Preludes

The poem is written mostly in iambic tetrameter. An iambic foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, and a tetrameter comprises four feet. Line 1 is a good example: “The winter evening settles down.” Ten of the 13 lines in Part I follow this form. The exceptions are all shorter lines. “The grimy scraps” (Line 6) and “The showers beat” (Line 9) are both in iambic dimeter (two poetic feet). The shortest line, “Six o’clock” (Line 3) has just three syllables (it is short of one unstressed syllable in the first foot).

Part II comprises two stanzas, each of five lines. In the first, the meter varies, with only two lines, Line 14 and Line 17, in iambic tetrameter. Two of the other lines are trimeters (three feet): “Of faint stale smells of beer” (Line 15) and, “To early coffee-stands” (Line 18). The first of these substitutes a spondee (two stressed syllables) for an iamb in the second foot: “[S]tale smells.” The second stanza of Part II consists of shorter lines. “That time resumes” (Line 20) is iambic dimeter (two feet), and the following line, “One thinks of all the hands” (Line 21) is iambic trimeter.