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 1
... sound , he turned out to be dead wrong . Free verse became the ascendant form for twentieth - century American poetry , yet there still is no generally recognized principle of form or rhythm . This book , then , addresses what is ...
... sound , he turned out to be dead wrong . Free verse became the ascendant form for twentieth - century American poetry , yet there still is no generally recognized principle of form or rhythm . This book , then , addresses what is ...
Page 10
... sounds like ( or , more accurately , is supposed to sound like ) , and that means a long investigation of prosody . Prosody is devalued in some circles , and prosodic criticism in general is notorious for sponsoring cranks . Yet the ...
... sounds like ( or , more accurately , is supposed to sound like ) , and that means a long investigation of prosody . Prosody is devalued in some circles , and prosodic criticism in general is notorious for sponsoring cranks . Yet the ...
Page 16
... sound and rhythm as severe as any under which Chaucer , Pope , or Tennyson worked " ( 356 ) . Period . End of entry . Hough asserts that free - verse poems have “ a planned and intricate organization " that is nonetheless ...
... sound and rhythm as severe as any under which Chaucer , Pope , or Tennyson worked " ( 356 ) . Period . End of entry . Hough asserts that free - verse poems have “ a planned and intricate organization " that is nonetheless ...
Page 18
... sound of a poem should echo its sense is by no means peculiar to free verse — it is of course one of Alexander Pope's tenets saying that free - verse lines mimic the idea being represented begs the question , what do ideas sound like ...
... sound of a poem should echo its sense is by no means peculiar to free verse — it is of course one of Alexander Pope's tenets saying that free - verse lines mimic the idea being represented begs the question , what do ideas sound like ...
Page 23
... sound like ? If we don't know , then it seems unwarranted to assert that poems mimic it . In 1919 , John Gould Fletcher offered a definition centering on cadence , couched in language that promises a more quantifiable definition . Yet ...
... sound like ? If we don't know , then it seems unwarranted to assert that poems mimic it . In 1919 , John Gould Fletcher offered a definition centering on cadence , couched in language that promises a more quantifiable definition . Yet ...
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