Metrical Tension and Prose Cadence

Across poetic traditions, lines of metrical verse exhibit metrical closure: beginnings are lax, endings are strict. Based on a data set with both verse and prose, we provide evidence that metrical closure is not just a property of metered verse but a general property of language. Our demonstration builds on the Prosodic method that allows one to study metricality in prose and verse from a unified perspective. A key step in the method involves establishing viable scansions that are well-defined for any text and make prose and verse commensurable. We speculate that metrical closure may be a reflex of English phrasal stress and ultimately a consequence of the right-branching syntax of English.