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St Andrew's Church, Taunton

Henry's Goat's Blog Part 17

9 May 2007

I’m writing in a different metre now,

To make a change, to learn a diff’rent art.

For that’s the way to greatness, so he says,

The road to fame and fortune, wealth and power.

It’s time to test my mind, to learn new skills,

To follow where the greatest poets led

And forge the way, where never goat has trod.

I’m writing here in lines like Shakespeare used;

He never wrote a blog, but in his plays

He used to write in verse that scans like this.

(It’s very easy, really, as you see,

Especially as it doesn’t have to rhyme –

Though, just for you, I’ll make it rhyme this time.)

Iambic pentameters, that’s what they’re called;

I can’t say they grab me, or hold me enthralled.

They’re not as adaptable, that’s what I say;

There are so many thoughts that they cannot convey:

‘Iambic pentameter’ won’t fit their metre,

And as for ‘Shakespearean poetry reader’,

There isn’t a hope of you fitting it in,

E’en Shakespeare himself would be all in a spin,

Unable to make the lines scan as they ought,

He’d have to give in; it would make him distraught!

I hope that by now you have all understood:

Iambic pentameters aren’t any good!

It’s best I should stick with the metre I know,

Its comforting, steady and rhythmical flow.

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