A History of Free VerseThis book examines the most salient and misunderstood aspect of twentieth-century poetry, free verse. Although the form is generally approached as if it were one indissoluble lump, it is actually a group of differing poetic genres proceeding from much different assumptions. Separate chapters on T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, H.D., and William Carlos Williams elucidate many of these assumptions and procedures, while other chapters address more general theoretical questions and trace the continuity of Modern poetics in contemporary poetry. Taking a historical and aesthetic approach, this study demonstrates that many of the forms considered to have been invented in the Modern period actually extend underappreciated traditions. Not only does this book examine the classical influence on Modern poetry, it also features discussions of the poetics of John Milton, Abraham Cowley, Matthew Arnold, and a host of lesser-known poets. Throughout it is an investigation of the prosodic issues that free verse foregrounds, particularly those focusing on the reader's part in interpreting poetic rhythm. |
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Page 5
Chris Beyers. ally addressed , by searching for its roots and paying close attention to the poets ' statements about their chosen form . Rather than naively treating these state- ments as fact , I will treat them as aesthetic choice , as ...
Chris Beyers. ally addressed , by searching for its roots and paying close attention to the poets ' statements about their chosen form . Rather than naively treating these state- ments as fact , I will treat them as aesthetic choice , as ...
Page 10
... Prufrock , " with special attention to sublime theory and the way that the poem reacts to the conventions of late - century magazine verse . I then turn to the way that Eliot's other major poems are similarly IO Introduction.
... Prufrock , " with special attention to sublime theory and the way that the poem reacts to the conventions of late - century magazine verse . I then turn to the way that Eliot's other major poems are similarly IO Introduction.
Page 25
... attention to every syllable ” ( 57 ) . Implicitly , traditional verse encourages laziness and inattention . This argument is an offshoot of the argument that free verse follows extremely complex rules peculiar to itself . Indeed ...
... attention to every syllable ” ( 57 ) . Implicitly , traditional verse encourages laziness and inattention . This argument is an offshoot of the argument that free verse follows extremely complex rules peculiar to itself . Indeed ...
Page 30
... attention between free and traditional verse does not amount to more or less attention , but different kinds of attention . Which demands more alert- ness : attending to two patterns ( meter and rhythm ) , or attending to one more ...
... attention between free and traditional verse does not amount to more or less attention , but different kinds of attention . Which demands more alert- ness : attending to two patterns ( meter and rhythm ) , or attending to one more ...
Page 38
... attention to lines of development . For example , William Patterson and Ramsey posit categories of free verse based on their own formal analysis . Paul Fussell's chapter on free verse in Poetic Meter and Poetic Form identi- fies a ...
... attention to lines of development . For example , William Patterson and Ramsey posit categories of free verse based on their own formal analysis . Paul Fussell's chapter on free verse in Poetic Meter and Poetic Form identi- fies a ...
Contents
13 | |
61 | |
The Haunting of Wallace Stevens | 101 |
Straight Talk Straight as the Greeks | 135 |
The Parsing Meter and Beyond | 179 |
Avoiding Prosody? | 223 |
Notes | 237 |
Works Cited | 255 |
Index | 273 |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic alliteration approach argues Arnold asserted begins Blue Guitar cadence called century chapter claim classical Coleridge Coleridge's consider contemporary couplets Cowley Cowley's create critics decorum describes Dover Beach E. E. Cummings Eliot English enjambment essay example feel free verse free-verse theory genre grammatical Greek Henley iambic pentameter iambs idea Imagist imitate implies insists irregular ode language Letters line breaks lineal form long-line loose lyric means metaphor metrical Milton's natural nineteenth-century notion organic organicism pattern perhaps phrase Pindar poem poem's poet's poets Pope Pound prose Prufrock reader regular rhyme and meter rhythmic rules scansion seems sense short lines short-line sonnet sort sound speaker speech stanza Stevens Stevens's stress suggests syllables tetrameter thing thought tion traditional prosody traditional verse translation triadic line trimeter twentieth-century variable foot vers libre versification visual Wallace Stevens Whitman William Carlos Williams Williams Williams's words writing wrote