The Alcaic Metre in the English Imagination
1st Edition
Published on 16. June 2022
240 pages
978-1-350-23250-1 (ISBN)
Description
This book reveals how a remarkable ancient Greek and Latin poetic form -- the alcaic metre -- found its way into English poetry, and continues shaping the imagination of poets today. English poets have always admired the extraordinary beauty and intricacy of the alcaic stanza (Tennyson called it 'the grandest of all measures') and their inventive responses to the ancient alcaic have generated remarkable innovations in the rhythms, sounds and shapes of modern poetry. This is the first book-length study of this neglected strand of English literary history and classical reception.
Attending closely to the rhythm and texture of their verses, John Talbot reveals surprising connections between English poets across five centuries, among them Mary Shelley, Milton, Marvell, Tennyson, Edward FitzGerald, Wilfred Owen, W. H. Auden and Donald Hall. He gives special attention to a flourishing of English alcaics during the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and what it suggests about the changing place of classics and poetic form in contemporary culture.
Attending closely to the rhythm and texture of their verses, John Talbot reveals surprising connections between English poets across five centuries, among them Mary Shelley, Milton, Marvell, Tennyson, Edward FitzGerald, Wilfred Owen, W. H. Auden and Donald Hall. He gives special attention to a flourishing of English alcaics during the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and what it suggests about the changing place of classics and poetic form in contemporary culture.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-350-23250-1 (9781350232501)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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John Talbot
The Alcaic Metre in the English Imagination
Book
01/2024
Bloomsbury Academic
€44.50
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John Talbot
The Alcaic Metre in the English Imagination
Book
07/2022
Bloomsbury Academic
€133.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
John Talbot is Associate Professor of English Literature at Brigham Young University, USA. He publishes widely on classical and English literary relations, poetic form and literary translation. He is the author of The Well-Tempered Tantrum (2004), Rough Translation (2012) and contributed to the multi-volume Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature. With Victoria Moul, he is co-editor of C. H. Sisson Reconsidered.
Content
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 Coming Late to Latin: Wilfred Owen, John Hollander
2 'A Marvel of Metrical Disruptions': The Alcaic Strophe Itself
3 'Blossom Again on a Colder Isle': Mary Sidney, Alfred Tennyson
4 'The Same, But Not the Same': Tennyson's In Memoriam Stanza
5 'The Ear Grows Dissatisfied': Robert Bridges, W. H. Auden
Afterword: From Inheritance to Quarry: The Alcaic in Postmodernity
Notes
Index
Bibliography
Preface
1 Coming Late to Latin: Wilfred Owen, John Hollander
2 'A Marvel of Metrical Disruptions': The Alcaic Strophe Itself
3 'Blossom Again on a Colder Isle': Mary Sidney, Alfred Tennyson
4 'The Same, But Not the Same': Tennyson's In Memoriam Stanza
5 'The Ear Grows Dissatisfied': Robert Bridges, W. H. Auden
Afterword: From Inheritance to Quarry: The Alcaic in Postmodernity
Notes
Index
Bibliography
