Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 "Free Verse" and Traditional Form in Eliot, Lawrence and Hope
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Author's abstract : A.D. Hope was completely out of sympathy with T. S. Eliot's poetic practice, yet the two poets expressed very similar views on the subject of free verse - that the term is virtually an oxymoron. This essay examines the critical writings of Hope and Eliot, in order to locate precisely the characteristics of free verse (and, incidentally, of all poetry!). We see that Eliot's verse always at least alludes to traditional verse form. I contrast this with the poems of D.H. Lawrence, the weaker of which are completely prosaic, and the stronger of which are not really free verse. We see that Lawrence's explanations for his procedures are not grounded like Hope's and Eliot's in a rational presentation of formal characteristics, but a subjective assessment of emotional effects. By contrast, Hope's achievement is to have maintained the vitality of almost purely formal verse, as a satiric genius in the tradition of Dryden and Pope.

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  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Aumla no. 93 May 2000 Z867479 2000 periodical issue 2000 pg. 37-50
Last amended 14 Nov 2001 11:11:11
37-50 "Free Verse" and Traditional Form in Eliot, Lawrence and Hopesmall AustLit logo Aumla
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