Free Verse and Open Form

Lacy Rumsey (1, 2)

1 ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon
2 IHRIM - Institut d’Histoire des Représentations et des Idées dans les Modernités

This chapter discusses ways in which British and Irish poets of the period 1960–2015 used the formal resources of free verse and open forms. Following a discussion of terminological and historical questions, work by major poets of the period, including Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, R. F. Langley, Maggie O'Sullivan, J. H. Prynne, Tom Raworth, and Denise Riley, is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to patterns of alignment and disalignment, and to rhythm, which is described using beat prosody.

Mots clés: Rhythm; Prosody; Free verse; British Poetry - Twentieth Century; British Poetry - Twenty-First Century

Mots clés: Rhythme; Vers libre; Poésie britannique XXe siècle; Poésie britannique XXIe siècle

Domaines: Littératures

Lacy Rumsey. Free Verse and Open Form. Wolfgang Görtshacher; David Malcolm. A Companion to British and Irish Poetry, 1960-2015, Wiley-Blackwell, pp.143-58, 2020, 9781118843208. ⟨10.1002/9781118843215.ch2b.5⟩. ⟨halshs-03116982⟩