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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 13
Page 2
... noted in the title . Timothy Steele remarks that this tradition of propaganda " has discouraged attempts to place the free - verse movement in some kind of historical perspec- tive " ( 292 ) . The dearth of historical studies of free ...
... noted in the title . Timothy Steele remarks that this tradition of propaganda " has discouraged attempts to place the free - verse movement in some kind of historical perspec- tive " ( 292 ) . The dearth of historical studies of free ...
Page 27
... noted that " it is the reader , not the writer who sets the tune " ( " Influence " 495 ) for free verse . Eaton made this comment about free verse instead of about poetry in general because he assumed that most readers know how to read ...
... noted that " it is the reader , not the writer who sets the tune " ( " Influence " 495 ) for free verse . Eaton made this comment about free verse instead of about poetry in general because he assumed that most readers know how to read ...
Page 31
... noted , Milton , Coleridge , and Hopkins all wrote prefaces to help alert their readers to the terms of their new contracts . When free - verse poets eschewed traditional rhyme and meter , they discarded a contract that readers and ...
... noted , Milton , Coleridge , and Hopkins all wrote prefaces to help alert their readers to the terms of their new contracts . When free - verse poets eschewed traditional rhyme and meter , they discarded a contract that readers and ...
Page 62
... noted in the previous chapter , polemicists on every side of the free - verse debate have largely accepted the contours of formal analysis as set forth by the propaganda , or perhaps misprision , of the Moderns . In 1954 Robert Mayo ...
... noted in the previous chapter , polemicists on every side of the free - verse debate have largely accepted the contours of formal analysis as set forth by the propaganda , or perhaps misprision , of the Moderns . In 1954 Robert Mayo ...
Page 65
... noted that Johnson complained that Cowley's poems did not afford the " great pleasure " arising when an Augustan reader is offered and has satisfied a metrical contract . In a traditional contract , a reader may be sure that a poem set ...
... noted that Johnson complained that Cowley's poems did not afford the " great pleasure " arising when an Augustan reader is offered and has satisfied a metrical contract . In a traditional contract , a reader may be sure that a poem set ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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