Though many recent poets insist on their poetry's "musical" qualities, few offer linguistically satisfying explanations of that "music". This book helps to fill that gap. It is a linguistically based study of rhythmic structures, and of the nature of rhythm, in the free verse of T.S. Eliot, Robert...

Though many recent poets insist on their poetry's "musical" qualities, few offer linguistically satisfying explanations of that "music". This book helps to fill that gap. It is a linguistically based study of rhythmic structures, and of the nature of rhythm, in the free verse of T.S. Eliot, Robert Lowell, and James Wright. It was written for accessibility to readers who, although not necessarily specialists in linguistic poetics, have some knowledge of language and poetry.

The book begins with an examination of rhythm in language as a whole, and of rhythm as a basic mental structure. This discussion touches on concepts from metrical phonology, acoustic phonetics, Russian Formalist and New Critical ideas of rhythm and meter, and music theory. It then analyzes what the author (borrowing a phrase from Gerard Manley Hopkins) calls "rhythmic figures of sound", syntax, line structure, and intonation in the poetry of Eliot, Lowell, and Wright.

Although the book focuses on these three writers, other poets are considered -- notably Jimmy Santiago Baca, Denise Levertov, and Etheridge Knight -- in order to illustrate the way different dialects use different intonation patterns for poetic effect. The book also contextualizes contemporary poems with brief comparisons to work from previous centuries.

The author argues that in discussions of rhythm and its structures, the old-fashioned way of analyzing types of "metrical feet" proves less than useful, and that the relatively new field of metrical phonology also has serious limitations. Instead, he advances a new approach based on "figures of sound" or "figures of rhythm", both of which involve the repetition of some key linguistic component: asound, a sequence of sounds, a method of forming words, a phrase structure, a line structure, or an intonational melody (literally, a tune -- the movement of pitch through time).

In the simplest language possible, the autho

Sands of the Well addresses the natural world, music, memory, aging, and belief. Her long study of the nature of spiritual insight here finds an ever more active professed engagement. In Sands of the Well Levertov allows the reader to sense the complexity under her perfect clarity of surface, and...

Sands of the Well addresses the natural world, music, memory, aging, and belief. Her long study of the nature of spiritual insight here finds an ever more active professed engagement. In Sands of the Well Levertov allows the reader to sense the complexity under her perfect clarity of surface, and her music and precision bear us along to a new awareness of the "Primary Wonder".

Tesserae, the small individual pieces of glass or stone that make up a mosaic, is an apt title for this series of memoirs by Denise Levertov. Rather than being a completed autobiography, these collected memoirs are, for the author, fragments of an unfinished mosaic. Each of the twenty-seven pieces...

Tesserae, the small individual pieces of glass or stone that make up a mosaic, is an apt title for this series of memoirs by Denise Levertov. Rather than being a completed autobiography, these collected memoirs are, for the author, fragments of an unfinished mosaic. Each of the twenty-seven pieces of Tesserae explores a memory vital to Levertov's life; each is complete in itself and set here chronologically. And, as in any good mosaic, each piece reflects at different angles creating a play of light which gives this self-portrait its living complexity.

The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams is the most engaging and lively of literary correspondences - at once a portrait of two geniuses, the testimony of their remarkable friendship, and a seedbed of ideas about American poetry. With a 1951 fan letter, the young British poet...

The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams is the most engaging and lively of literary correspondences - at once a portrait of two geniuses, the testimony of their remarkable friendship, and a seedbed of ideas about American poetry. With a 1951 fan letter, the young British poet introduced herself to Williams, and by 1959, Williams is congratulating Levertov on her growth. The letters also chronicle their search (individually and together) for a set of formal poetic principles, a search which culminated for Levertov in 1965, when she coined the term "organic form". The warmth, the directness, the flavorsome individuality of the letters - 34 from Levertov and 42 from Williams - increased with their growing intimacy and mutual regard. Always intriguing, their independent-minded letters, which end with the elder poet's death in 1962, have great piquancy and charm. Denise Levertov herself initiated this project, and was then, in the year before her death, "fascinated to read the exchange". This edition also includes the correspondence between Levertov and Williams's widow Florence. Professor Christopher MacGowan, the noted Williams scholar, contributes a superb introduction and informative annotations throughout.

Women have been writing in the Catholic tradition since early medieval times, yet no single volume has brought together critical evaluations of their works until now. The first reference of its kind, Catholic Women Writers provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical entries on 64 Catholic...

Women have been writing in the Catholic tradition since early medieval times, yet no single volume has brought together critical evaluations of their works until now. The first reference of its kind, Catholic Women Writers provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical entries on 64 Catholic women writers from around the world and across the centuries. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and is designed to acquaint the reader with the author, her major works, her Catholic and women's themes, and her critical reception. An introductory essay places the authors in the context and tradition of Catholic writing, and a selected, general bibliography lists works for further reading.