DOCSLIB.ORG

“Of” in Paradise Lost As Evidence for the Metrical Line DOI

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
“Of” in Paradise Lost As Evidence for the Metrical Line DOI Umanistica Digitale - ISSN:2532-8816 - n.6, 2019 N. Fabb - “ !" in Pa$adise L'st as e(i%ence fo$ t)e met$ical line D I: htt*:++%'i.o$g+10.6092/issn.2532-8816+8615 “ !" in #a$a%ise &'st as e(i%ence !'$ t)e met$ical line Nigel Fabb Uni(ersit, '! Strat)cl,%e [email protected] -bst$act. In t)is *a*e$ I %iscuss t)e %istributi'n '! grammatical m'n's,llables in t)e iambic *entamete$ line. I s)'/ t)at in 0ilt'n1s Paradise Lost, t)e /'$% F a**ears /it) g$eate$ t)an e2*ecte% !$e3.ency at t)e beginning '! t)e line4 27% '! all instances '! F a$e in t)e !irst '! t)e ten metrical *'siti'ns, an% 5% '! all t)e lines begin /it) F, ma7ing it t)e secon% m'st !$e3.ent line-initial /'$%. I s.ggest t)at t)is mig)t $e!lect t)e /a, t)at 0ilt'n .ses en8ambement in t)e *'em. It als' means t)at F ma, !.ncti'n as a cl.e t' t)e beginning '! t)e line, in t)e conte2t '! 't)er evi%ence !'r lineati'n, essential i! t)e a.%ience is t' establis) t)e metrical !'rm '! t)e *'em. In contrast, in t)e eig)teent) cent.$, blan7 (erse l'ng *'ems '! 9)'ms'n an% :'/*e$, t)e /'$% -ND is $elati(el, !$e3.ent at t)e beginning '! t)e line. ;.t <'$%s/'$t) .ses bot) F an% -ND as !$e3.ent line-initial /'$%s, merging 0ilt'n1s !'$mal *ractice /it) t)e *ractice '! 't)e$ /riters. 9)e *a*e$ concl.%es by $e!lecting 'n t)e $elati'n bet/een statistical cha$acteristics '! te2t an% *$'babilistic as*ects '! '.r 7n'/le%ge '! litera$, !'rm. =.est' a$ticol' *$en%e in esame la %istribuzi'ne %i m'n'sillabi grammaticali nel *entamet$' giambico inglese. =.i m'st$' che, in Paradise Lost %i 0ilt'n, la *a$'la F com*a$e c'n !$e3.enza maggi'$e all1inizi' %el (ers' %i 3.ant' ci si *'t$ebbe n'rmalmente as*etta$e4 il 27% %i t.tte le 'cc'$$en>e si t$'(a nella *rima %elle 10 *'sizi'ni metriche, e il 5% %ei (ersi comincia con F, il che la $en%e cos? la secon%a *a$'la *i@ !$e3.ente all1incipit %el (ers'. =.est' *'t$ebbe ri!lette$e, s.ggerisco, il m'%' in cui 0ilt'n a%'*era l’enjambement nel *'ema. :iA signi!ica anche che F *'t$ebbe !.nzi'na$e come in%izi' %ell1inizi' %el (ers', nel c'ntest' %i alt$e evi%en>e *e$ la %ivisi'ne %el *'ema in tale .nitB, essenziale se il *.bblico %e(e %etermina$e la !'rma metrica %el *'ema. D1alt$' cant', nel (ers' sci'lt' %el 1700 %i 9)'ms'n e :'/*e$, C la *a$'la -ND a esse$e $elativamente !$e3.ente all1inizi' %el (ers'. In(ece <'$%s/'rt) .sa sia F che -ND all1inizi' %ei *$'*ri (ersi, !'n%en%' la *ratica %i 0ilt'n con 3.ella %i altri scritt'ri. &1articol' *$'*'ne in!ine .na ri!lessi'ne s.lla $elazi'ne tra le caratteristiche statistiche %i .n test', e gli as*etti *$'babilistici %ella n'stra con'scenza %ella !'$ma letteraria. 1 Umanistica Digitale - ISSN:2532-8816 - n.6, 2019 Int$'%.cti'n 9)is *a*e$ is an e2e$cise in /'$d-co.nting, in('l(ing D')n 0ilt'n1s l'ng se(enteent) cent.$, *'em Paradise Lost an% a selecti'n '! l'ng (e$se te2ts. <'$d-c'.nting is a standa$% *$actice in m.c) digital ).manities $esea$ch, but t)is *a*e$ adds a c'nte2t.al feat.$e n't 'ften c'nsi%e$ed, an% s*ecific t' (e$se, %efine% as te2t /)ich is di(ide% int' lines. I c'.nt F, -ND, and s'me 't)e$ c'mm'n n'n-re!e$ential g$ammatical m'n's,llables, and I focus s*ecificall, 'n /)et)e$ t)ese m'n's,llables a$e in line-initial *'siti'n '$ s'me 't)e$ *'siti'n. 9)is 3.esti'n is *a$ticula$l, inte$esting !'$ Paradise Lost EPLF, a *'em /)'se !i$st t/' lines begin wit) t)e (e$, !$e3.ent /'$% F, an% in /)ic) 5% '! lines '(e$all begin /it) F. The statistic 'n /)ic) I !'cus is t)at 27% '! all instances '! F a$e line-initial. I l''7 at a selecti'n '! 't)e$ iambic *entamete$ *'ems afte$ PL, s.ch as 9)'ms'n1s The Seasons an% fin% in cont$ast t)at F is n't $elati(el, !$e3.ent at line-beginning, but t)at instea% t)e )ig)l, !$e3.ent /'$% -ND is $elati(el, !$e3.ent at line beginnings E.nli7e PL). <'$ds/'$t) in t)e 1805 Prelude .ses b't) F an% -ND !$e3.entl, at line beginning, t).s me$ging 0ilt'n1s F *atte$n wit) t)e -ND *atte$n of ot)e$ p$e%ecess'$s w)' infl.enced him s.ch as 9)'ms'n. It is li7el, t)at t)ese %ist$ibuti'ns a$e side-effects '! an't)e$ *$actice: t)at ce$tain /'$ds a**ea$ at t)e beginning '! t)e line beca.se '! t)e s,ntactic '$ disco.$se st$.ct.$e '! t)e te2t, $elati(e t' t)e *'et1s en8ambement *$actice4 t)at is, F ma, be *a$ticula$l, !$e3.ent in PL beca.se n'.n *)$ases a$e easil, s*lit ac$'ss lines, /)ile -ND ma, be *a$ticula$l, !$e3.ent in 't)e$ *'ets /)' fa('.$ a m'$e *a$atactic se3.ence wit) less $adical *)$ase-s*litting en8ambements. G'/e(e$, e(en i! t)e %ist$ibuti'ns '! t)ese /'$ds at line-beginning a$e side- effects '! ling.istic an% *'etic st$.ct.$e, it is als' *'ssible !'$ t)em t' !.ncti'n as cl.es t' t)e line b'.nda$,. 9)at is, if a /'$d is $elati(el, !$e3.ent at t)e beginning '! t)e line, t)en it 'ffe$s e(idence !'$ /)e$e t)e line bo.nda$, falls Ee(i%ence /)ich is /ea7 'n its 'wn, but st$engt)ene% in t)e c'nte2t '! 't)e$ e(i%ence). - )ea$e$ '! t)e te2t (an% a $eade$F m.st be able t' establis) line bo.nda$ies in '$%e$ t' *a$se t)e met$e '! t)e *'em, /)ich I s.ggest is a necessa$, pa$t of t)e p'em1s rece*ti'n. 9)e %ist$ib.ti'n '! g$ammatical m'n's,llables in iambic *entamete$ *'et$, The iambic pentameter line, and grammatical monosyllables in books 8-9 of Paradise Lost -ll t)e *'ems t' be conside$e% )e$e a$e in t)e met$e iambic *entamete$. 9)e iambic *entamete$ line is matc)ed t' a met$ical tem*late 'f ten p'siti'ns, alte$nating wea7 and st$'ng. 9)e line can als' be t)'.g)t '! as a se3.ence '! fi(e iambic feet, each a *ai$ '! /ea7 !'ll'/e% b, st$'ng. < S < S < S < S < S 2 N. Fabb - “ !" in Pa$adise L'st as e(i%ence fo$ t)e met$ical line 9)ese ten *'siti'ns a$e !ille% b, ten s,llables. S'metimes t/' s,llables can fit a single *'siti'n, an% s'metimes t)e$e is an e2t$a s,llable at t)e end. 9)e$e is a c)a$acte$istic $),t)m, wit) st$esse% s,llables tending t' fall in t)e S *'siti'ns, an% .nst$esse% '$ /ea7l, st$esse% s,llables tending t' fall in t)e < *'siti'ns. T)is $),t)m is $a$el, com*letel, *e$i'dic (i.e., alte$nating .nst$esse% an% st$esse% s,llables acr'ss t)e line). 9)e *$ecise const$aints 'n /)at $),t)mic (a$iati'ns a$e *'ssible )a(e been m.c) %iscusse% in met$ical t)e'$,; H'be$t ;$idges [1] /$'te a b''7 'n 0ilt'n1s *$'s'%,, an% $ecent t)e'$etical a**$'aches incl.%e Gans'n an% Ki*a$s7, [12], Fabb and Halle [10], and Ha,es, <ils'n and S)is7' [14]. In t)is *a*e$, I !'cus 'n t)i$teen g$ammatical m'n's,llables. 9)ese incl.de t)e ten /'$ds /)ic) Ing$am an% Swaim ([16]: i2F 'mitte% !$'m t)ei$ *$inte% conco$dance '! 0ilt'n beca.se t)e, /e$e of s.ch )ig) fre3.ency: A, AND, BM, F H, IN, F, N, 9GN, 9 , WI9G. 9' t)is I )a(e adde% t)e *$e*'siti'n -9 Et)e ne2t m'st comm'n '! t)e *$e*'siti'ns in PL), an% H an% ;U9 Em'$e c'mm'n in PL t)an s'me '! t)e /'$ds liste% b, Ing$am an% Swaim). I )a(e t$eate% b't) - an% -N as a single /'$d. -ll '! t)ese /'$ds - *$e*'siti'ns, a$ticles an% c'n8.ncti'ns - ten% t' be .nst$essed, an% t)e, a$e m.c) m'$e li7el, t' a**ea$ in < *'siti'ns t)an in S *'siti'ns.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Genetic Criticism and the Relevance of Metrics in Editing Pessoa's Poetry
    Genetic Criticism and the Relevance of Metrics in Editing Pessoa’s Poetry Patricio Ferrari* Keywords Pessoa, Poetry, Metrics, Genetic Criticism, Archive, Private Library Abstract Ever since the posthumous editorial process of Fernando Pessoa’s writings began in 1942, editors have found themselves confronted with several challenging tasks: one of them, undoubtedly, has been the deciphering of the author’s handwriting. Today, seventy years later, an important number of manuscripts remain unpublished, while numerous other transcriptions need to be revised. The present article concerns a small corpus that falls within the latter group of texts insofar as it reviews the transcriptions of one Portuguese poem, an unfinished French sonnet, three fragmentary English odes and a later English poem. I propose to undertake the revision of the selected corpus essentially with the aid of metrics. Particular attention shall be given to the genesis of each one of these compositions. Palavras-chave Pessoa, Poesia, Métrica, Crítica Genética, Arquivo, Biblioteca Particular Resumo Desde que o processo editorial póstumo dos escritos de Fernando Pessoa começou em 1942, os editores têm-se confrontado com diversos desafios, um deles sendo, indubitavelmente, a decifração da caligrafia do autor. Hoje, setenta anos mais tarde, uma importante quantidade de manuscritos mantém-se inédita, outra parte ainda necessita de ser revista. O presente artigo diz respeito a um pequeno corpus deste segundo conjunto, na medida em que revê as transcrições de um poema em português, um soneto inacabado em francês, três odes fragmentárias em inglês e um poema posterior em língua inglesa. Proponho-me abordar a revisão do corpus seleccionado essencialmente com base na métrica.
    [Show full text]
  • “Of” in Paradise Lost As Evidence for the Metrical Line DOI
    Umanistica Digitale - ISSN:2532-8816 - n.6, 2019 N. Fabb - “ !" in Pa$adise L'st as e(i%ence fo$ t)e met$ical line D I: htt*:++%'i.o$g+10.6092/issn.2532-8816+8615 “ !" in #a$a%ise &'st as e(i%ence !'$ t)e met$ical line Nigel Fabb Uni(ersit, '! Strat)cl,%e [email protected] -bst$act. In t)is *a*e$ I %iscuss t)e %istributi'n '! grammatical m'n's,llables in t)e iambic *entamete$ line. I s)'/ t)at in 0ilt'n1s Paradise Lost, t)e /'$% F a**ears /it) g$eate$ t)an e2*ecte% !$e3.ency at t)e beginning '! t)e line4 27% '! all instances '! F a$e in t)e !irst '! t)e ten metrical *'siti'ns, an% 5% '! all t)e lines begin /it) F, ma7ing it t)e secon% m'st !$e3.ent line-initial /'$%. I s.ggest t)at t)is mig)t $e!lect t)e /a, t)at 0ilt'n .ses en8ambement in t)e *'em. It als' means t)at F ma, !.ncti'n as a cl.e t' t)e beginning '! t)e line, in t)e conte2t '! 't)er evi%ence !'r lineati'n, essential i! t)e a.%ience is t' establis) t)e metrical !'rm '! t)e *'em. In contrast, in t)e eig)teent) cent.$, blan7 (erse l'ng *'ems '! 9)'ms'n an% :'/*e$, t)e /'$% -ND is $elati(el, !$e3.ent at t)e beginning '! t)e line. ;.t <'$%s/'$t) .ses bot) F an% -ND as !$e3.ent line-initial /'$%s, merging 0ilt'n1s !'$mal *ractice /it) t)e *ractice '! 't)e$ /riters.
    [Show full text]
  • Milton in Time: Prosody, Reception, and the Twentieth-Century Abstraction of Form
    Milton in Time: Prosody, Reception, and the Twentieth-Century Abstraction of Form BEN GLASER _______________________ Abdiel, who in Book 6 of Paradise Lost endures ‘Universal reproach, far worse to bear / Than violence’ (34-35)1 before returning to heaven, makes an apt figure for the reception of Milton’s versification. This essay traces the ongoing struggle of prosody—as both science and praxis—with the inversions and other effects that define Milton’s line. It examines the reception of these inversions, or dislocations of stress, and other prosodic idiosyncrasies through several epochs, from early- eighteenth century reactions to perceived dysrhythmia to the more responsive poetics of the Victorian period, from Edwardian and Georgian concerns over the modern ear’s poor access to blank verse to the modernist understanding of T. S. Eliot, whose treatment sequentially ossifies and then revels in Milton’s prosody. The misunderstandings, bowdlerizations, and insights, the vulgar and skillful incorporations of Milton’s metrics are deeply instructional not only in revealing the complexity of Milton’s versification, or charting broad patterns in the reception of Milton’s prosody, but because they show the cumulative changes within prosody itself in successive eras of English poetry and criticism. Milton’s prosody, exceptional both in its internal form and in its symbolic force for later generations, serves to chart major changes in the cultural status and function of prosody. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. David Scott Kastan, 3rd ed. (Hackett Pub Co, 2005). Ben Glaser, ‘Milton in Time: Prosody, Reception, and the Twentieth Century Abstraction of Form’ Thinking Verse III (2013), 169-185 ISSN: 2049-1166.
    [Show full text]
  • The Stress-Weight Interface in Meter∗
    Kevin M. Ryan Harvard University The stress-weight interface in meter∗ Abstract Meters are typically classified as being accentual (mapping stress, as in English) or quantitative (mapping weight, as in Sanskrit). This article treats the less well-studied typology of hybrid accentual-quantitative meters, which fall into two classes. In the first, stress and weight map independently onto the same meter, as attested in Latin and Old Norse. In the second, stress and weight interact, such that weight is regulated more strictly for stressed than unstressed syllables, as illustrated here by new analyses of Dravidian and Finno-Ugric meters. In both of these latter cases (as well as in Serbo- Croatian), strictness of weight mapping is modulated gradiently by stress level. Among poetic meters regulating the properties of syllables, two types are traditionally distinguished, namely, accentual (regulating stress or pitch accent placement, as in English) and quantitative (regulating weight, as in Sanskrit).1 Meters are here assumed, with perhaps most research in generative metrics, to be abstract trees of strong (S) and weak (W) nodes (see Blumenfeld 2016 for an overview).2 For example, a line of English iambic pentameter is given with its terminal layer of S and W nodes in (1) (cf. Hayes 1988:222, Hayes et al. 2012:697). The concern of this article is not the generation of these structures (see e.g. Han- son and Kiparsky 1996), but the principles of prominence mapping (or correspondence; Blumenfeld 2015) that regulate how S and W nodes are realized by linguistic material. (1) (Sonnet 133) W S W S W S W S W S Be- -shrew that heart that makes my heart to groan ∗I would like to thank Lev Blumenfeld, Dieter Gunkel, Bruce Hayes, and Paul Kiparsky for their input on various stages of this project, as well as Ellen Kaisse, four anonymous referees, and an associate editor for their helpful comments on the manuscript.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 4 Quantitative Meter
    Chapter 4 Quantitative meter 4.1 Introduction At first glance, the subject of syllable weight for poetic meter may appear trivial. Nearly all of the world’s quantitative meters are described as exhibiting the same arity and criterion, namely, binary weight with the so-called Latin criterion (i.e. light iff C0V). To the extent that languages ostensibly vary in the scansion of weight, it is usually attributed to differences in syllabification rather than to weight per se. For example, VtrV is heavy in Sanskrit but (usually) light in Latin. This difference is conventionally ascribed to syllabification, that is, Vt.rV in Sanskrit vs. V.trV (∼ Vt.rV) in Latin (Steriade 1982; but cf. Steriade 2008). In this sense, Sanskrit and Latin treat weight identically, but diverge in terms of syllable structure. As this chapter argues, even if one puts aside issues related to syllabification, weight is richly complex in quantitative meter. Indeed, some of the most fine-grained weight scales yet documented for any phonological phenomenon derive from meter (Ryan 2011a, 2011b). In perhaps all such cases, the complexity coexists with a binary criterion. Thus, the conven- tional analysis of weight as dichotomous is not incorrect; it is just not a complete description of the meter. To give one example, in the Ancient Greek hexameter, heavy syllables are per- mitted both metron-initially and metron-finally. But metron-final heavies tend significantly to be heavier heavies than metron-initial heavies, all else being equal. From this discrepancy, a continuum of intra-heavy weight is diagnosed, which includes VT < VN < VV < VVC (§4.4.2).
    [Show full text]
  • Metered Verse
    Metered Verse Paul Kiparsky Annu. Rev. Linguist. 2020. 6:1–21 https://doi.org/10.1146/((article doi to be added)) Copyright © 2020 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved 1 1. RHYTHM AND STRESS Meter has been called the heartbeat of poetry. But like language itself, and music and dance, it pulsates more intricately than anything in the biological or physical world. While each beat of a healthy heart is identical to the next, meter is based on the regular ALTERNATION of prominent and nonprominent beats (stressed/unstressed, strong/weak, downbeat/upbeat).1 The prominent beats in turn alternate between more prominent and less prominent beats, and so on, up to a unique culmination, generating a PROMI- NENCE HIERARCHY within a domain (Liberman & Prince 1977). In addition, the prominence peaks at each level of such a hierarchy are grouped with preceding or following less prominent units into MEASURES, usually resolvable into binary constituents in language and meter, but often irreducibly ternary in music and dance. The mind imposes periodicity and constituency even on objectively un- differentiated sequences of beats: we hear the “tick-tick-tick” of a watch as a sequence of “tick-tock” units. These aspects of rhythmic organization shared by meter and language – alternation, hierarchy, and grouping – can be represented by trees in which each nonterminal node has a unique S(trong) immediate constituent, or equivalently by bracketed grids where relative prominence is represented by column height (Prince 1983). (1) (a) R S W S W S W WS WS WS WS WSWS WSWS WSWS WSWS (b) ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ (((( ˆ ˆ )( ˆ ˆ )) (( ˆ ˆ )( ˆ ˆ ))) ((( ˆ ˆ )( ˆ ˆ )) (( ˆ ˆ )( ˆ ˆ )))) The tree representation (1a) and the bracketed grid representation (1b) convey exactly the same in- formation and are interconvertible.
    [Show full text]
  • Indo-European Origins of the Greek Hexameter
    Indo-European Origins of the Greek Hexameter Paul Kiparsky* *The main points of this article were presented at the Munich colloquium Sprache und Metrik. This version has benefited from the discussion on that occasion, and especially from comments on a draft by Dieter Gunkel. 1 Abstract The basic Indo-European line was an iambic octosyllable with variable realizations licensed by a set of metrical correspondence rules. These included SYNCOPATION (called “anaclasis” in Greek metrics), a unique device of inherited Indo-European quantitative meters which licenses the equivalence of – ˘ and ˘ –. In Greek, several syncopated patterns became independent meters in their own right, notably the hexameter, derived by choriambic and ionic syncopa- tion from tetrameters that had arisen from dimeter distichs by a fusion process that began already in Vedic. The mixed iambic-dactylic meters found in early Ionic verse (Nestor’s cup, Archilochus, Hipponax) may continue intermediate stages of this development. Other progeny of the inherited iambic dimeter in Greek are glyconics and their kin, iambo-choriambic meter, and dochmiacs. The proposed iambic derivation of the hexameter explains much of its colometry and its oc- casional exceptional trochaic feet, and has the advantage of deriving it directly from the most likely vehicle of Indo-European epic verse. Although much of my argumentation is indepen- dent of any particular view of meter, some of it presupposes a conception of generative metrics that defines meters by simple uniform rhythmic templates and by correspondence rules that specify their permissible realizations. Therefore I preface my analysis of Indo-European meter with an exposition of the approach and its implications for historical metrics.
    [Show full text]