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Title: Shakespeare's Metrical Art by George T. Wright ISBN: 0-520-07642-7 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best book on prosody, period.
Comment: This is more than a history of iambic pentameter and a brilliant analysis of its use in the hands of its greatest practitioner, it should probably also be read as the best general introduction to prosody available. Truly general introductions may touch on more forms and offer a more complete view of English poetic history, but none out there (that I've seen, at least) are as perceptive as Wright and none of them, perhaps because of their general natures, elucidate so fully the possibilities of expressive variation and mimetic form in poetry the way Wright does in such minute detail. Chapters like "Lines with extra syllables," or "Lines with omitted syllables," or "Play of phrase and line" may at first glance promise only dry reading, and it's probably hard to believe that a 300-page book on iambic pentameter could be one of the best works of literary criticism you could ever read. But this is an analysis of at least half of what poetry is all about and, more importantly, the half most rarely talked about (most college professors don't even know how to). Digest this rich and beautifully written book with a handful of Shakespeare's plays (you won't be able to stay away from them after reading it anyway) and you'll be ready to tackle and analyze most any other poet with relative confidence for yourself.
Rating: 5
Summary: An introduction to the metrics of Shakespeare & his day.
Comment: George T. Wright's "Shakespeare's Metrical Art" is an
introduction not only to the art of Iambic Pentameter as
Shakespeare practiced it but also a starting point to an
understanding the art of Iambic Pentameter itself. Mr. Wright
argues that in Shakespeare the Iambic Pentameter meter found
its greatest and most flexible practitioner. In
appreciating the beauty of Shakespeare's artistry we also
come to appreciate the intrinsic artistry and beaty of the
meter. Mr. Wright's journey begins with Chaucer and Wyatt,
the former being the earliest practitioner of the Iambic
Pentameter line and also the greatest until Shakespeare. His
reading of Chaucer's lines, as most often Iambic Pentameter,
sometimes runs counter to accepted wisdom, yet, as with his
conception of the meter itself, his argument is well-reasoned
and convincing. More contraversial is his treatment of Wyatt's
often inconsistent use of meter. Yet, here again, Wright
offers the reader a plausible framework into which Wyatt's
poetry becomes another expression of the meter's vitality and
flexibility. From the further disintegration of the meter
after Wyatt, Wright begins his treatment of Shakespeare's
metrical art. Every facet of Shakespeare's flexible and
imaginative use of the meter (his diversions from its strict
course) is methodically examined and considered for its
possible influence upon the meaning of the text. These
diversions include Shakespeare's use of long and short lines,
syllabic ambiguity, lines with extra syllables, lines with
omitted syllables, trochees, false trochees and other such
variations as are possible within the iambic pentameter meter.
Wright rounds off the book with an all too short consideratiom
of the meters use after Shakespeare -- including the writers
Donne, Milton, and in passing twentieth writers Frost, Stevens,
and Eliot. With Mr. Wright's contention that the Iambic
Pentameter meter reached its zenith at Shakespeare's hands,
his argument comes to the inevitable conclusion that Shakespeare's
skill is one which later generations may echo, rarely equal, but never exceed.
This is a book both for the lover of Shakespeare and the
reader of poetry who wishes to better understand the art of
one of the english language's greatest trimphs.
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Title: Shakespeare and the Arts of Language by Russ McDonald ISBN: 0198711719 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: All the Words on Stage: A Complete Pronunciation Dictionary for the Plays of William Shakespeare by Louis Scheeder, Shane Ann Younts ISBN: 1575252147 Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Actor and the Text (Applause Acting Series) by Cicely Berry ISBN: 1557831386 Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Book Publishers Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama by Peter Saccio ISBN: 0195123190 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Pronouncing Shakespeare's Words by Dale F. Coye, Dale Coye ISBN: 0415941822 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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