A Study of Versification by Brander Matthews [PDF]

A Study of Versification

 

by Brander Matthews

 

This is not a handbook of poetics, and its aim is not to consider the several departments of poetry—epic, lyric, and dramatic. It does not deal with simile and metaphor, nor does it seek to open the mind of the student to the nobler beauties of poetry. It is intended to be an introduction to the study of versification, the metrical mechanism that sustains poetry and differentiates poetry from prose. 

It is devoted solely to the technique of the art of verse. It is an examination of the tools of the poet's trade. Although poets are said to be bom and not made, there is no doubt that they have to be made after they are bom. It is not a fact that the bom poet warbles native wood-notes wild; he has to serve an apprenticeship to his craft; he has to acquire the art of verse; he has to master its technique and spy out its secrets. The poet is like the painter, who, as Sir. Joshua Beynolds declared, "is a painter only as he can put in practice what he knows and communicate those ideas by visible representation."

 

CONTENTS

I The Study of Verse 1 

II. Rhythm 8 

III. Meter 31 

IV. Rime 49 

V. Tone-Color 73 

VI. The Stanza 102 

VII. The Sonnet 125 

VIII. Other Fixed Forms  144 

IX. Rimeless Stanzas 176 

X. The Couplet 200 

XI. Blank Verse 225 

XII. Poetic License 244 

Appendix 

A: Suggestions for Study • • • • 263 
B: Bibliographical Suggestions • • • 266 

Index •••••••••• 269 

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Also see:

• The Art of Versification