Iambic Pentameter T-Shirt

Price:	$15.00
Size / Color:	-- Select Size / Color -- S M

I wish that I might be a thinking stone.
—Wallace Stevens

This ultra-high quality black American Apparel tee features a line from Wallace Stevens' poem Le Monocle de Mon Oncle screen-printed in striking electric blue lettering on the back of the shirt, with the scansion of that line across the front. This shirt is available exclusively from Poets.org, and comes in XL, L, M, and S unisex sizes.

The poet and noted prosodist Alfred Corn remarks on the scansion:

There is in fact room for disagreement about the scansion of this line. But Stevens is among the most regular of metrists, and he probably heard it as five iambic feet. Still, an alternative scansion is: one iamb followed by a pyrrhic foot (two weak stresses) followed by two strong stresses (a spondee), followed by two iambs. It is also possible that all feet in the line are iambs except the third foot, though the word might most likely would have been italicized if that were the case.

To share your thoughts about the scansion of this line, head over to our Discussion Forums. Or, to learn more about meter, form, and free verse structures, visit the Forms and Techniques section of Poets.org.

Made in the USA. 100% cotton. May shrink slightly after first wash.

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