This book is designed to explain the most important component of verse; that is to say, its sound. Many poets hear the work they are about to compose before they know the words of their composition. The key component of sound is rhythm. Often it is the rhythm that decides the patterning of the words in a poem.
The terminology in which we speak of rhythm derives from the study of metre. Metre is the ground-plan or blueprint of a rhythmic structure. It may give us a basic sense of shape but it is the beginning of discussion rather than its process. It is rhythm that gives life to metre. We perceive the rhythm best by reading the poem aloud.
Of course it is possible to appreciate poetry without knowing how it is made. The appreciation, however, may be enhanced by an awareness of how poets work. Much more may be heard in a poem if one is consciously aware of its rhythmic structure.
The author of this book, hereinafter designated ‘the present author’, has had four collections of poems published. He was also trained as an actor. Some such practical experience as this is as necessary as the discipline of the scholar in writing about prosody, which has been called the grammar of poetry.
The present author would like to acknowledge the predecessor in this line of study to whom he owes much: the late G.S.Fraser, who was himself a poet as well as a critic. Help from Paul Fletcher, of the Glasgow University Library, in compiling a bibliography was of inestimable use. From the material gathered, the bibliography published at the end of this book is only the most exiguous selection. Further, without two terms’ study leave granted by the University of Glasgow, the work would have been much longer in the undertaking.
Mrs Pat Devlin of Glasgow University helped considerably the secretarial side of this work. Dr Rex Mitchell, of the Queens University of Belfast, gave valuable and patient instruction in the use of the computer on which the final draft was written, and Desmond O’Brien and Jean Anderson came to the rescue at dangerous corners. The present author gladly acknowledges dialogue with Rosemary, his wife; with the poet, Peter Redgrove; and with Dr John Drakakis, general editor of The New Critical Idiom series, who commissioned this book. Discussion with the English Literature staff seminar in the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw proved useful. Especial thanks are owed to Dr Krzysztof Mościcki and to the late Professor Wanda Rulewicz; and to Professor Emma Harris OBE, Director, for inviting me to her distinguished institute in the first place.
The ears of the present author have been opened to several aspects of the subject by working with the actor John Christie and with the scholar Paddy Lyons. To these two friends the book is dedicated.