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Problems of Poetic Diction in Twentieth-Century Criticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Alice R. Bensen
Alice R. Bensen*
Affiliation:
Valparaiso University
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Extract

The opinions in regard to certain problems of poetic diction expressed by sixteen English critics during the period extending from the time of the first writings of the Imagists to the start of World War II are the material of this survey. During this period a large number of problems were recognized. This study excludes those that must be solved through a consideration of meter, rime, and sound effects in general, and concentrates on those involving aspects of words that are peculiar to words. A “vertical” examination having been made of the discussions of these problems in the writings of each critic, a “horizontal” summary may now be offered.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 60 , Issue 1: Number 1 Part 1 , March 1945 , pp. 271 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1945

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References

1 This paper summarizes a dissertation submitted to the department of English of the University of Chicago. The writer would like to acknowledge the considerable help given by Professors Ronald S. Crane, David Daiches, and George Williamson.

2 Hulme, “Bergson's Theory of Art,” Speculations (London, 1924), pp. 146, 149–150, 166. Bridges, The Necessity of Poetry (Oxford, 1918), pp. 9–11.

3 “The Nature of Poetry,” Discoveries (London, 1924), p. 16; “English Poetry in the Eighteenth Century,” ibid., p. 160.

4 “A Hope for Poetry,” Collected Poems 1929–33 and A Hope for Poetry (New York, 1935), p. 253.

5 Pound, “Prolegomena,” The Poetry Review, i (February, 1912), 75–76; “Cavalcanti,” Make It New (New Haven, 1935), p. 351. Aldington, “Modern Poetry and the Imagists,” The Egoist, i (June 1, 1914), 202. Pound is included in this study because at the time of these writings he was living in England and associating with English writers.

6 “Poetry and Conduct,” Prose Papers (London, 1918), p. 9.

7 Graves, “What Is Bad Poetry?” The North American Review, ccxvm (September, 1923), 353. Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism (London, 1925 [1924]), p. 61.

8 Words and Poetry (New York, 1928), p. 14.

9 Phases of English Poetry (London, 1928), p. 144.

10 Graves, op. cit., p. 353. Richards, Science and Poetry (New York, 1926), p. 30.

11 Op. cit., pp. 10, 23; “Poetry in Schools,” Society for Pure English Tract No. XVIII (Oxford, 1924), p. 10.

12 Op. cit., p. 9.

13 Aldington, “A Note on Poetry in Prose,” The Chapbook, No. 22 (April, 1921), 16–24, passim. Abercrombie, The Theory of Poetry (London, 1924), p. 107; Poetry: Its Music and Meaning (London, 1932), p. 43. Murry, “Poetry and Criticism,” Aspects of Literature (New York, 1920), p. 177. Read, English Prose Style (London, 1928), p. 42.

14 The Problem of Style (London, 1922), p. 71.

15 Hulme, op. cit., pp. 152–158, 165; “A Lecture on Modern Poetry,” T. E. Hulme, ed. Michael Roberts (London, 1938), pp. 258–270, passim; “Notes on Language and Style,” ibid., p. 273. Pound, “Mr. Hueffer and the Prose Tradition in Verse,” Poetry, iv (June, 1914), 112; “Vorticism,” The Fortnightly Review, cii (September, 1914), 462. Graves, On English Poetry (New York, 1922), pp. 13–14. Rylands, op. cit., p. 4.

16 C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, The Meaning of Meaning (London, 1923), pp. 372, 376; Richards, Science and Poetry, p. 34.

17 Principles of Literary Criticism, p. 179.

18 Seven Types of Ambiguity (London, 1930), pp. 36–37.

19 “Prose and Verse,” The Chapbook, No. 22 (April, 1921), pp. 3–4. Eliot had taken up his residence in England by this time.

20 The Necessity of Poetry, p. 35.

21 Graves, Another Future of Poetry (London, 1926), p. 25. Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism, p. 179.

22 Murry, “Coleridge's Criticism,” Aspects of Literature, p. 186. Rylands, op. cit., p. 24.

23 The Problem of Style, pp. 123–125; “Metaphor,” Countries of the Mind, 2nd series (London, 1931), p. 6.

24 The Theory of Poetry, pp. 127, 130.

25 “Andrew Marvell,” Selected Essays, 1917–1932 (London, 1932), p. 286.

26 The Necessity of Poetry, pp. 21, 32.

27 Read, “Is It Prose or Poetry?” The Saturday Review of Literature, iv (April 14, 1928), 753; Empson, op. cit., p. 319.

28 The Necessity of Poetry, p. 32.

29 Introduction, Poems of John Keats, ed. G. Thorn Drury (London, 1896), p. lxvii.

30 “John Dryden,” Selected Essays, pp. 301–302.

31 Day Lewis, op. cit., pp. 244–245; Muir, “The Present Language of Poetry,” The London Mercury, xxxi (November, 1934), p. 35.

32 Op. cit., p. 245.

33 “Prolegomena,” op. cit., p. 75; “The Later Yeats,” Poetry, rv (May, 1914), 66; Preface to Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson (London, 1915), p. vi; “Elizabethan Classicists: iii,” The Egoist, iv (November, 1917), 154.

34 Introduction, Poems of John Keats, pp. xliii–iv; The Necessity of Poetry, p. 35; “Poetic Diction in English,” The Forum, lxix (May, 1923), 1536, 1542.

35 Preface to Notes, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 2nd ed. (London, 1930), pp. 97–98; Introduction, Poems of John Keats, p. xci.

36 The Lyric (London, 1915), p. 7; “The Poet and Tradition,” The Muse in Council (Boston, 1925), pp. 32–33.

37 The Theory of Poetry, p. 146; Poetry and Contemporary Speech. The English Association Pamphlet No. 27 (London, 1914), p. 7.

38 Poetry and Contemporary Speech, p. 6; The Theory of Poetry, pp. 93–99, 147.

39 Another Future of Poetry, pp. 30–32.

40 “Is It Prose or Poetry?” op. cit., p. 753; “The Modern Long Poem,” The Yale Review, XXI (December, 1931), 373.

41 Op. cit., pp. 302–304.

42 “Dryden the Poet,” John Dryden (New York, 1932), p. 10; “John Dryden,” op. cit., p. 297.

43 “‘Rhetoric’ and Poetic Drama,” Selected Essays, p. 38.

44 “A Note on the Verse of John Milton,” Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, xxi (1935) (Oxford, 1936), 35.

45 Op. cit., p. 247.

46 Coleridge on Imagination (New York, 1935), pp. 91–92; The Philosophy of Rhetoric (New York, 1936), p. 125; Principles of Literary Criticism, p. 61.

47 Preface to Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson, p. vi; “I Gather the Limbs of Osiris,” The New Age, x (February 11, 1915), 410.

48 Poetry and Contemporary Speech, pp. 6–10; The Theory of Poetry, pp. 136–140, 145.

49 “The Poet and Tradition,” op. cit., pp. 32–33; Victorian Poetry (London, 1923). pp. 24, 65.

50 “Poetic Diction in English,” op. cit., pp. 1536, 1540–42; “Wordsworth and Kipling,” Collected, Essays, Papers, Etc., of Robert Bridges, vol. vii (London, 1933), p. 30; Introduction to Poems of John Keats, p. lxxxiii.

51 On English Poetry, pp. 41–42, 68; Another Future of Poetry, pp. 31–32.

52 Principles of Literary Criticism, pp. 218–219.

53 Op. cit., p. 23.

54 Wordsworth (New York, 1931), p. 253; English Prose Style, p. x.

55 “‘Rhetoric’ and Poetic Drama,” op. cit., p. 38; “Dryden the Poet,” op. cit., p. 14; “John Dryden,” op. cit., p. 297; Introduction to London: A Poem, and The Vanity of Human Wishes, English Critical Essays: Twentieth Century, “The World's Classics,” (London, 1933), pp. 302–306.

56 New Bearings in English Poetry (London, 1932), pp. 14, 82, 168; “In Defence of Milton,” Scrutiny, vii (June, 1938), 112.

57 Op. cit., pp. 231, 244–248.

58 “The Present Language of Poetry,” op. cit., pp. 35–39.

59 Hulme, “A Lecture on Modern Poetry,” op. cit., pp. 268–270; “Bergson's Theory of Art,” op. cit., p. 165; “Romanticism and Classicism,” op. cit., p. 134; “Notes on Language and Style,” op. cit., p. 274. Pound, “A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste,” Poetry, i (March, 1913), 201–202; “Vorticism,” op. cit., pp. 461–462, 465; “Extract from a Letter,” Poetry, vn (March, 1916), 322. Aldington, “Free Verse in England,” The Egoist, i (September 15, 1914), 351; “The Poetry of F. S. Flint,” ibid., ii (May 1, 1915), 80. Drinkwater, Victorian Poetry, p. 93. Eliot, Ezra Pound: Eis Metric and Poetry (New York, 1917), p. 14; “Andrew Marvell,” op. cit., p. 286; “Dante,” Selected Essays, pp. 225–230, 254. Murry, The Problem of Style, pp. 87, 98–99; Keats and Shakespeare, p. 120; compare, however, “Metaphor,” op. cit., pp. 7–8. Rylands, op. cit., pp. 56–57. Read, “The Modern Long Poem,” op. cit., p. 371; “Myth, Dream, and Poem,” Collected Essays (London, 1938), pp. 103–104; compare, however, Phases of English Poetry, p. 56, and “In Defence of Shelley,” In Defence of Shelley and Other Essays (London, 1936), pp. 83–84.

60 “English Poets and the Abstract Word,” Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, xvi (1930) (Oxford, 1931), 56–57.

61 “A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste,” op. cit., p. 201.

62 Principles of Literary Criticism, pp. 119–120; The Philosophy of Rhetoric, pp. 129–131

63 Poetry and Contemporary Speech, p. 9; The Theory of Poetry, pp. 139–140.

64 Words and Poetry, pp. 112–115.

65 “Poetic Diction in English,” op. cit., p. 1542.

66 The Theory of Poetry, pp. 127–130.

67 Victorian Poetry, p. 91.

68 Day Lewis, op. cit., pp. 168, 247. Muir, “The Present Language of Poetry,” op. cit., p. 35.

69 Pound, “Vorticism,” op. cit., p. 466; “Affirmations. iv,” The New Age, xvi (January 28, 1915), 349; “Imagisme,” ibid. (February 11, 1915), 415; “Cavalcanti,” op. cit., pp. 351, 361. Murry, The Problem of Style, pp. 12–13; “Metaphor,” op. cit., p. 2. Richards, The Philosophy of Rhetoric, pp. 90, 94, 100, 120.

70 English Prose Style, p. 28.

71 The Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 93.

72 “Notes on Language and Style,” op. cit., pp. 277, 285; “Romanticism and Classicism,” op. cit., p. 135.

73 “Vorticism,” op. cit., p. 466; “Imagisme,” op. cit., p. 415.

74 “The Art of Poetry,” The Fortnightly Review, cxix (January, 1923), 117.

75 The Theory of Poetry, p. 209.

76 Swinburne: An Estimate (London, 1913), pp. 24–25; The Way of Poetry (Boston, 1922), p. xxii.

77 The Problem of Style, pp. 12–13, 83, 123–125; “Metaphor,” op. cit., p. 2.

78 English Prose Style, pp. 25–28; “Myth, Dream, and Poem,” op. cit., pp. 104–108.

79 Op. cit., p. 244.

80 Coleridge on Imagination (New York, 1935), pp. 33, 91; The Philosophy of Rhetoric, pp. 93–133, passim; Interpretation in Teaching (New York, 1938), pp. 120–122, 129, 137, 141–142. Cf. Hulme, “Romanticism and Classicism,” op. cit., p. 134; “Bergson's Theory of Art,” op. cit., p. 152; and Murry, “Metaphor,” op. cit., p. 2, and The Problem of Style, p. 14.

81 The Philosophy of Rhetoric, pp. 101–102.

82 “Metaphor,” op. cit., pp. 2, 6–8.

83 The Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 100. Cf. Day Lewis, op. cit., p. 244.

84 “A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste,” op. cit., pp. 200–203; “Vortex. Pound,” Blast, No. 1 (June, 1914), p. 154; “Vorticism,” op. cit., pp. 463–466, 469; “Affirmations. iv,” op. cit., p. 349.

85 “Obscurity in Poetry,” In Defence of Shelley, pp. 160–161.

86 “Notes on Language and Style,” op. cit., p. 282.

87 “Obscurity in Poetry,” The Bookman (London), lxxxv (October, 1933), 14–15; ibid., In Defence of Shelley, pp. 150–151, 157.

88 Op. cit., pp. 36–37, 302, 304, 319.

89 Principles of Literary Criticism, ch. ii, passim.

90 Ford Madox Hueffer—later Ford—a critic not considered in this paper, had, in 1913, admitted “slang where slang is felicitous.” (“Impressionism—Some Speculations. ii,” Poetry, ii [September, 1913], 224.)

91 “Affirmations. vi,” The New Age, xvi (February 11, 1915), 411.

92 Poetry and Contemporary Speech, p. 8.

93 “Poetry and Conduct,” op. cit., p. 9; The Lyric, p. 29; “The Poet and Tradition,” op. cit., p. 32.

94 Introduction, Poems of John Keats, pp. xci–xcii; Preface to Notes, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, p. 97.

95 “Reflections and Conjectures,” Latitudes (New York, 1924), pp. 295–296.

96 Principles of Literary Criticism, pp. 109–110, 179.

97 Another Future of Poetry, p. 25.

98 Phases of English Poetry, p. 144; English Prose Style, pp. 25–28; “Obscurity in Poetry,” In Defence of Shelley, p. 160; “Myth, Dream, and Poem,” op. cit., p. 104.

99 Words and Poetry, p. 23.

100 Seven Types of Ambiguity, p. 319; Some Versions of Pastoral (London, 1935).

101 Op. cit., p. 244.