Shakespeare's Metrical Art

Rating:
Summary: An introduction to the metrics of Shakespeare & his day.
Review: George T. Wright's "Shakespeare's Metrical Art" is an introduction not only to the art of Iambic Pentameter as Shakespeare practiced it but also a starting point to an understanding the art of Iambic Pentameter itself. Mr. Wright argues that in Shakespeare the Iambic Pentameter meter found its greatest and most flexible practitioner. In appreciating the beauty of Shakespeare's artistry we also come to appreciate the intrinsic artistry and beaty of the meter. Mr. Wright's journey begins with Chaucer and Wyatt, the former being the earliest practitioner of the Iambic Pentameter line and also the greatest until Shakespeare. His reading of Chaucer's lines, as most often Iambic Pentameter, sometimes runs counter to accepted wisdom, yet, as with his conception of the meter itself, his argument is well-reasoned and convincing. More contraversial is his treatment of Wyatt's often inconsistent use of meter. Yet, here again, Wright offers the reader a plausible framework into which Wyatt's poetry becomes another expression of the meter's vitality and flexibility. From the further disintegration of the meter after Wyatt, Wright begins his treatment of Shakespeare's metrical art. Every facet of Shakespeare's flexible and imaginative use of the meter (his diversions from its strict course) is methodically examined and considered for its possible influence upon the meaning of the text. These diversions include Shakespeare's use of long and short lines, syllabic ambiguity, lines with extra syllables, lines with omitted syllables, trochees, false trochees and other such variations as are possible within the iambic pentameter meter. Wright rounds off the book with an all too short consideratiom of the meters use after Shakespeare -- including the writers Donne, Milton, and in passing twentieth writers Frost, Stevens, and Eliot. With Mr. Wright's contention that the Iambic Pentameter meter reached its zenith at Shakespeare's hands, his argument comes to the inevitable conclusion that Shakespeare's skill is one which later generations may echo, rarely equal, but never exceed. This is a book both for the lover of Shakespeare and the reader of poetry who wishes to better understand the art of one of the english language's greatest trimphs.

Rating:
Summary: Best book on prosody, period.
Review: This is more than a history of iambic pentameter and a brilliant analysis of its use in the hands of its greatest practitioner, it should probably also be read as the best general introduction to prosody available. Truly general introductions may touch on more forms and offer a more complete view of English poetic history, but none out there (that I've seen, at least) are as perceptive as Wright and none of them, perhaps because of their general natures, elucidate so fully the possibilities of expressive variation and mimetic form in poetry the way Wright does in such minute detail. Chapters like "Lines with extra syllables," or "Lines with omitted syllables," or "Play of phrase and line" may at first glance promise only dry reading, and it's probably hard to believe that a 300-page book on iambic pentameter could be one of the best works of literary criticism you could ever read. But this is an analysis of at least half of what poetry is all about and, more importantly, the half most rarely talked about (most college professors don't even know how to). Digest this rich and beautifully written book with a handful of Shakespeare's plays (you won't be able to stay away from them after reading it anyway) and you'll be ready to tackle and analyze most any other poet with relative confidence for yourself.