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book: Handbook of Poetic Forms
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Handbook of Poetic Forms

  • Edited by: and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2025
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Handbooks of English and American Studies

About this book

This Handbook of Poetic Forms aims to offer historically informed approaches to a wide variety of poetic forms. A particular emphasis will be on considering poetic form in dialogue with the cultural context in which it is being used, as well as within the literary tradition of each form, and to explore the stable as well as the historically variable affordances of each form in such contexts. Hereby, the focus lies on prescriptive forms, that is, on poetic forms which are defined by or at least associated with specific metrical, stanzaic or overall structures (or the absence of such), rather than poetic genres that are primarily characterised by similarities in subject matter (like the elegy or the ode). While this Handbook should be accessible to students, its aim is not to offer basic introductions, but rather to broaden a historical and functional understanding of the poetic forms it covers, and to engage with poetic forms not as givens, but as historically-contingent processes of formation. Above all, this Handbook’s formalism is new formalist in emphasising historical awareness and contextualisation.

Author / Editor information

Jessica Bundschuh, University of Stuttgart, Germany; Irmtraud Huber, University of Konstanz, Germany.

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    I
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    Editors’ Preface

    V
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  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    VII
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    Introduction

    1
    Jessica Bundschuh and Irmtraud Huber
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  • Part I: Building Blocks: Foundations of Poetic Form
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    1 Doodle

    7
    Brian Johnson
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    2 Babble

    29
    Ed Madden
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    3 Address

    47
    Daniela Theinová
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    4 Performance

    67
    Michael Theune
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    5 Media & Technology

    83
    Matthew Kilbane
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    6 Line

    101
    David Nisters
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    7 Meter & Rhythm

    123
    Ewan Jones
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    8 Rhyme

    139
    David Caplan
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    9 Stanza

    155
    Eugene O’Brien
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  • Part II: Edifices: Types of Poetic Form
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    10 Ballad

    169
    Scott McKendry
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    11 Blank Verse

    191
    Helena Mesa
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    12 Couplet

    213
    Blas Falconer
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    13 Digital Poetry

    231
    Gulsin Ciftci
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    14 Ekphrastic Poetry

    255
    Birgit Neumann and Gabriele Rippl
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    15 Epic

    275
    John Holmes
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    16 Free Verse

    291
    Leeanne Quinn and Jessica Bundschuh
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    17 Haiku

    307
    Grant Caldwell
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    18 Hymn

    327
    James Dowthwaite
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    19 Italian Stanza Forms

    343
    Wit Pietrzak
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    20 Lyric

    355
    Justin Quinn
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    21 Ode

    371
    Eóin Flannery
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    22 Prose Poem

    389
    Jeremy Noel-Tod
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    23 Sonnet

    405
    Timo Müller
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    24 Sonnet Sequence

    423
    Brian Rejack
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    25 Song Lyrics

    439
    Lars Eckstein
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    26 Strict French Forms

    455
    Alex Alonso
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    27 Verse Novel

    475
    Irmtraud Huber
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  • Part III: Dwelling: Realizing Poetic Form
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    28 Performing Blank Verse

    491
    Darren Murphy
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    29 Reading the Couplet

    513
    Milena Williamson
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    30 Reading Free Verse

    531
    James Little
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    31 Reading the Prose Poem

    547
    Jessica Bundschuh
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    32 Reading the Sestina

    563
    Thomas Austenfeld
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    33 Reading the Sonnet Sequence

    577
    Ruud van den Beuken and Christopher Cusack
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    Index of Names

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    Index of Subject

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    List of Contributors

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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 6, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9783111296371
Hardcover published on:
November 6, 2025
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111296258
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
9
Main content:
631
Illustrations:
7
Coloured Illustrations:
5
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111296371
eBook ISBN: 9783111296371
Hardcover ISBN: 9783111296258
Keywords for this book
New formalism; neo formalis; traditional forms; historical approach_x000D_
Audience(s) for this book
Academics (Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies), Students (BA, MA and PhD level), Libraries, Institutes
Safety & product resources
Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
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