(Download) "Darkening the Subject of Hopkins' Prosody (Gerard Manley Hopkins) (Essay) (Victorian Poetry Studies) (Critical Essay)" by Victorian Poetry ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Darkening the Subject of Hopkins' Prosody (Gerard Manley Hopkins) (Essay) (Victorian Poetry Studies) (Critical Essay)
- Author : Victorian Poetry
- Release Date : January 22, 2005
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 220 KB
Description
Hopkins' "Author's Preface" (hereafter AP) is an essential resource for .anyone wishing to glean the theory of his prosody. (1) It cannot stand alone, however. Its terms and concepts are unfamiliar and inadequately defined: the flurry of references to "hangers," "outrides," "rove over" lines, "sprung rhythm," "counterpoint," "running," "rocking," "rising," "falling," and "reversed" rhythms disorient the reader. As Coventry Patmore complained to Hopkins of a parallel difficulty in Hopkins' poetry, "any one" of these "several" "novelties would be startling and productive of distraction." (2) Coming as they do in the AP, the effect is overwhelming for the first-time reader. No wonder, then, that on May 10, 1919, the Spectator found the "metrical effects" Hopkins describes, "not worth the pains bestowed on them." Not only is the AP confusing and insufficient for the reader who is ignorant of Hopkins' other writings on prosody, it is misleading as well. Yet, too often it is the first and the last primary source consulted on the matter of his metrical theories; or at least, which amounts to the same thing, it remains the authoritative account. There are good historical reasons for this. Hopkins' correspondence with Bridges and Dixon was not published until 1935. The journals and papers were not published for two more years; and it was not until the year after this that the further letters became available. For about twenty years after the 1918 edition of the Poems appeared with the AP, therefore, there was no other ready resource for the critic who wished to grapple with the theoretical basis for his poems. This exclusive reliance on the AP in critical studies set a strong precedent.
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