Christopher Aruffo, MFA, MBA, MSc, PhD
Feet become equal when they are the same length of time.
Every syllable takes a certain amount of time to say. You can discover your natural syllabic timing by saying these lines out loud.
Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I pondered, weak and weary.
Here’s how your natural timing works. Say the same lines, but draw out every other syllable. That is, instead of "once," say onnnnnnce, and so on.
Onnnnnce upooooon a miiiiidnight dreeeeeary,
Whiiiiile I pooooondered, weeeeeak and weeeeeary.
This is your natural pattern. It’s weird to draw the syllables out like that, but you can still understand the words. That’s because the drawn-out syllables are naturally long and the other ones are short. Now try reversing the lengths.
Once uuuuupon aaaaa midniiiiight drearyyyyy,
While IIIII ponderrrrred, weak annnnnd wearyyyyy.
You can feel how it goes wrong. The wrong words stand out, and some of the words are backwards. These are not the syllables’ natural lengths. All English syllables have natural lengths.
Syllables are either long or short relative to each other. It doesn’t matter how quickly or slowly you talk; long syllables will always be longer than short syllables. The more naturally you speak, the more clearly you can feel the difference.
L s L s L s L s
Once upon a midnight dreary,
L s L s L s L s
While I pondered, weak and weary,
By using vertical lines to divide the feet, you can see how each foot is equal in length. Long + short = Long + short. When every foot occupies the same amount of time, they produce the special quality of verse.
L + s L + s L + s L + s
Once u | pon a | midnight | dreary,
L + s L + s L + s L + s
While I | pondered,| weak and | weary
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