Well Bottom Blues

My comment on this Substack post:

https://open.substack.com/pub/poeticknowledge/p/an-introduction-to-the-rhythm-of?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3ibxf

As a poet of 68 years I find that I and many of my contemporaries use accentual lines of a certain number of beats without regard to syllable count. We were all schooled in both canonical English verse and the free verse that emerged in the 20th century. I personally think there is a deep human connection to rhythm as evidenced by the universality of music. Controlling rhythm allows poetry to partake of the soul-deep power of music. It also contains a link to the roots of the English language, to the Anglo-Saxon and the closely related Old Nordic recorded primarily in Iceland. If we abandon meter entirely you get a poetry purely directed at the eye and intellect. I find Pound and Eliot fascinating but the 20th Century poet I am most strongly drawn to is Wallace Steven who understood equally the image and the sound: rhythm, assonance and alliteration. So much modern poetry lacks that foundation.