Metric Systems

“Can metric prefix to a poem’s foot 
Be pre-appended?
In Shakespeare’s verse, do mega-iambs
Broaden sonnets splendid? 
In brief rhymes, nano-anapests?
No, queries such are censured,
Since feet are units English:
Closing lines’ response is measured.”

The 2 September 2019 Twitter poem involved a number of variations on the same idea, which was the contrast between two “metric systems”: one used in chemistry, with the prefixes that immediately communicate important information about scale; and the other used in English, to communicate information about poetic rhythms.  

“Can metric prefix to a poem’s foot /
Be pre-appended?“
The first two lines introduced the idea stated above, querying whether the two types of metric systems could be combined, to use STEM’s prefixes to modify English literature’s poetic feet.  

“In Shakespeare’s verse, do mega-iambs
Broaden sonnets splendid? 
In brief rhymes, nano-anapests?“
The next three lines explore two examples of this potential combination, based on the scope of the prefix of interest.  “Mega” is a metric prefix meaning a factor of one million (10⁶); it makes a number six orders of magnitude larger.  Given the grandeur and fame of Shakespeare’s sonnets, written in iambic pentameter, the “mega” scale seems potentially fitting for these iambic feet (which consist of one unstressed syllable, then one stressed syllable).  “Nano” is a metric prefix meaning a factor of one-billionth (10^-9): it makes a number nine orders of magnitude smaller and so could presumably make a brief rhyme quite a bit more fleeting!  The anapest foot consists of two unstressed syllables, then one stressed syllable.  (Samuel Taylor Coleridge has summarized the rhythms of these and many others in his “Metrical Feet.”)

“No, queries such are censured,
Since feet are units English:
Closing lines’ response is measured.“
The last three lines ruminate on the mismatchedness of these combinations with two puns.  First, feet are defined as “units English,” which has a double meaning, given both its literature-based uses above and the measurement unit’s heritage.  [Metric prefixes can only be used with metric units (e.g., “kilometer” is a valid use, since “kilo” is a metric prefix and “meter” is part of the metric system, but “kilofoot” would not be… and indeed, looks gratingly wrong!).]  Second, the poem characterizes its response as “measured”: a phrase implying deliberate rumination but also highlighting the metrology theme of this verse.