Iambic meter

“ Iambic metre was, next to the dactylic hexameter, the form of verse most frequently employed by the poets of Greek antiquity. Archilochus, again, who seems to have been a great initiator in the arts of versification, is credited with the invention of the iambic trimeter also, but it certainly existed before his time. Murray believes the original iambic measure, in its popular familiarity, to have sprung from the worship of the homely peasant gods, Dionysus and Demeter. ”

“ After we had done so we would call it an “ammeter” because it measures amperes. Years ago people would have called it an “amperemeter” but no one who is up-to-date would call it so to-day.
If we had a very carefully made ammeter we would send it to the Bureau of Standards to be calibrated. At the Bureau they have a number of meters which they know are correct in their readings. They would put one of their meters and ours into the same circuit so that both carry the same stream of electrons as in Fig. 11. Then whatever the reading was on their meter could be marked opposite the pointer on ours. ”

“ I call this form the duocapet because it is, in a sense, double-headed, having two rhyming words in every line—one at each end. I have discarded rhythm but retained rhyme. I had good reasons for adopting this course. I regard meter as a useless encumbrance. It is meter, not rhyme, which hampers the true poet. The poet should be free—free as the air—free as the birds. It is a crime against art to bind him with silly meaningless meters and rhythms which distract his attention from his theme and serve only to furnish critics with an excuse for picking flaws. ”

“ When we say that a verse is of any particular kind, we do not mean that every foot in that line is necessarily of the same kind. Verse is named by stating first the prevailing foot which composes it, and second the number of feet in a line. A verse having four iambic feet is called iambic tetrameter. So we have dactylic hexameter, trochaic pentameter, iambic trimeter, anapestic dimeter, etc. ”

“ The velocity of propagation of electric waves is the same as that of light, viz., about 1000 million feet, or 300 million metres, per second. If therefore we can measure the frequency of the oscillations in an antenna we are able to tell the wave-length emitted. Instruments for doing this are called wave meters and are of two kinds, open circuit and closed circuit. Forms of open circuit wave meter have been devised by Slaby and by Fleming. Slaby’s wave meter consists of a helix of non-insulated wire wound on a glass tube. ”

“ The strong meter, causing a distinct accent on the first note of each measure, will at once be noted, especially if it be contrasted with the more moderate accentuation of the folk-songs of Chapter II. Such strong meter is naturally characteristic of all dance tunes, intended as they are to guide and stimulate the regular steps of the dancer. ”

“ An ammeter or ampere meter is simply a commercial form of galvanometer so constructed that the deflection of the needle indicates directly the strength of current in amperes. A good ammeter should have a very low resistance so that very little of the energy of the current will be absorbed; the needle should be dead beat, and sufficiently sensitive to respond to minute variations of current. ”

“ This feature is an annoying one on account of the difficulty of detecting it; a meter may, as far as appearances go, be in excellent working order and yet give readings which are not to be relied upon. ”

“ The instruments have served as prototypes for the measuring instruments which have come into use in all countries, as electric power has become generally employed for domestic and commercial purposes. Ayrton and Perry also invented a clock meter and motor meter which served as models for the meters now used, and would have brought them an immense fortune, had they not abandoned their patents at too early a date. ”

“ This is indicated by the light moving to the end of the second division on the scale; the meter vibrates twice as fast. Now the current is three times as strong, now four times, and so on. You will observe that the position of the spot of light and the rate of vibration always correspond. Every vibration of the meter corresponds to a definite quantity of electricity, and causes a hand on a dial to move on one step. By looking at the dial, we can see how many vibrations there have been and therefore how much electricity has passed. ”

“ The meters are caused to operate by pressure on the meter key MK, associated with the answering cord as in Fig. 458. This [Page 317] increases the normal potential to 30 volts. When the armature of the meter has made a part of its stroke, it closes a contact which places its 40-ohm winding in shunt with its 500-ohm winding, thus furnishing ample power for turning the meter wheels. ”

“ When it descends to narrative, or the expression of a less-exalted strain of thought, it becomes a trimeter, having the time of six iambics, or even a dimeter, with the time of four; and it is allowable to vary the tetrameter “ode” by the occasional introduction of passages in either or both of these inferior measures, but not, I think, by the use of any other. The license to rhyme at indefinite intervals is counterbalanced, in the writing of all poets who have employed this metre successfully, by unusual frequency in the recurrence of the same rhyme. ”

“ The only previous measures in Greek poetry had been the epic hexameter, and its offshoot the elegiac metre; but the slow measured structure of hexameter verse was utterly unsuited to express the quick, light motions of satire. Archilochus made use of the iambus and the trochee, and organized them into the two forms of metre known as the iambic trimeter and the trochaic tetrameter. The trochaic metre he generally used for subjects of a serious nature; the iambic for satires. He was also the first to make use of the arrangement of verses called the epode. ”

“ Two separate meters will be required in each theater; one for the general lighting and one for the emergency system.
Meter Reading. Meter Reading.—Meter readings are indicated by [279] pointers, arranged to move over dials as shown in Figure 165. The various pointers are connected together by gearing in such a manner, that alternate pointers move in opposite directions, as indicated by the figures on the dials. The gearing moving the pointers in Figure 165 is of such proportions that a total revolution of any pointer represents one-tenth of a revolution of the pointer to the left of it. ”

“ It is easy to distinguish the continuous ring when the ground is reached from the short ring when the counter signals. A convenient winch for the wire is so graduated that if set when the axis of the meter is at the water surface it indicates at any moment the depth of the meter below the surface. Fig. 144 shows the meter as used on a boat. It is a very convenient instrument for obtaining the velocity at different depths and can also be used as a sounding instrument. ”

“ In the first instance we may trace it in those hymns possessing a content as yet more akin to the epic mode, which do not so much express in their epic metre a personal enthusiasm as they set before us a plastic image of gods in deliberately objective outlines. The next step, so far as metre is concerned, we mark in the elegiac syllabic measure, which associates the pentameter with the hexameter, which, in the regular recurrence of its ending after the hexameter, and with its two equally divided sections, opens the way to the complete singularity of the verse strophe. ”

“ Any system aiming at scientific accuracy implies a degree of minute analysis which is impracticable in an endeavour to procure an estimate of the pitch and average inflection of numerous voices heard at some distance, and under conditions not favourable to close scrutiny. In speech a single syllable may traverse half an octave, a semitone, or a fraction of a semitone, and it may be jerked out in separate tones, or undulate in portamento. There is usually, however, a prime sound, which may be more prominent and longer sustained than the other sounds that go to round off the syllable. ”

“ The meter is placed in series with the aerial and when the high frequency currents pass through it they heat and expand a fine wire, causing the needle to move over a graduated scale and indicate the amount of current passing. ”

“ Such a test, is made by determining with an accurate ammeter or watt-meter the current or power supplied to a circuit for a period measured by a good clock and comparing with this the actual reading of the meter during the same time. A common source of trouble is the short circuiting of the shunt coils owing to the shellaced cotton covering of the wire becoming moist.
A good meter should start with a current which is not more than 2% of its full load current. ”

“ But, perhaps, of poetry, as a mental operation, metre or musick is no necessary adjunct: it is, however, by the musick of metre that poetry has been discriminated in all languages; and, in languages melodiously constructed with a due proportion of long and short syllables, metre is sufficient. But one language cannot communicate its rules to another; where metre is scanty and imperfect, some help is necessary. The musick of the English heroick lines strikes the ear so faintly, that it is easily lost, unless all the syllables of every line cooperate together ”

“ His plastic power and flexible charm of verse, though shown only in short flashes of song, lose nothing of the old freshness and life. To the end he was the same whose "sovereign sway and masterdom" of music could make sweet and strong even the feeble and tuneless form of metre called hexameters in English; if form of metre that may be called which has neither metre nor form. But the majestic rush and roll of that irregular anapæstic measure used once or twice by this supreme master of them all, no student can follow without an exultation of enjoyment. ”

“ The sublimer the poem, the painting, or any work of art, the more will the smallest detail be consistent with the whole and a necessary part of the expression.
Metre has been studied too much as a matter of print. Few recognize the fact that metre is necessarily a part of vocal rather than of verbal expression, and can only be suggested in print.
Metre can be revealed only by the human voice. As a printed word is only a sign, so print can afford a hint only of the nature of metre. Its study, accordingly, must be associated with the living voice and the vocal interpretation of literature. ”

“ To Send Out a 200 Meter Wave Length.--If you are using a condenser having a capacitance of .007 microfarad, which is the largest capacity value that the Government will allow an amateur to use, then if you have a hot wire ammeter in your aerial and tune the inductance coil or coils until the ammeter shows the largest amount of energy flowing through it you will know that your transmitter is tuned and that the aerial is sending out waves whose length is 200 meters. To tune to different wave lengths you must have a wave-meter. ”

“ The metre which I selected for each is the thirteen- syllable trochaic of "Locksley Hall;" and it is curious to observe the different effect of the metre according as it is written in two lines or in four. In the "Locksley Hall" couplet its movement is undoubtedly trochaic; but when it is expanded into a quatrain, as in Mrs. Browning's poem of "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," the movement changes, and instead of a more or less equal stress on the alternate syllables, the full ictus is only felt in one syllable out of every four; in ancient metrical language the metre becomes Ionic a minore. ”

“ Accordingly, the two basal types which lie at the foundation of classical metre are "longs" and "shorts." The convention was that a long syllable was equal to two short ones: accordingly there was a real truth in calling the succession of such "feet" metre, for the length, or weight, of the syllables forming them could be, and was, measured. What has to be realized in speaking of ancient metre is that the value of these feet was defined with exactitude, not left uncertain, as it is in modern European verse, when accent is almost always made the guiding principle. ”

“ The principle, of the meter is to make the breaking and driving action so strong that the friction of the train becomes immaterial in comparison. This meter is an ampere-hour meter and applicable only to continuous current circuits. Another form of motor meter which is much used is that of Elihu Thomson. It takes the form of a small dynamo having an armature and field magnets without any iron core. The armature carries on its shaft a commutator made of silver slips, and the current is fed into the armature by means of brushes of silver wire. ”

“ Pitch appears to be sometimes a determining element in rhythm, as has been shown above; but since its chief function in verse is that of supporting the recognized determinants and adding grace-notes to the music, it is omitted here and discussed in Chapter V, below.
Balance of Forces. It is not to be inferred from the foregoing sections that the basis of English metre is time. For the basis of English metre is dual: time and stress are inextricable. Beneath all metrical language runs the invisible current of time, but the surface is marked by stress. The warp of the metrical fabric is time ”

“ To make the different planes of action distinct, each has its own metre. These metres are the short octosyllabic couplet, the heroic decasyllable, the alliterative unrhymed verse of the body of the play, and, for the "Music," an exquisite invention of rhymed dactylics. The way in which they are interwoven is a masterpiece of metrical device. In the two scenes of the induction (to use the appropriate term of the Renaissance dramatists) the ground is laid of the whole metrical system of the poem; in the first scene by a single phrase of the Music ”