Theory and Practice of Versification

The word "poetry" derives from a Greek verb meaning "to make," and has always been associated with creativity and artistry. In the Western tradition to which the word "poetry" belongs, for nearly 3,000 years, the word has referred primarily to a verbal art of rhythmic or patterned sound. Somewhat confusingly though, it has taken on a different primary meaning recently (for about a century, since the advent of modernism), which is something like "an art of fragmentary or elliptical expression, giving voice to intensities of subjective experience". The two senses of the word coexist uneasily in our current usage, since the modernist project defined itself in part by its rejection or radical revision of the practices that anchored the old meaning of the word.

But there is a good reason why the same word can sensibly mean both things, which is that the old art of fitting words together into patterns of sound had a very frequent side-effect of producing works that fit the second definition as well. What Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Shelley et al. were doing, in practicing their art as poets, was fitting their words into rhythmic patterns. The reason we still read them is partly because we enjoy those patterns, and partly because we recognize the intensities of insight and expression that their efforts of versification yielded.

The high modernists were certainly right that versification is no guarantee of genuine "poetry" in the second sense; not every versifier is a Shakespeare or Shelley. What distinguishes "real poetry" from mere verse, or good poetry from bad poetry, is a matter for investigation and discussion. But since so much real poetry, historically speaking, is certifiably verse, is a result of the art of versification, it would seem to follow that anyone interested in understanding poetry as an art will be likely to benefit from the study of versification as an art, even though most 20th century literary poetry is not verse in the old sense; it entails an attention to sound, certainly, but generally not a sustained, systematic, repeating pattern of sound.

Some people aesthetically prefer modernist poetry, and some don't. Some people equate "vers libre" with political progressivism, and equate metrical verse with political conservatism or psychological repression. Others reject this view. There is a considerable published debate on the subject, and we will follow it closely.

It does seem to be the case that contemporary Americans as a rule do not develop an ear for verse, because the teaching of poetry in schools tends instead to emphasize metaphor, imagery, persona and so on; the terms of discussion are suited to modernist work. Many educated people, even English professors, even poets nowadays find it quite difficult to recognize iambic pentameter, let alone write it, let alone handle it skillfully or employ it as a means to poetry. This course aims to cultivate that ear and these skills.

In the first half of the semester we will establish a basis for analytical discussion by reading diverse poems, modern and otherwise, along with criticism and theory, as well as a basic vocabulary of about sixty tropes of classical rhetoric which, between them, cover a surprisingly great deal of the range of verbal artistry and effect that even modern and contemporary poets employ.

In the second half, we will begin to write in verse. Students will compose sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, limericks, haiku, fibonacci poems, and others. We discuss the results and the processes that yielded them.

I have an ongoing research interest in what could be called the phenomenology of versification—how poetry results from the activity, indeed the game, of constraining oneself to meet particular patterns in sound while still saying what one wants to say, or is willing to say, or perhaps is unwilling to say. The basic principle seems to be that a constraint such as iambic meter, or dactylic meter, or rhyme, poses a challenge that requires both conscious and unconscious ingenuity to overcome. I have been theorizing this phenomenon using the cognitive science framework of "mental space theory" or the theory of conceptual integration; this is one of the reference points for the course.

Readings will include:
Robert A. Harris, A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
(http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm)
Owen Barfield, Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning
Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, The Way We Think
Yvor Winters, “The Experimental School in American Poetry”
Helen Vendler, The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Dana Gioia, “Can Poetry Matter?” and “Notes on the New Formalism”
J.V. Cunningham, “How shall the poem be written?”
Intros to anthologies Rebel Angels, Naked Poetry, Strong Measures, Expansive Poetry
Annie Finch, The Ghost of Meter and After New Formalism
William K. Wimsatt, jr. “One Relation of Rhyme to Reason”
William Flesch, “The Conjuror’s Trick, or How to Rhyme”

Requirements:
There will be reading assignments and/or writing exercises due for each class meeting, and two 7-10 page essays, one due at mid-semester and the other due at the end.

Grading: Essays: 30% (x2) = 60%. Exercises: 30%. Class Participation: 10%

Essays will be judged by a fairly high standard as writing and intellectual work; Since they will determine the largest portion of your final grade, I strongly encourage you to start early on them, and come discuss your ideas or rough drafts with me as often as you like before they are due. I will make course readings available via Blackboard, and also place them on reserve at the library.