The Application of the Stress Maxima Theory to Selected Poems From Nwoga's WEST AFRICAN VERSE .

Abstract

This paper analyses the metrical lines of three poems, namely: Nativity,
Season and Abiku, selected from an anthology titled West African Verse.
Simultaneously adopting the Stress Maxima (SM) theory of Halle and Keyser
through scansions of the metrical feet contained in their lines. Using the SM
theory, the scansions show that only a few lines have the regular iambic and
trochaic feet while most of the lines have a mixture of both. Other
combinations found are: spondaic and iambic, trochaic and iambic, spondaic,
iambic and trochaic, anapestic, trochaic iambic and anapest. A few lines were
rendered without SM because of the combinations of feet in them. Such
combinations of feet imply that rhythm as a poetic feature is not achieved by
the poets therefore; the poems would be read as mere tales, without poetic
meters. This may be attributed to the fact that they are meant to inform and
to the rules of meter in their poems may render the poems as free verses. Also,
the work identifies another way that grammar and phonology may complement
one another in the working of a particular language as in this case,
grammatical classification of words used as the basis for achieving rhythmic
effects in poems.