It is said that iambic pentameter (verse composed of five pairs of syllables per line in the pattern unstressed, stressed for each pair) is the most natural meter for English. When read it sounds like more natural speech. But when I start thinking in verse, mine naturally wants to fall into iambic or anapestic (unstressed, unstressed, stressed) tetrameter (four groups of syllables per line). I have a difficult time changing the rhythm and stretching the line into pentameter. Maybe it is due to growing up with the influence of children’s verse, much of which is composed in tetrameter. With this poem I did something totally different. I’m a native of Los Angeles (specifically the San Fernando Valley) and I was fascinated to find out the original/formal name of my hometown. With this poem each line matches (I hope) the meter (the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables) of that original, wonderful name.
Ciudad Natal (A paean to my hometown)
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles,
Did they know then, little farm town they’d named with such majesty and honor and grace,
In the basin with the valleys of smoke where your river sometimes leaves no trace,
For the wind from out the north and the east brings the desert temper to this place,
You were destined to commune with the stars and the world would come to know your face,
And your sprawling magnanimity shelter the hopes of ev’ry rank and race?
I knew nothing of your troubles while plying your suburbs on our merry chase,
Only felt the flight of angels, the promise you whispered in your warm embrace.
Poetry for Life 