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Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures

Towards a poetics of verse
  • Wolfgang G. Müller
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Signergy
This chapter is in the book Signergy

Abstract

This paper looks at the interdependence of metrical and linguistic units, focussing on metrical inversion and enjambment. While metrical texts favour (diagrammatic) iconicity as a result of equivalence (repetition) on the level of stress, foot, verse, stanza, etc., another source for iconicity is to be found in non-equivalent phenomena such as metrical inversion and enjambment. An example for inversion is the beginning of the first line of one of Keats’ sonnets — “Much have I travelled in the realms of gold” — where metrical inversion coincides with syntactic inversion. The basis for enjambment is a discrepancy between metrical and syntactic structures, a discrepancy which may even affect morphology, as is the case at the beginning of Hopkins’ The Windhover, where the change of the lines results in cutting asunder a word: “king- / dom”. Having demonstrated, at the level of meter, the interaction of the principles of equivalence and non-equivalence — according to Jakobson a fundamental quality of poetic texts in general — the paper points the way towards a poetics of verse.

Abstract

This paper looks at the interdependence of metrical and linguistic units, focussing on metrical inversion and enjambment. While metrical texts favour (diagrammatic) iconicity as a result of equivalence (repetition) on the level of stress, foot, verse, stanza, etc., another source for iconicity is to be found in non-equivalent phenomena such as metrical inversion and enjambment. An example for inversion is the beginning of the first line of one of Keats’ sonnets — “Much have I travelled in the realms of gold” — where metrical inversion coincides with syntactic inversion. The basis for enjambment is a discrepancy between metrical and syntactic structures, a discrepancy which may even affect morphology, as is the case at the beginning of Hopkins’ The Windhover, where the change of the lines results in cutting asunder a word: “king- / dom”. Having demonstrated, at the level of meter, the interaction of the principles of equivalence and non-equivalence — according to Jakobson a fundamental quality of poetic texts in general — the paper points the way towards a poetics of verse.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Signergy 1
  6. Part I. Theoretical approaches
  7. Literary practices and imaginative possibilities 23
  8. The bell jar, the maze and the mural 47
  9. Iconicity as meaning miming meaning and meaning miming form 73
  10. A view from the margins 101
  11. Part II. Visual iconicity
  12. Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry 129
  13. Taking a line for a walk 157
  14. Iconicity and naming in E. E. Cummings’s poetry 179
  15. Bunyan and the physiognomy of the Wor(l)d 193
  16. From icon to index and back 211
  17. The poem as icon of the painting 225
  18. Part III. Iconicity and historical change
  19. Iconicity and etymology 243
  20. Iconicity typological and theological 259
  21. An iconic, analogical approach to grammaticalization 279
  22. Part IV. Iconicity and positionality
  23. Iconic signs, motivated semantic networks, and the nature of conceptualization 301
  24. Iconicity and subjectivisation in the English NP 319
  25. Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures 347
  26. Part V. Iconicity and translation
  27. Translation, iconicity, and dialogism 367
  28. Iconicity and developments in translation studies 387
  29. Author index 413
  30. Subject index 417
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.9.20mul

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Signergy 1
  6. Part I. Theoretical approaches
  7. Literary practices and imaginative possibilities 23
  8. The bell jar, the maze and the mural 47
  9. Iconicity as meaning miming meaning and meaning miming form 73
  10. A view from the margins 101
  11. Part II. Visual iconicity
  12. Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry 129
  13. Taking a line for a walk 157
  14. Iconicity and naming in E. E. Cummings’s poetry 179
  15. Bunyan and the physiognomy of the Wor(l)d 193
  16. From icon to index and back 211
  17. The poem as icon of the painting 225
  18. Part III. Iconicity and historical change
  19. Iconicity and etymology 243
  20. Iconicity typological and theological 259
  21. An iconic, analogical approach to grammaticalization 279
  22. Part IV. Iconicity and positionality
  23. Iconic signs, motivated semantic networks, and the nature of conceptualization 301
  24. Iconicity and subjectivisation in the English NP 319
  25. Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures 347
  26. Part V. Iconicity and translation
  27. Translation, iconicity, and dialogism 367
  28. Iconicity and developments in translation studies 387
  29. Author index 413
  30. Subject index 417
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