Just came back to this thread after a particularly long absence and was a bit distressed to see the Sadoff article attacked as being yet another instance of PC academic assaults on culture. The article really is far more subtle than that. Sadoff essentially argues that many of the reasons that New Formalist critics gave as arguments for returning to traditional metre and rhyme were misplaced, in that they posed prosodic solutions to thematic problems. I don't entirely subscribe to his argument, but I do to a large extent--particularly in that he does not consider New Formalism to be unique in that regard.
There is no doubt a serious discussion to be had on Sadoff's piece, but straw-manning his position is not the way to go about it.
Quincy
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