countryfog
Interesting comments, as I have always pronounced it "po-em." I guess that makes me Jim's "antiquated."
2014-01-30

Rob Graber
I suppose the third line's "poem" is to be read "po-em" instead of American style "pome." Tennyson was transcendent with trochaic metre as in "Locksley Hall," and was not exactly a souch in iambic pentameter, faves of mine including "The Kraken" and "Ulysses."

Jim, I agree: free verse often gives one the feeling of too much freedom!
2014-01-29

Poetry has changed. Or, people have changed. Writing in such meter (metre) seems antiquated, yet it makes me feel lackadaisical in my write-it-as-I-feel-it approach to writing. Which I am.

It really wasn't that long ago that Tennyson wrote this, but it feels like eons in terms of how our culture has changed (i.e. #tennyson).

As for the poem itself, cute, but my counting skills must be as lackadaisical as my writing skills because I cannot make the third line hendecasyllabic. To err is human. One of us is human.

Thanks for this, ed. More please.
2014-01-29