I want to rescind my off-topic apology earlier in this thread, asking about Chromebook password avoidance:
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Originally Posted by jj2me
Apologies to all for the slightly off-topic direction, ...
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after experiencing what "off-topic" really means. Like this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
II find the alliteration annoying because the rhythm's off: A trochee followed by a trochee followed by a spondee (which ends the line) sounds even worse when you emphasize the off-rhythm of the second trochee.* The line sounds much stronger with a trochee followed by an iamb, which is another reason that Worry you must is so memorable.
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* I actually hear the line as two eighth notes, a triplet with an annoying accent on the third note, and an accented quarter note on the next strong beat. Unfortunately, conventional prosody uses feet, not beats, which means that it can't recognize single syllables as separate rhythmic units. If it could, I'd scan the line as a trochee, a dactyl and a stressed monosyllable.
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P.S. I'm not being critical. I can't be critical of passages where I can't fathom the subject because of my ignorance of the key nouns.