Yay! I found a new LJ community playground!

[capri0mni]

The other day, I added "Iambic pentameter" to my interest list, and this morning, I found iambic_5meter, where you can post about any topic, as long as it's in, well, iambic pentameter, and it's your own words (comments can be prosaic, though). So I sat down and compsed this on the fly as an explaination of why I'm glad I found them, and thought I'd share:

Quite oft, I've heard the Philistines complain:
"Iambic verse is diffecult to learn--
Its fancy language taxes my poor brain!
Prosaic speach is best, when it's your turn."

Their puzzlement is hard to understand.
Iambic rhythm pulses through the heart,
And if they'd count the fingers on one hand,
They'd feel the language clicking, part by part.

It's prose that is a random, clutterd, mess.
How many words to choose from? What's the count?
(Reminds me of this office, I confess)--
A shifting heap that's harder to surmount.

I'll versify my speeches all the time
(Though if for business, I will skip the rhyme).

It's not very active (the most recent post before mine was May 15), but it's amusing.

Comments

I posted this on iambic_5meter, but for some reason it's still screened. Hope you won't object . . .

[pizzazzle.livejournal.com]

(Forgive me if my comments fail to rhyme;
I lack for cunning and, what's more, for time.)

I love your last couplet - I'm tempted to deliver my next business report in iambic pentameter just to see if I get any funny looks. And it's fantastic to see a new poster in the community - we'll breathe new life into it yet. (:

Re: I posted this on iambic_5meter, but for some reason it's still screened. Hope you won't object .

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (now, really, why would I object to a compliment?)

Speaking from personal experience, I wouldn't worry about others catching on. As long as you don't artificially exagurate the last syllable in each line, most people won't even notice.

I experimented with writing in extended iambic pentamenter blank verse a little over three years ago, for a "Literary magazine for the stage," where I had to get up and read the piece before an audience. And after that experience, I was hooked. That story was the easiest of all for me to compose and memorize.

The story went over well, and the MC had to point out the meter to the audiencee after I was done, otherwise, they wouldn't have noticed -- at least, not consciously.

Oh, and btw, the story is here (http://capriuni.livejournal.com/2003/05/24/).