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영어

This paper considered the distinction between four-beat and five-beat verse in syllable-stress meter, and the variations line-lengths and stanza forms in which they are used. Much syllable-stress four-beat verse has the same characteristics as four-beat verse in stress meter, including virtual beats and the use of stanza forms that divide and combine the four-beat units. Verse which does not fall into the 4x4 formation comes closer to the rhythms of speech; this includes five-beat verse and verse with varied line-lengths that cannot be read as a variant of the 4x4 formation. Four-beat verse can also be written in a way that counters the 4x4 formation by syntax and choice of stanza form. Five-beat verse is almost always iambic: it is very rare to find examples in trochaic or triple verse (or stress verse). It has a relatively weak rhythmic architecture, neither dividing into half lines nor forming larger units. It can be rhymed or unrhymed (blank verse), stanzaic or continuous. It makes no use of virtual beats. These characteristics make it particularly suited to the evocation of speech and thought, to drama and to long narrative or meditative poems.