As it happens, I’ve just read Denise Levertov’s 1979 essay “On the Function of the Line,” where she discusses the effects of linebreaks on both the rhythm and the “melody” of the poem when read aloud.
I like her comparison of a poem to a (musical) score. But I find her arguments against formal or metrical verse very weak, considering that they are based on the following claim:
“...I do feel that there are few poets today whose sensibility naturally expresses itself in the traditional forms (except for satire or pronounced irony), and that those who do so are somewhat anachronistic.”
Then again, what I found the most revealing — and amusing — was her repeated emphasis that free-verse poets would NOT lose their individuality by observing the convention she described (of pausing for a “half comma” at a linebreak). Was there such a terror of conformity at that time that poets might bend over backwards to oppose any convention—even one used in free verse??
Claudia
Last edited by Claudia Gary; 07-19-2020 at 05:40 PM.
Reason: Corrected “half second” to “half comma”
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