! that term was originally based on Roland Barthes' use of the term
code, as in "the hermeneutic code" or "the symbolic code." If you mean
to imply that the word "the" in some way limits the possibiliites of
what "the metrical code" can describe, you are in left field--it limits
them no more than "the hermeneutic code" limits the possiblities of
what can be meant. It is simply a term for a particular nonverbal kind
of rhythmic language that poems written by some poets during certain
times of metrical crisis sometimes engage in, when they draw on the
historically created connotations of different predictable rhythmic
patterns. AF
On Sep 1, 2005, at 11:36 AM, Dominic Fox wrote:
Pretty much everything I am objecting to is summed up in the
expression "*the* metrical code".
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