Substitution (poetry)

In English poetry substitution, also known as inversion, is the use of an alien metric foot in a line of otherwise regular metrical pattern.^[1] For instance in an iambic line of "da DUM", a trochaic substitution would introduce a foot of "DUM da".

Trochaic substitution

In a line of verse that normally employs iambic meter, trochaic substitution describes the replacement of an iamb by a trochee.

The following line from John Keats' To Autumn is straightforward iambic pentameter:^[2]

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

Using '°' for a weak syllable, '/' for a strong syllable, and '|' for divisions between feet it can be represented as:

°

/

°

/

°

/

°

/

°

/

To

swell

|

the

gourd,

|

and

plump

|

the

ha-

|

zel

shells

The opening of a sonnet by John Donne demonstrates trochaic substitution of the first foot ("Batter"):

/

°

°

/

°

/

°

/

°

/

Bat-

ter

|

my

heart

|

three-

per-

|

soned

God,

|

for

you

|

Donne uses an inversion (DUM da instead of da DUM) in the first foot of the first line to stress the key verb, "batter", and then sets up a clear iambic pattern with the rest of the line

Shakespeare's Hamlet includes a well-known example:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'

Here, that is emphasized rather than is, which would be a wrenched, or unnatural accent. The first syllable of Whether is also stressed, making it a trochaic beginning.

References

1. Fry, Stephen (2005). The Ode Less Travelled. Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-950934-9.
2. Steele, Timothy (1999). All the fun's in how you say a thing. Ohio University Press. ISBN 0-8214-1260-4.

External links

The dictionary definition of anaclasis at Wiktionary