The Ghost of Meter: Culture & Prosody in American Free Verse, while not
a long book (153 pages not counting an extensive bibliography) has a
lot of material in it, including numerous examples & readings &
discussions of historical & theoretical context, and is quite complex
as well as exhaustively polished and thought out. It was first
published in 1993 (it was based on my PhD dissertation, btw), and
generated much controversy for, big surprise, the same reasons
immediately raised on this list! It was reissued in paperback in 2003
with a preface addressing the major objections raised by reviewers &
critics in the intervening decade. That preface is reprinted in The
Body of Poetry under the title "The Ghost of Meter Revisited." As I
said, some find the idea of the metrical code absurdly reductionistic,
some find it groundbreaking & helpful. Some find it both at once. . .
It has influenced a number of people's work, and they are generally not
"new formalists." Forgive me, all those who have asked various things
about it, that I just can't try to paraphrase the book here on the
list.
But I will try very briefly to address a couple of these
questions--Dominic, there are numerous free verse poems that don't seem
to engage with meter--either they don't use it/fall into it, or if they
do, on the meaning level the metrical phrases are neutral and
inconsistent. Poets mentioned in the last chapter of the book for whom
traditional meter does NOT seem to be a significant force include
Roethke, Berryman, Bishop, Lowell, Rich, Sexton, and Plath. As
examples of free verse poems in which iambic pentameter is a relatively
neutral force, that chapter includes reading of Sexton's "Little Girl,
My String Bean, My Lovely Woman" and a brief discussion of Ginsberg's
"Howl."
As for the feminist/formalist connection, while any argument can be
made ridiculous by reducing and oversimplifying it, and that has been
done with the metrical code by claiming it says that dactyls are a
feminist meter, in fact I don't believe there is any essential relation
between any form and any meaning. It is all a matter of historical
context. Iambic pentameter means the opposite for Audre Lorde than it
does for Whitman. Form is a feminist force for some women writers and
not at all for others. But certain forms CAN be a feminist force (or
the opposite) for certain writers at certain historical times. For me
personally, formalism is closely connected just now with my being a
feminist writer. ...
I hope this will be helpful,
good wishes,
Annie (about to try to make blueberry jam)
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