Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
An attempt is made here to consider poetry as one of the aspects of language. It is not the first attempt and certainly not the last.
At first glance we are startled by the multiplicity of additional formal laws restricting the poet's free choice of expressions: intricate rhyming schemes, equal number of syllables in a line, regular distribution of short and long, stressed and unstressed syllables, alliteration, prevailing in both ancient Germanic and modern American poetry:
Paler be they than daunting death the sleek slim deer the tall tense deer.
(E. E. Cummings, All in green)