Question

choose the poem that uses iambic meter.
he came in silvern armour trimmed with black—
a lover come from legends long ago—
with silver spurs and silken plumes a-blow,
and flashing sword caught fast and buckled back.

bass still repeating its one monotone,
double notes crying,
up keyboard go flying,
the change to the minor comes in like a groan.

from gwendolyn bennett, \sonnet 1\ and from r. nathaniel dett, \the rubinstein staccato etude\

Explanation:

To determine the poem with iambic meter, we analyze the stress pattern. An iamb is a metrical foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (˘ ´).

For the first poem (from Gwendolyn Bennett's "Sonnet 1"):

• "He came" (˘ ´), "in silvern" (˘ ´), "armour trimmed" (˘ ´), "with black" (˘ ´), etc. Most lines follow the iambic pattern (e.g., iambic pentameter, 5 iambs per line, typical of sonnets).

For the second poem:

• "Bass still" (´ ˘) has a trochee (stressed then unstressed), "repeating" (˘ ´) shifts, but the irregularity (e.g., "Double notes crying" – "Double" is ´ ˘, "notes" ˘ ´, "crying" ˘ ´) and lack of consistent iambic structure (unlike the first poem’s sonnet - like regularity) shows it does not use iambic meter.

The first poem’s structure (consistent unstressed - stressed rhythm, sonnet form) confirms iambic meter.

Answer:

The poem "He came in silvern armour trimmed with black— A lover come from legends long ago— With silver spurs and silken plumes a - blow, And flashing sword caught fast and buckled back." (from Gwendolyn Bennett’s "Sonnet 1") uses iambic meter.