News, Announcements,
and Random Thoughts

The OAIA screensaver is now available to download!

Click here to see a preview, or click here to download and install!

Educate yourself! doihaveswineflu.org

IB exams are over! Yay!

DO NOT click here.

Now accepting submissions!

Have you had a particularly IA encounter lately? It could be published on OAIA! Click here to learn how!

Only At IA on Facebook

06 October 2009

Iambic Pentameter

So I've decided that I want to try
to set a brand new challenge for myself.
One whole entire day I'll set aside
to try to talk like this as long I can.
"But why?" I'm sure you want to know right now.
The answer's this: I'm really not quite sure.
It's possible that you might recognize
just how I like to mess with language, yes?
Since talking normal seems to me too dull,
I often like to try to change it up.
So therefore I am gonna set the goal
of trying to continue this all day.
It's really not as hard as it may look-
just try to make it sound right in your head.
I'm sure you see that there's a rhythm here:
the syllables line up in just a way
to make it sound that way when read out loud.
So each line must have ten, no more no less,
and every other syllable with stress.
It's quite straight-forward once you've got it down,
but if you're still confused try looking here.
The hardest part for me is how to start:
I oft forget the pickup, leaving nine.
And so I often start with "well" or "so,"
or sometime a conjunction here and there.

So Friday is the day that I have picked
to speak like this at school for one whole day.
So if you're reading this before it comes,
then mark the date and help me with my goal.
The only thing you need to do is this:
just listen to my speech and tell me when
I say something that doesn't follow suit.
But if you'd like to try it be my guest!
It's lots of fun to recognize who sees.

I've written several guidelines for myself,
so please don't call me out unless you see
me break a rule that's listed here below:

-All day Friday I will try to speak
like this, with all the stresses lining up.
The goal's to make it sound real natural,
and not to make it obvious or forced.
I'll do my best to stick right with my plan
and tell you how I did as soon I can.
-One word answers will still be OK,
as long as sounding natural's at stake.
-Well sadly is the title of this post,
impossible to say here properly.
So therefore I can say the title if
and only if I get someone to ask
how it is I'm talking and/or why.
-Officially the challenge ends with school,
but if I'm feeling good I might go on
to try it till I leave for home that day.
-Of course these rules are subject now to change,
and they'll remain so till the day begins.

So please do come and see me on the day,
and see if I'm still going, won't you please?
So thanks for reading, I look forward to
my trying this at school...I hope it works!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, you said that iambic pentameter requires 10 syllables in every line?

"All day Friday I will try to speak"

"One word answers will still be OK"

"how it is I'm talking and/or why"

So today's Friday. How'd you do?

--Backwards Dog

Jösh said...

Didn't I already address that problem? The pickup thing? For some reason I never seem to notice that.

And I'm waiting until I'm ready to write a proper post about it to talk about the results; that'll happen probably sometime this weekend, i.e. not 12:15 AM:)

Pictures 'n' Stuff



Only At IA on Facebook

Sheikh Darwish on Facebook


Unique visits since 23 April 2008: (visits must be separated by at least an hour to count again)