Here is the poem:-

French Toast

by Anya Krugovoy Silver

Pain perdu: lost bread. Thick slices sunk in milk,

fringed with crisp lace of browned egg and scattered sugar.

Like spongiest challah, dipped in foaming cream

and frothy egg, richness drenching every yeasted

crevice and bubble, that's how sodden with luck

I felt when we fell in love. Now, at forty,

I remember that "lost bread" means bread that's gone

stale, leftover heels and crusts, too dry for simple

jam and butter. Still, week-old bread makes the best

French toast, soaks up milk as greedily as I turn

toward you under goose down after ten years

of marriage, craving, still, that sweet white immersion.

 

Question:-

I need help in atleast on the first four lines. I need someone to help me with the stress and unstressed words in those lines. Also I need help in knowing what is the pattern in the iambic pattern of rhythm? I know the theme and analysis of the poem. Only need help in the above mentioned two queries?

 

Answer:

Iambic Pattern Of The Rhythm In Poetry

The first line of the poem consists of nine feet or words that if the poem is said low, all words are stressed hence not iambic but spondaic meter (1).

The second line of the poem is made up of ten words, first five unstressed and the last five stressed hence making up of the use of iambic pentameter the of rhythm (2,3).

The third and the fourth lines are both made up of seven words, first three unstressed and the last four stressed hence known as anapest and not iambic (1).

Step-by-step explanation

In poetry, the independent words used are known as feet. These are arranged in a rhythm of unstressed then stressed which are in such a case known as iambs. Iamb meters determines the number of words stressed and unstressed also known as pattern in the poetry. For instance, if a line of a poem is made up of ten words, the first five unstressed and the last five stressed then the pattern is iambic pentameter. Six words with three unstressed and last three stressed is referred to as iambic trimester, for eight is tetrameter.

Iambic meters are classified in five main categories dimeter, trimester, tetrameter, pentameter and hexameter. However, there are other form of writing in poetry such as the use of spondaic meter and anapest. Spondaic meter is where by all words in the line of poem are stressed while anapest is where by, the first three words are unstressed and the last fur stressed.

References

1.     http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/meter.html

2.     https://www.thoughtco.com/iamb-and-iambic-pentameter-2725405

3.     http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/meter.html