Christopher, thanks for such an illuminating explanation of generative
metrics. This is a very helpful & clearer explanation than I got of the
4 days spent in our seminar with some of its dedicated practitioners.
Re Attridge, I agree about the trailing along after the poetry. I
actually think Attridge is extremely helpful on accentual verse, and he
did develop his theory largely from accentual folk poetry. But I find
it lacking re accentual-syllabic poetry, because with no idea of the
foot, there is no way to account for the beauty & surprise created by
counterpoint between the expected metrical pattern and the actual
metrical pattern of a line, for the physical effect when you expect an
iamb and get a spondee. All his system can do is describe what is
there syllable by syllable.
Annie
>
>
> The problem with promotion/demotion and other Attridge rules isn't
> that the
> theory is complicated per se but that it seems to be accounting for
> what
> happens simply by adding specifications in a rather banal way.
___________________________________
Annie Finch, Director
Stonecoast Brief-Residency MFA in Creative Writing
University of Southern Maine
222 Deering St.
Portland, Maine 04104
Phone: 207-780-5973
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.anniefinch.com
http://www.usm.maine.edu/stonecoastmfa/
—THE BODY OF POETRY: ESSAYS ON WOMEN, FORM, AND THE POETIC SELF —just
out in the Poets on Poetry series from University of Michigan Press—
|