 |
 |
Surely meter can be political also in the broad sense that a major historical shift with many social and political implications can also be registered at the metrical level. In Poetry as Discourse Anthony Easthope describes a process by which individualized voice emerged more forcefully in England with the triumph of stress-syllabis meter in the sixteenth century. This process tended to subordinate rhythm to the status of reinforcing and illustrating content and to privilege individual intention. Stresses were evened out and lines became more flexible and closer to natural speech, culminating in blank verse. At the same time the power of the signifier to create meaning was obscured. I don't endorse this story entirely, but find it interesting to consider the possible cultural or ideological significance of stress-syllabic at this particular time and place, as well as the resistance to its dominance. Others might not. And the nature of that significance is another question. Easthope put it into a Marxist framework, but others might not. All best, Charles Whitney English Dept. University of Nevada Las Vegas, NV 89154-5011 Early Responses to Renaissance Drama http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521858434