A Question of Syllables
Essays in Nineteenth-Century French Verse

Dr Scott examines the intimate life of words in verse, with all their fluctuations of meaning, mood and tone.

Clive Scott (Author)

9780521325844, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 September 1986

228 pages
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

Dr Scott argues that only by attending to the precise locations of words in line or stanza, and to the specific value of syllables, or by understanding the often conflicting demands of rhythm and metre, can the reader of poetry acquire a real grasp of the intimate life of words in verse with all their fluctuations of meaning, mood and tone. The analyses through which the book pursues its argument address two principal concerns: the way in which syllabic position projects words and colours their complicated and challenged by the relationship of rhythm to metre.

Prefatory remarks
1. Theme and syllabic position
2. The octosyllable, rhythmicity and syllabic position
3. Figure and syllabic position
4. A privileged syllable
5. Rhythmicity and metricity
6. Rhythmicity and metricity in free verse
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliographical references
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC]