Analogs -- Part 2

In “Analogs – Part 1” I compared the Five-Four Quatrain with the Tetractys. Both of these forms have a syllable count of twenty syllables, but distribute the syllables differently. In Part 2 I’m going to compare the Seven-Four Quatrain with the Prime. Both of these forms have an overall syllable count of twenty-eight syllables. Once again, the syllables are distributed differently. In the Seven-Four Quatrain each of the four lines has seven syllables: 7-7-7-7. In the Prime, the five lines distribute the syllables as follows: 2-3-5-7-11. Here are two examples on the same theme. First, the Seven-Four Quatrain:

Winter rain and the thunder,
Summer skies and the full moon,
Here I stand filled with wonder
For this life that ends so soon.

And now the Prime:

Wonder
Has appeared
As I grow older
I am more and more amazed
Filled with gratitude for the years, months, and days

I think the reader can see that the relationship between the Seven-Four Quatrain and the Prime is similar to the relationship between the Five-Four Quatrain and the Tetractys. In each pairing we have one form that has a regular, repeating, line count, contrasting with another form in which the syllable count is different for each line. In both the Tetractys and the Prime the forms start with a very short count then gradually open to longer and longer lines. In both the Tetractys and the Prime the last line is long.

Again, one can get a feel for the differences in these forms, and their rhythmic meaning, by reading each line at a steady pace, allowing for the same amount of time per line. I have found that with the Tetractys and the Prime, the last line often overflows into a second pulse. When I am practicing I often force the last line into a single pulse; but when I move to a more relaxed reading, I don’t adhere strictly to that. It is enough to have a pause after each line, a natural pause, nothing dramatic, to frame the lines so that the listener will get a sense of the overall shape of the form.

Here’s a possible experiment: write two poems on the same subject, one in the Tetractys form and one in the Prime form. The differences between these two forms will be more subtle than the differences between a form that has a steady, regular line length and a form where the line length continuously changes.