There are many reasons I hate that poem and wish I'd never written it; you've just mentioned one. "Dzur" is one syllable. The only way to make that line work is with a beat, or a breath, *before* the beginning of the line, which is ugly. Steve Rapaport wrote: > Ok, this has been bugging me for twenty-odd years. I just put it into the > Lyorn Records wiki, but I'd like to hear what people think here. > > Pronouncing "Dzur" > > The Cycle <http://dragaera.wikicities.com/wiki/Cycle> poem is in trochaic > tetrameter <http://tinablue.homestead.com/Prosody2meter.html> (* > http://tinablue.homestead.com/Prosody2meter.html*), > > That is, the lines have four feet, each one is a trochee (STRONG weak), e.g. > "PHOEnix SINKS in TO de CAY___" > > (the last foot is a half-foot in every line) > > But: this line is an exception: > *Dzur stalks and blends with night.* > > The only way the poem scans (that I can see) is if Dzur is pronounced with > TWO syllables, with the first one strongest, as in: > > "DEE-zur" STALKS and BLENDS with NIGHT ____ > > > Does anyone think that it's pronounced that way? Or have another way to make > that line scan properly? (Other than changing words) > -- > \Steve