But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed VerseDr Johnson disapproved of parentheses and wouldn't use them; and for three centuries grammarians have argued that they are subordinate, additional, unnecessary, irrelevant, and damaging to the clarity of argument. But for Marlowe, Marvell, Swift, Coleridge, Byron, Browning, Eliot, Geoffrey Hill, and Derek Walcott (to name only poets) parentheses have been emphatic, original, necessary, relevant, and essential to the clarity of argument. They also intensify satire. Dr Lennard offers both a new history of the poetic use of lunulae (the marks of parenthesis) from their first appearance in England in 1494 to the present day, and detailed case-studies of individual poets who exploited lunulae. In combination the historical development of use and the individual's practice in a given period reveal the impact on literary composition of technological, philosophical, and political pressures, and the importance for the reader of regarding punctuation as a resource. |
From inside the book
Page 310
... Coleridge and the Literature of Sensibility ( London : Vision Press Ltd , 1978 ( Vision Critical Studies ) ) . DEVEREUX , E. J. , A Checklist of English Translations of Erasmus to 1700 ( Bodleian Library , Oxford : Oxford ...
... Coleridge and the Literature of Sensibility ( London : Vision Press Ltd , 1978 ( Vision Critical Studies ) ) . DEVEREUX , E. J. , A Checklist of English Translations of Erasmus to 1700 ( Bodleian Library , Oxford : Oxford ...
Contents
Colluccio Salutati De Nobilitate Legum et Medicine 1399 | 4 |
Samuel Whitgift Defense of the Auns were 1574 1819 | 18 |
William Shakespeare Sonnets 1609 | 42 |
Copyright | |
15 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
allow appear argument attention become beginning Browning Byron century clear close Coleridge Coleridge's commas common complete concerned contains conventions dashes death direct distinction distinguish edition effect Eliot Elizabethan ends English English Studies evidence example exploitation expression eyes figure four function further give graphic hand Ibid importance indicate instance interest italics John Juan kind language later least less letter Library lines London lunulae mark Marvell Marvell's matter meaning mind moon nature notes Oxford parenthesis particular passage perhaps phrase play poem poet poetic poetry possible practice present Press printed probably provides punctuation quoted reader reading reason reference remains remarked rhetorical satire seems sense sentence sententia significant speech stanza suggests Swift syntactical things thought Tiresias true turn typographical University visual voice whole writing written