The Principles of English Versification (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Paull Franklin Baum

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1331754356 ISBN 13: 9781331754350

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Excerpt from The Principles of English Versification

The other inconvenience is that of seeming to deny the real poetry by our preoccupation with its metrical expression. Under pretence that we want to study it more in detail, we pulverize the statue. This is an old charge, and our answer is easy. For, however it may be with the statue, a poem is never pulverized; it is still there on the page! No amount of analyzing can injure the poem. If we think it has injured us, even then we err, and need only recall our natural aversion to hard labor. In nearly every instance it was the work and not the analysis that bothered us.

This is a small book and therefore not exhaustive. And since it is as elementary, especially in the treat ment of the principles of rhythm, as is consistent with a measure of thoroughness, the apparatus of mere learning has been suppressed, even where it might perhaps seem needed, as in footnote references to the scientific investigations on which part of the text is based. I have consulted and used, of course, all the books and articles I could find that had anything of value to offer; but I have rarely cited them, not be cause I wish to conceal my indebtedness, but because there is no room for elaborate documentation in such a book as this. On the other hand, I owe a very great deal, both directly and indirectly, to Professor Bliss Perry although my manuscript was finished before I saw his Study of Poetry; and this debt I wish to acknowledge most fully and gratefully.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1331754356
• ISBN 13: 9781331754350
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 229