Is "meter" absorptive?
 

Bernstein 39: "Metrical versification traditionally has been used / for this purpose: the regular recurrences of sounds / & beats lulling--or pulling--the attention / inward"
 
However: "metricality & other / traditional prosodic devices, especially when / foregrounded, can be potent antiabsorptive / techniques (& were traditionally used as such / by many English poems prior to the rise of / Romanticism). A sestina, in almost anybody's / hands, seems artificial."

> from Charles Bernstein's A Poetics (1992)

> tagged with #poetry_craft_techniques, #rhythm

> created Feb 3, 2025 at 12:16:35 PM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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