Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

Blueberries

Robert Frost

Anthony Esolen's avatar
Anthony Esolen
Aug 24, 2022
∙ Paid

English is really a fine language for poetry. It’s got a heavy stress — much heavier than the more evenly settled syllables in French or Italian — and that means that you needn’t always count the syllables in an English line. What matters for a lot of English poems is not the number of syllables, which can vary, but the number of STRONG BEATS, wi…

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Anthony Esolen.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
© 2026 Anthony Esolen · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture