The Passion of Meter: A Study of Wordsworth's Metrical ArtKent State University Press, 1995 - 290 Seiten The Passion of Meter is the first extended critical study of Wordsworth's metrical theory and his practice in the art of versification. Until now, relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship between Wordsworth's attempt to incorporate into his poetry the language of "common life" and the highly complex and decidedly conventional metrical forms in which he presents this language. O'Donnell provides a detailed treatment of what Wordsworth calls the "innumerable minutiae" that the art of the poet depends upon and of the broader vision to which those minutiae contribute. Beginning with a reassessment of Wordsworth's frequently misrepresented prose comments about meter, O'Donnell argues that these comments-considered in light of Wordsworth's practice and within their 18th-century context are more unorthodox and challenging than previously thought. In emphasizing the physical body of the poem as the site of a dynamic tension between conflicting passions - "the passion of sense" and "the passion of meter." Wordsworth places issues of metrical form and versification in the foreground of his theory of poetry. The core of this book is dedicated to a close examination of the elements of Wordsworth's craft. It sets forth in detail the rules and conventions that govern the poet's habits of metrical composition, identifying the idiosyncrasies that distinguish his practice from those of his predecessors and contemporaries. It also offers a close reading of a substantial body of Wordsworth's poetry, with careful attention paid to complex relationships between the minutiae of its sensuous forms (metrical form, rhythm, rhyme, assonance, alliteration) and larger thematic, aesthetic, and sophic concerns. As a departure from much contemporary criticism that tends to treat poetry solely as text, The Passion of Meter demonstrates the benefits of studying the details of versecraft. O'Donnell sizes the importance of hearing Wordsworth's poems as sonic performances in time as well as seeing them on the page. |
Inhalt
21 | |
Metrical Tension and Varieties of Voice | 48 |
Wordsworths Early Versification | 71 |
Bibliography | 276 |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
accentual-syllabic verse anapests appropriate Attridge ballad stanza Bo Bo Coleridge Coleridge's complex couplet create Descriptive Sketches diction discussion Dorothy Wordsworth double offbeat effect elements emblematic employ English Poetry enjambment Ernest de Selincourt example expressive feeling five-beat four-beat frequently Henry Crabb Robinson Idiot Boy implied offbeat impulses initial inversion kind language Lyrical Ballads metre metrical art metrical form metrical frame metrical set Milton mind natural passage passion of meter pattern pentameter percent phrase pleasure poem poem's poet poet's poetic Power of Sound Preface Prelude Prose prosodic reader reading realization relationship rhyme rhythm rhythmic romantic Sailor's Mother sense song sonic sonnet speaker speech stressed syllables structure style stylistic suggests syllables syntactic syntax tendency tends tension Thelwall theory Tintern Abbey trochaic University Press unstressed variety verse forms versification voice Walk and Descriptive William William Wordsworth words Wordsworth's blank verse Wordsworth's metrical Wordsworth's verse Wordsworthian worth's Yew-Trees Вов ов
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 219 - When we had given our bodies to the wind, And all the shadowy banks on either side Came sweeping through the darkness...
Seite 231 - All strength — all terror, single or in bands, That ever was put forth in personal form — Jehovah — with his thunder, and the choir Of shouting Angels, and the empyreal thrones — I pass them unalarmed.
Seite 38 - It was published, as an experiment, which, I hoped, might be of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation...
Seite 49 - The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity, with the subordination of its faculties to each other, according to their relative worth and dignity. He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and, (as it were,) fuses, each into each, by that synthetic and magical power, to which we have exclusively appropriated the name of imagination.
Seite 192 - In body, and become a living soul: While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things. If this Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft...
Seite 64 - OH! what's the matter? what's the matter? What is't that ails young Harry Gill ? That evermore his teeth they chatter, Chatter, chatter, chatter still...
Seite 108 - Where Machination her fell soul resigns, Fled panting to the centre of her mines ; Where Persecution decks with ghastly smiles Her bed, his mountains mad Ambition piles ; Where Discord stalks dilating, every hour, And crouching fearful at the feet of Pow'r, Like Lightnings eager for th...
Seite 75 - The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion : the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite ; a feeling and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, or any interest Unborrowed from the eye.
Seite 142 - Nor less I deem that there are Powers Which of themselves our minds impress; That we can feed this mind of ours In a wise passiveness.
Seite 216 - But worthier still of note Are those fraternal Four of Borrowdale, Joined in one solemn and capacious grove; Huge trunks! and each particular trunk a growth Of intertwisted fibres serpentine Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved...