Re: Poetry: alliteration

John Cowan wrote:
> >   Wilt thou learn the lore / that was long secret
> >   of the Five that came / from a far country?
>
> Note how this fits the rules: the stressed syllables of the first line
> are "learn", "lore", "long", "sec", showing double alliteration,
> and "Five", "came", "far", "coun", showing crossed alliteration.
> Also, most of the unstressed syllables are in the left half.  The / represents
> the pause
I can never get the stresses right.  I read that as (using capitals for
stressed syllables):
WILT thou LEARN the LORE that WAS long SECret
of the FIVE that CAME FROM a far COUNtry
and on that second verse, I initially read it "...from A far COUNtry"
before rereading it.

Trying the stresses you assigned just sounds bizarre to me, especially
the "long secret".

Are there any rules of thumb for figuring out where they wanted you to
put the stresses?

--
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