[Versus]

Originally Posted by TheFeatheredÆtheling

Versus, there is something that you should know concerning syllable stress.

It's true that a single word has only one primary stress in spoken English, but in poetry this rule does not necessarily apply. For instance, take a look at the following lines:

But then, his hands still firmly placed
Around the hilt to guide,
A sound outside forthwith replaced
His thoughts of suicide.

In spoken English, the word "suicide" has its stress on the first of its three syllables, while the other two are unstressed. However, in the poem above, you can see that both the first and third syllables of the word "suicide" are stressed. This alteration sounds natural because it blends with the established rhythm and it doesn't change the word's regular stress on the first syllable. It is often possible to "modify" stress in this way ~ particularly by stressing unstressed syllables. Thus, one word can have two stresses in poetry.

Hrm. What about words with only one syllable? Can they alternate stress depending on the established rhythm?