
Poetic Rhythm
Structure and Performance -- An Empirical Study in Cognitive Poetics
Reuven Tsur(Author)
Liverpool University Press
Published on 25. May 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
460 pages
978-1-84519-525-0 (ISBN)
Description
This research is an instrumental investigation of a theory of rhythmical performance of poetry, originally propounded speculatively in the author's Perception-Oriented Theory of Metre (1977). "Iambic pentameter" means that there is a verse unit consisting of an unstressed and a stressed syllable (in this order), and that the verse line consists of five such units. In the first 165 verse lines of Paradise Lost there are two such lines. The theory takes up one of the central issues in metrical studies: all criteria for metricality hitherto proposed have been violated by the greatest masters of musicality in English poetry. The question arises, how do we recognise two verse lines that are very different in their structures as instances of the same abstract pattern of, eg: iambic pentameter; and how do we distinguish a metrical from an unmetrical line. One great difference between this theory of metre and others concerns the status of deviation. Most theoreticians deploy a battery of tools to make deviant stress patterns conform with metric pattern. Only when all attempts fail do they speak of "tension". When they succeed, they blur the distinction between, for example, Milton's and Pope's metrical styles. Or else, they have formulated different rules of metricality for Shakespeare and Milton. This theory assumes that when the versification patterns and linguistic patterns conflict, they can be accommodated in a pattern of "Rhythmical Performance" -- namely one in which the conflicting patterns are simultaneously perceptible. There are scales of mounting difficulties of mismatches, on which each poet (and each theorist) draws at different points the boundary of what is acceptable. Reuven Tsur's revised and expanded edition (original publication, Peter Lang, 1986) is essential reading for all scholars and students involved in versification and Cognitive Poetics.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 156 mm
Width: 234 mm
Weight
750 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84519-525-0 (9781845195250)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Reuven Tsur is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature and Cognitive Poetics at Tel Aviv University, and Middle East vice president of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.
Content
Clergy Interest in Innovative Collaboration with Psychologists; Collaborate with Whom? Clergy Responses to Psychologist Characteristics; Faith-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Programs; Psychology-Church Collaboration: Finding a New Level of Mutual Participation; Using Psychology to Facilitate Christian Living: Description of a First Step in Building a Program of Collaboration; Psychology Collaborating with the Church: a Pastor-Psychologists Perspective and Personal Experience; Psychology and the Church: Collaboration Opportunities; Counsellor-Clergy Collaboration in a Church-Based Counselling Ministry; Psychological Consultation with the Roman Catholic Church: Integrating Who We Are with What We Do; The Evangelical Free Churchs Recovery Ministry: a Collaborative Approach to Restoration and Reconciliation; Healing the Broken-hearted: Cross and Couch Together; Psychologists and Health Care : Chaplains Doing Research Together; Collaboration Through Research: the Multi-method Church-Based Assessment Process; Psychology Serving the Church in the United Kingdom: Church Consultancy and Pastoral Care; Psychology and Marriage Ministry Collaborations; Psychology at Work Inside and Outside the Church: Bridging the Gaps Between Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual Health; Psychological Resources in Faith-Based Community Settings: Applications, Adaptations, and Innovations; A Psychologist-Pastor: a Bridge For Churches at a Christian Community Health Centre; Promoting Change Through the African American Church and Social Activism; God is Active in Human Affairs: a Response to Thom Moore.