Pinned
running this blog ain’t much but it’s honest work
Reblogged
In the crooks of your body, I find my religion.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
Scansion:
' ◡ ' ◡ | ◡ ' ◡ || ◡ ' ◡ | ◡ ' ◡ In the crooks of | your body, || I find my | religion.
Metrical form: This is a line of Saturnian verse!
Other notes: It's at least accentually a correct Saturnian, following in particular Mercado 2012. Cf. e.g. CIL 1.2 line 5, which has the same pattern. ánnos nátus | (vigínti) || is lóceis | mandátus
#saturnian#In the crooks of your body#en-theos#since non classics followers of this blog may not get this: to be clear#the OP is an April fool it’s a false attribution of the quote#my response is silly because the Saturnian is a meter no-one has written in for over 2000 years#it’s a meter we barely even understand the rules of scansion for#i do not believe that this quote in English was ever intended to be in Saturnian verse#a normal scansion of this in terms of English poetics would probably be:#amphibrachic tetrameter#amphibrachic#tetrameter
Reblogged
boar of strenght and boar of power
heavy training every hour
huge and fat my awesome pig
i make it large i make it big
Scansion:
– ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ boar of / strenght and / boar of / power – ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ heavy / training / every / hour – ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ / – huge and / fat my / awesome / pig ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – i make it large i make it big
Metrical form: Tetrameter. Lines 1-2 are trochaic tetrameter (perhaps catalectic depending on how many syllables are in power and hour), line 3 is trochaic tetrameter catalectic, and line 4 is iambic tetrameter. Rhyme scheme: Rhyming couplets
#boar of strenght and boar of power#boar of strength and boar of power#memorycycle#sassierkale#requested#tetrameter#trochaic tetrameter#iambic tetrameter#trochaic tetrameter catalectic#this meter is v popular on tumblr and this particular poem is v reminiscent of 'gnomes of pleasure gnomes of pain'!
Reblogged
Devastating to have more evidence that done IS better than perfect
Additionally, findings indicate that the act of doing shows you that you were not seeking perfection, you were fearing inadequacy
#oh that last line gutted me #is there a place between perfect and failure?
Good news! There is!
Bad news! It is called 'done'
Scansion:
– ◡ ◡ / – ◡ ◡ / – ◡ ◡ / – ◡ #is there a / place between / perfect and / failure?
Metrical form: dactylic tetrameter catalectic
Reblogged
thetardiswantstoknowwherecasis
theplaidlad
What the… but… how… wha…. how did this person…. I…
thatoneweirdfilmmajor
acciobowtie
i just wrote -2-2x= like 75 times on a paper oh god
i filled up both sides
avatarkatnisspotter
what just happened
this makes me uncomfortable,
kateitron
then do =x+2+ for the next part
sunshiine-state-of-mind
for “or blow me a kiss, and that’s lucky too” it’s =+1=+1
kagamine-kai
What is this sorcery?!?!
hedwig-of-the-tardis
this is my favorite post on tumblr
the ending is: 12=x1=
brethewriter
So I just worked out the whole song, and here you go:
- 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 + - 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 + = + 1 = + 1
- 7 2 + 7 = x + 2 + = 2 + 2 1 = x + 2 +
- 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 + - 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 + - 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 + - 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 +
- 7 2 + 7 = x + 2 +
- 7 2 + 7 = x + 2 + = 7 7 2 + = x + 2 + = x - 7 - 2
- 2 - 2 x = = x + 2 + = x + 2 1 = x + 2 + 1 2 = x 1 =
lost-and-confused-fallen-angel
My mind just broke
allthingsships
*writes furiously*
Mom: Are you writing an essay?
Me: Hm? Wha-oh yeah. An essay. Definitely.
What’s the name of that gimmick blog that determines the rhyme scheme of stuff?
This post is wonderful classic tumblr and relevant to my interests but how would I possibly scan it? What could I even do here?
Reblogged
ashes to ashes, dust to dust, reeses to pieces
And sluts to sluts.
amen
Scansion:
– ◡ ◡ – ◡ ashes to ashes, – ◡ – dust to dust, – ◡ ◡ – ◡ reeses to pieces ◡ – ◡ – And sluts to sluts.
Metrical form: Dimeter with varying feet. Odd-numbered lines are adonic (or dactylic dimeter catalectic with feminine endings), even-numbered lines are iambic or trochaic with masculine endings.
Rhyme scheme: ABCB
Fun fact (because your last post just reminded me lol): Kalevala meter has the same scansion as the phrase "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." I'm not sure which is funnier, imagining someone singing "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on a slow traditional Finnish melody with kantele accompaniment, or someone singing "Vaka vanha Väinämöinen" to the tune of the TMNT theme song
That's really cool, and also caused me to look up what the Kalevala is!
Reblogged
[Image ID: Tweet from Lucy Huber (@/ clhubes) reading: Children are so progressive now, I just heard kids arranging a game of house at the park say "should we have a mom and a dad or two dads?" "Two dads...but one is evil."
Quote tweet from x-يوسف فرارى (@/ mikaelschumachr) reading: Toxic yaoi on the playground ... because of woke... /End ID]
Scansion:
– ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ / – ◡ Toxic / yaoi / on the / playground
Metrical form: trochaic tetrameter
Anonymous asked:
Hi! Tumblr is being awful and won't let me copypaste the lyrics here, but could you do the song Murders by Miracle Musical? (starts with "he was in the forest / looking to see the trees...")
The first few stanzas:
– ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ ◡ – ◡ – He was in the forest looking to see the trees ◡ – ◡ – But none were there ◡ – ◡ – He found a girl ◡ – ◡ – – She found the Erlking – ◡ – ◡ – – They were in the white wood – ◡ ◡ – ◡ – ◡ Gamboling out to picnic ◡ ◡ – – – ◡ – In the light leaves broke above ◡ – ◡ – Then fell below – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – I was in the middle ground – ◡ ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ Looking to find the flowers in the garden – ◡ ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – Wearying of the hate me, hate me not – ◡ ◡ – Wait. they forgot – – ◡ – Woe, oh, the rot
There isn't a consistent meter but the stanzas are 4-5 lines and have some repeating structures and patterns, for example there are lots of 4-syllable lines, especially iambic dimeter (◡ – ◡ –).
Reblogged
if my doctors name was house i would wanna know his first name before he does any surgery on me. what if its haunted
Scansion:
– ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – First name haunted last name house. ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – ◡ – Prescribe the patient bites from mouse.
Metrical form: tetrameter (trochaic tetrameter catalectic in line 1, iambic tetrameter in line 2)
Rhyme scheme: AA rhyming couplet
Reblogged thementalistscandidate
I spread pro glasses propaganda. Glasses are hot. Glasses are cool. Glasses will help you see boobs.
Scansion:
– ◡ ◡ – Glasses are hot. – ◡ ◡ – Glasses are cool. – ◡ ◡ – ◡ ◡ – Glasses will help you see boobs.
Metrical form: choriambs (– ◡ ◡ –) and expansions of the choriamb.
Reblogged
Anonymous asked:
hi! I have a question about meter vs time signatures, and I figure you're a good person to ask: basically, how do time sigs and meter interact?
is a song in 3/4 comparable to one in 6/8? they have a different but similar Feel, yk? (America from West Side Story comes to mind as a good example of both 3/4 and 6/8 — the chorus alternates between the two)
does an unusual time sig (ex 5/4) make an unusual meter? the extra beat has a stumbling motion to it, like in Animals by Muse and From Eden by Hozier. (for an even stranger example, March Of The Pigs by Nine Inch Nails)
and my last question is pretty much just about Walkin On The Sun by Smash Mouth. what's going on in there.
if you get to any of these, that's fine! I love your blog :D
This is legitimately such a good question that my answer might be incomplete and roundabout!
I suspect that when people submit song lyrics to this blog, they assume that the song's musical rhythm corresponds to the meter of its lyrics. That's sometimes the case, but it's really only one style of songwriting/lyric-writing. If you listen to "I am the very model of a modern major general", you'll hear that the poetic meter and musical rhythm fit each other almost perfectly: one note = one syllable, and the stressed syllable is always on the beat. In most music, though, the rhythm and the meter are neither totally in sync (which risks sounding rhythmically boring) nor totally independent (which risks sounding like the lyrics don't fit the song). A lot of the time the rhythm gets varied, but in ways where the stressed syllables are generally more prominent. Or a line/phrase/stanza starts out with the meter and rhythm matching but then they diverge to put emphasis on certain words. Or other fun stuff. Let's look at your example, Walkin' on the Sun!
If I scanned the poetic meter of the first few lines, it'd be something like:
◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – It ain't / no joke, / I'd like / to buy / the world / a toke ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ ◡ and teach / the world / to sing / in per/fect har/mony ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – ◡ and teach / the world / to snuff / the fi/res and / the liars
The musical rhythm in those lines is quite varied but each of the naturally stressed syllables is either on the beat or is drawn out longer than an eighth-note (but syncopated by starting it off the beat).
Even if you're trying to make a musical rhythm that closely represents a poetic meter, there's different ways to do that. One option: make stressed and unstressed syllables the same length, but put the stressed syllables at points that get more emphasis in the musical rhythm. So you can have the syllables represented by even 8th-notes and put a stressed syllable on each beat (like in the modern major general song), or make the syllables represented by quarter notes in a meter like 4/4 or 2/4. Another option: make the stressed syllables take up more time in the rhythm. So lots of songs with time signatures like 6/8 or 9/8 or a fast 3/4 or with swung 8th-notes make the stressed syllables twice as long as the unstressed syllables (while I'm citing songs from Pirates of Penzance, "pour oh pour the pirate sherry" is a very clear 6/8 example). Both of those strategies work totally fine for expressing an iambic or trochaic meter, but they sound pretty different.
An unusual time signature does not necessarily make for an unusual meter or vice versa, because the measure doesn't have to be the same length as one line and especially because you usually want a pause of at least a beat in between lines, otherwise it would sound like the lines were all running together. In your 5/4 example "From Eden" by Hozier, a lot of the lines are trimeter! ("There's something / tragic a/bout you. [rest, rest] // Something so / magic a/bout you.”
what about classical poetry though where the metre is basically a time signature? some lyric forms which where definitely accompanied by instruments sound completely arrhythmic. and is it possible that the choreus was sang to a music in 3/4 time?
You mean in Ancient Greek lyric? I personally don't know as much as I'd like to yet about the musical accompaniment of ancient lyric, and classical concepts of music and rhythm were different from ours. Metrical form was coupled with musical rhythm to an extent that it isn't today, but ancient treatises did distinguish meter and rhythm. Duration in a musical rhythm reflected syllable quantities, but the musical implementation of quantity had room for variation; long syllables in music could be 2x or 3x or 4x or 5x the length of short syllables for musical effect. So I'm hesitant to say that the meter is basically a time signature even in ancient quantitative verse, but again I don't know and I want to read more about this.
Reblogged
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012), “Open House For Butterflies” by Ruth Krauss, 2001 Source
Scansion:
◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / A screa/ming song / is good / to know / in case / you need / to scream.
Metrical form: iambic heptameter (equivalent to a couplet in "common hymn meter")
Anonymous asked:
hi! I have a question about meter vs time signatures, and I figure you're a good person to ask: basically, how do time sigs and meter interact?
is a song in 3/4 comparable to one in 6/8? they have a different but similar Feel, yk? (America from West Side Story comes to mind as a good example of both 3/4 and 6/8 — the chorus alternates between the two)
does an unusual time sig (ex 5/4) make an unusual meter? the extra beat has a stumbling motion to it, like in Animals by Muse and From Eden by Hozier. (for an even stranger example, March Of The Pigs by Nine Inch Nails)
and my last question is pretty much just about Walkin On The Sun by Smash Mouth. what's going on in there.
if you get to any of these, that's fine! I love your blog :D
This is legitimately such a good question that my answer might be incomplete and roundabout!
I suspect that when people submit song lyrics to this blog, they assume that the song's musical rhythm corresponds to the meter of its lyrics. That's sometimes the case, but it's really only one style of songwriting/lyric-writing. If you listen to "I am the very model of a modern major general", you'll hear that the poetic meter and musical rhythm fit each other almost perfectly: one note = one syllable, and the stressed syllable is always on the beat. In most music, though, the rhythm and the meter are neither totally in sync (which risks sounding rhythmically boring) nor totally independent (which risks sounding like the lyrics don't fit the song). A lot of the time the rhythm gets varied, but in ways where the stressed syllables are generally more prominent. Or a line/phrase/stanza starts out with the meter and rhythm matching but then they diverge to put emphasis on certain words. Or other fun stuff. Let's look at your example, Walkin' on the Sun!
If I scanned the poetic meter of the first few lines, it'd be something like:
◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – It ain't / no joke, / I'd like / to buy / the world / a toke ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ ◡ and teach / the world / to sing / in per/fect har/mony ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – / ◡ – ◡ and teach / the world / to snuff / the fi/res and / the liars
The musical rhythm in those lines is quite varied but each of the naturally stressed syllables is either on the beat or is drawn out longer than an eighth-note (but syncopated by starting it off the beat).
Even if you're trying to make a musical rhythm that closely represents a poetic meter, there's different ways to do that. One option: make stressed and unstressed syllables the same length, but put the stressed syllables at points that get more emphasis in the musical rhythm. So you can have the syllables represented by even 8th-notes and put a stressed syllable on each beat (like in the modern major general song), or make the syllables represented by quarter notes in a meter like 4/4 or 2/4. Another option: make the stressed syllables take up more time in the rhythm. So lots of songs with time signatures like 6/8 or 9/8 or a fast 3/4 or with swung 8th-notes make the stressed syllables twice as long as the unstressed syllables (while I'm citing songs from Pirates of Penzance, "pour oh pour the pirate sherry" is a very clear 6/8 example). Both of those strategies work totally fine for expressing an iambic or trochaic meter, but they sound pretty different.
An unusual time signature does not necessarily make for an unusual meter or vice versa, because the measure doesn't have to be the same length as one line and especially because you usually want a pause of at least a beat in between lines, otherwise it would sound like the lines were all running together. In your 5/4 example "From Eden" by Hozier, a lot of the lines are trimeter! ("There's something / tragic a/bout you. [rest, rest] // Something so / magic a/bout you.”