On the Subject of Optimized Meter

For the record, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is a trochee.

Table 1: Find the lines displayed on the module in this table.

Poetic Foot Pattern Value Line
Molossus sss 1 Break, Break, Break
Spondee ss 2 Cry! Cry!
Fie! Fie!
Shut up!
Bacchius uss 3 When day breaks / the fish bite / at small flies
Amphibrach usu 4 And, speaking of birds, there’s the Russian Palooski / whose headski is redski and belly is blueski
How dead to my heart are the scenes of my childhood
it’s four in the morning, the end of december / I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
There once was a girl from Nantucket
Dibrach uu 5
Antibacchius ssu 6 Blind luck is loved more than hard thinking
Dactyl suu 7 Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the dimness
Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward,
Higgledy piggledy, / Bacon, lord Chancellor.
Out of the mockingbird’s throat
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks
Iamb us 8 If you were coming in the fall / I’d brush the summer by
Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish?
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date
The guests are met, the feast is set: / May’st hear the merry din.
The way a crow / Shook down on me / The dust of snow
To swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells
Anapest uus 9 And since birth I’ve been cursed with this curse to just curse
There was one who was famed for the number of things / He forgot when he entered the sip:
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
You have brains in your head. / You have feet in your shoes
Cretic sus 10 La-di-dah!
Trochee su 11 And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Got a long list of ex-lovers
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright
Tribrach uuu 12

Table 2: Letter values

Character Poetic Foot Value Character Poetic Foot Value
A Trochee 11 N Amphibrach 4
B Trochee 11 O Trochee 11
C Trochee 11 P Trochee 11
D Trochee 11 Q Iamb 8
E Trochee 11 R Dactyl 7
F Trochee 11 S Amphibrach 4
G Single syllable 1 T Trochee 11
H Iamb 8 U Dactyl 7
I Dactyl 7 V Spondee 2
J Anapest 9 W Trochee 11
K Trochee 11 X Spondee 2
L Trochee 11 Y Trochee 11
M Single syllable 1 Z Spondee 2

Solving the Module

  1. Calculate the Foot Modifier by looking up the values of the first two letters from the Serial Number in Table 2, and adding them together with the last digit in the Serial Number.
  2. Find the lines displayed on the module in Table 1, and add the Foot Modifier to each. Subtract 12 from each result until it is a value between 1 and 12 inclusive.
  3. Find the modified values in Table 1, and take the corresponding Pattern.
  4. Enter the modified patterns on the module, pressing for u, and for s.