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Chapter 5. The metrical system of William Carlos Williams

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain the metrical practice and theorizing of the American poet William Carlos Williams. Observing that in many of his short poems, the total number of syllables is exactly, or nearly exactly, equal to the total number of positions in an abstract metrical representation containing a regular line and stanza structure, it is argued that Williams invented a remarkably successful new type of prosody, termed ‘syllabic-rhythmic’ verse, in which relative ‘speed’ or ‘tempo’ is computed by comparing the actual number of syllables in a line to the number of positions in the metrical schema. Williams’ later theory of the ‘variable foot’ and the ‘triadic line’ is further accounted for by incorporating the unit ‘foot’ in metrical schemata.

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain the metrical practice and theorizing of the American poet William Carlos Williams. Observing that in many of his short poems, the total number of syllables is exactly, or nearly exactly, equal to the total number of positions in an abstract metrical representation containing a regular line and stanza structure, it is argued that Williams invented a remarkably successful new type of prosody, termed ‘syllabic-rhythmic’ verse, in which relative ‘speed’ or ‘tempo’ is computed by comparing the actual number of syllables in a line to the number of positions in the metrical schema. Williams’ later theory of the ‘variable foot’ and the ‘triadic line’ is further accounted for by incorporating the unit ‘foot’ in metrical schemata.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 1. Structure at the bottom 5
  7. Chapter 2. The absent, the silent, and the audible 19
  8. Chapter 3. Lexical change and the architecture of the Lexicon 41
  9. Chapter 4. Dylan Thomas’s meters 67
  10. Chapter 5. The metrical system of William Carlos Williams 87
  11. Chapter 6. Linearization preferences given “Free Word Order”; subject preferences given ergativity 115
  12. Chapter 7. On the fronting of non-contrastive topics in Germanic 143
  13. Chapter 8. Blackjack! 171
  14. Chapter 9. Connectivity and definiteness in an English equative construction 201
  15. Chapter 10. On certain distributional gaps of Spanish possessives 217
  16. Chapter 11. Variability in the case patterns of causative formation in Romance and its implications 237
  17. Index 269
Of Grammar, Words, and Verses
This chapter is in the book Of Grammar, Words, and Verses
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.8.08bow

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 1. Structure at the bottom 5
  7. Chapter 2. The absent, the silent, and the audible 19
  8. Chapter 3. Lexical change and the architecture of the Lexicon 41
  9. Chapter 4. Dylan Thomas’s meters 67
  10. Chapter 5. The metrical system of William Carlos Williams 87
  11. Chapter 6. Linearization preferences given “Free Word Order”; subject preferences given ergativity 115
  12. Chapter 7. On the fronting of non-contrastive topics in Germanic 143
  13. Chapter 8. Blackjack! 171
  14. Chapter 9. Connectivity and definiteness in an English equative construction 201
  15. Chapter 10. On certain distributional gaps of Spanish possessives 217
  16. Chapter 11. Variability in the case patterns of causative formation in Romance and its implications 237
  17. Index 269
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