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 6-10 of 59
Page 33
... Prose and Verse , " for example , readers of 1913 found regularly positioned ellipses : At night ... I will descend ... Wearied ... into the valley ... ( 172 ) The periods do not indicate lacunae or profound silence the grammar demands ...
... Prose and Verse , " for example , readers of 1913 found regularly positioned ellipses : At night ... I will descend ... Wearied ... into the valley ... ( 172 ) The periods do not indicate lacunae or profound silence the grammar demands ...
Page 36
... prose poem ( she called it " polyphonic prose " ) " The Bombardment " ( 1914 ) employs onomatopoeic sounds to underscore rhythms : Where are the people , and why does the fretted steeple weep about in the sky ? Boom ! The sound swings ...
... prose poem ( she called it " polyphonic prose " ) " The Bombardment " ( 1914 ) employs onomatopoeic sounds to underscore rhythms : Where are the people , and why does the fretted steeple weep about in the sky ? Boom ! The sound swings ...
Page 41
... ( 454 ) . Long - line poetry , then , incorporates prose , so long as it is impassioned and translated by the speaker's consciousness . Long - line poets clearly understood this part of the The Problem of Free Verse 4I.
... ( 454 ) . Long - line poetry , then , incorporates prose , so long as it is impassioned and translated by the speaker's consciousness . Long - line poets clearly understood this part of the The Problem of Free Verse 4I.
Page 45
... prose can be found to have some sort of reiteration , yet in this poem the matter - of - fact speaking voice seems to interfere with a more traditional rhythmic reading . Something similar occurs in D. H. Lawrence's “ How Beastly the ...
... prose can be found to have some sort of reiteration , yet in this poem the matter - of - fact speaking voice seems to interfere with a more traditional rhythmic reading . Something similar occurs in D. H. Lawrence's “ How Beastly the ...
Page 46
... prose debate that help illustrate the stances taken by differing genres of free verse . I delineate below the main currents of thought as they appeared in traditional poetics and as the Moderns adapted them . Further discussion of these ...
... prose debate that help illustrate the stances taken by differing genres of free verse . I delineate below the main currents of thought as they appeared in traditional poetics and as the Moderns adapted them . Further discussion of these ...
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