Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody

By Charles O. Hartman

Book Overview

To make sense of "free verse" in theory of in practice, the study of prosody--the function of rhythm in poetry--must be revised and rethought. In Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody, Charles Hartman develops a theory of prosody that includes the most characteristic form of twentieth-century poetry.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810113163
• ISBN13: 9780810113169
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Length: 199 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Absolutely required reading for any serious poet/scholar.

This actually is NOT the reprint edition (the previous reviewer's remarks to the contrary). ISBN 0-691-10185-X (this edition) is the original Princeton University Press edition (paperback) that contains the "Appendix: Full Text of Three Quoted Poems" (Moore, Larkin, Berryman). The Northwestern reprint that the previous reviewer is referring to is a different edition (ISBN 0-8101-1316-3). This Princeton edition is out of print and hard to obtain, but well worth it.

Outstanding

I read this book in graduate school in its original edition. I don't know that I've ever read a better treatment of the subject. Hartman makes an excellent case for free verse as a rigorous form, and his discussion of prosody should be required reading for all teachers of 20th century poetry and any poet who wants to work in this form.