff is cool because it sticks out. It is where the beat changes. The rhythm is different.

Remember the SNL skit where Christopher Walken called for “More Cowbell“? That cowbell is the dominant meter–and it’s funny because the song doesn’t vary the meter at all. It drives that cowbell like a freight train, baby.

So, next time you want to edit a poem, “trust your reader and scan the meter.” (Hey, I’m a poet!–bonus points to anyone who can scan that little line of poetry.) Try to shoot for some kind of pentameter, five feet per line. To keep it easy, limit yourself to the basic feet, iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, and spondee.

Here’s a quick key to the examples below:

“~” and lowercase =  unstressed syllable

“/” and UPPERCASE = stressed syllable

| = mark to show the separate metrical feet

Here is a simple explanation of the five basic metrical feet with examples that I’ve tried to scan for you.

i-AMB (unstressed, STRESSED)

~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /
“but SOFT | what LIGHT | from YON- | der WIN- | dow BREAKS?”

TROCH-ee (STRESSED, unstressed)

/ ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~
“ONCE up- | ON a | MIDnight | DREARy, | WHILE i | PONdered, | WEAK and | WEARy”
 
an-a-PEST (unstressed, unstressed, STRESSED)

~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / 
“the imMOR- | tal deSIRE |of imMOR- | tals we SAW | in their FAC- | es and SIGHED”
 
DAC-tyl-lic (STRESSED, unstressed, unstressed)

/ ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~
“PICture your | SELF in a | BOAT on a | RIVer with | TANGerine | TREE-ees and | MARMalade | SKII-ii-es.”

SPON-DEE (STRESSED STRESSED, used for emphasis only)
/ ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / /
“Í say | MóRE: the | JUST man | JUSTices; / KéEPS GRáCE”

If you all are interested, I can post a poem I’m working on to show you how this works.

Tagged as: anapest, dactyl, iamb, meter, pentameter, poetry, randy-ingermanson, spondee, trochee