Re: what the lips say

the spondee occurs in these two words "How? wear"

Hastings is simply stage instructions - he's the speaker and not part of the text
when performed. He is part of the text when read, but that name doesn't get
scanned in terms of the spectacle.

If scanned, "Hastings" would be a trochee. Then you'd have:

trochee/spondee/iamb/iamb/iamb/iamb

6x2=12.

If we were to include "Hastings" in the scansion, the line would be Alexandrine,
not pentameter.

ok, thursday. 6 pm. i'll bring the gulf. and the
pantoum.

question:

im going over your response to my question about
scanning through caesuras. im not sure if i follow
your scansion notes. If i read it right, you're
scanning Hastings as a spondee. i'll paste what you
sent. lemme know if this is correct:

�Here's an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's
Richard III 3.2
line 41:
�Hastings: How? wear the garland? Dost thou mean the
crown?�

It scans in such a way to violate the pure integrity
of the iambs, but in the end
that resolves - strong/strong weak/strong,
weak/strong, weak/strong, weak/strong
spondee (jumps the caesura) - iamb - iamb (jumps the
caesura) - iamb -
iamb.�