Description
Book SynopsisMuch of the poetry written by W. H. Auden between 1939 and the time of his death consists of syllabic verse, or lines arranged in accordance with a predetermined syllable-count but no fixed number or distribution of stresses. This book presents a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of his many and widely varied syllabics, grouping them primarily by the formal sub-categories to which they belong (as measured by line-length, stanza-type, or some other aspect of their overall design). With this approach the book clarifies the dynamic range and technical inventiveness of Auden's syllabics. It also shows how his work of compares with that of Robert Bridges and Marianne Moore, two pioneers in the writing of English syllabic whose verse he was familiar with.
Table of ContentsPreface. “Ur-Syllabic Verse” Part I : Auden’s Syllabic Forerunners Chapter 1. “Any Definite Uniform Propriety”: Bridges and Moore as Metrical Innovators Chapter 2. “Pompous Old Gentleman” and “Marxist Enfant Terrible”: Bridges and Auden as Strange Bedfellows Part II: Auden’s Syllabic Forms Chapter 3. “Games and Grammar and Metres”: Alcaic Quatrains Chapter 4. “New Problems of Form”: Sapphic Quatrains Chapter 5. “A Sober Perspective”: Asclepiadean Quatrains Chapter 6. “Unmythical Mortals”: Quasi-Elegiac Couplets Chapter 7. “As Structures Go”: Varieties of Rhyme Chapter 8. “Symmetries and Asymmetries”: Adaptations of Haiku and Tanka Chapter 9. “Making a . . . Line”: Related Stanzas and Couplets Chapter 10. “Contradictory Dialect”: Alliterative Lines Chapter 11. “Some Prosodic Discipline”: Miscellaneous Lines, Couplets, and Stanzas Works Cited Index About the Author
