Again I’m lost. I think the Sheppard quote would need a lot more context to
be made sense of, as would your reference to Russian Formalism.
What Pound writes: “As regarding rhythm: to compose in the
sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome” is in a way
complex (what do we understand by a ‘musical phrase’?) but we see that he’s
advising poets to move away from regular rhythm. Elsewhere he counsels Dante’s
line in the Commedia “composed of various syllable-groups, totalling
roughly eleven syllables” – in fact they total exactly 11 if the rules
of Italian scansion, with elision of adjoining vowels, are taken into account –
as against the “‘English pentameter’, meaning a swat at syllables 2,4,6,8,10 in
each line, mitigated by ‘irregularities’ and ‘inverted feet’.”
But in order “to break the pentameter” you have to know what
it is. Pound knew as much as anyone about English rhythm (though his remarks
about Italian rhythm are often dubious).
Jamie
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 3:41 PM
Subject: Re: Metronome
And yes that is a misquote by Sheppard there, he should have said "random£
not "normal". I checked google.
Luke