ABSTRACT
As is well known, conventional prosodic analysis is derived from classical quantitative metrics. Although the terms of this form of analysis are inherently unsuitable for a language like Englishwhere 'stress' rather than 'length' has been chosen as the basic principle of metrical organization-they have become firmly established as a descriptive apparatus for English verse. Generations of literary historians persuaded themselves that iambs and anapaests are applicable to English verse, and doubtless many of our more academic poets came to think in these terms. To conceptualize English verse in the jargon of long syllables, trochees, and the rest demands continuous translation into linguistically more appropriate notions, a controlled use of metaphors which could easily become misleading. Some metrical theorists have, apparently, achieved this translation, and found it possible to describe English verse designs efficiently in the old terms.
