Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody

By Charles O. Hartman

Book Overview

To make sense of "free verse" in theory or 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 forms of twentieth-century poetry. Hartman examines nonmetrical verse, discusses the conventions that have emerged in the absence of meter, and shows how these conventions can work prosodically. By analyzing the work of Williams and Eliot - the prosodic masters among the early modernists - Hartman traces their influence on more contemporary poets. In his exploration of the means by which a poet controls the reader's temporal experience of poetry. Hartman presents an invaluable treatment of the concept of verse.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691064385
• ISBN13: 9780691064383
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

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.