Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody

To make sense of free verse” in theory or in practice, the whole study of prosody—the function of rhythm in poetry—must be revised and rethought. Stating this as the issue that poets and critics have faced in the past century, Charles Hartman takes up the challenge and develops a theory of prosody that includes the most characteristic forms of twentieth-century poetry.

Originally published in 1981.

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