Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1981

Thesis Director

William D. Miller

Abstract

Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, British and American poetry was expected to employ rigid metrical and rhythmical patterns. Any verse that did not conform was considered devoid of aesthetic merit. In addition, some critics, Edgar Allan Poe being one of those, argued that there was no place for a long poem in poetry. Walt Whitman and Wallace Stevens, two proponents of the long narrative poem, both wrote in free verse and, thus, directly confronted these traditional theories.

This study demonstrates that the verse of Whitman and Stevens constitutes a new approach to poetic style and structure. A close examination reveals that their poems are neither unstructured or undetermined. Both men believed in the concept of the inseparability of language and the ideas fused within language. The purpose of the paper is to identify the cadences, rhythms, and syntactical structures used by Whitman and Stevens to determine what specific devices they shared. The most difficult question to answer is whether there are syntactical structures inherent in the language that necessarily bind both poets (and hypothetically, other American free verse writers) and shape the form their poetry finally takes.

The opening section of this study examines Poe's view of poetry and contrasts Whitman's own stated goals for his long poem, Leaves of Grass. Whitman envisions a rhythm and meter which erupt and are formed from the language itself. Furthermore, Whitman thought the use of predesigned conventions such as rhythm and meter stifled poetry and made it boring and lifeless. In addition, traditional poetry, because of these conventions, was unable to embody the often paradoxical nature of human existence.

The middle section examines Whitman's use of particular devices in Leaves of Grass such as the repetition of syntactical structures, the use of ellipses, gerunds, participles, and so on. As the subject matter of Whitman's poetry changed, likewise his methods of writing about these experiences changed. He frequently uses ungrammatical structures (in traditional terms), sentence fragments, and other devices to achieve his results. Certainly, Whitman's new approach to poetry forced others who followed him to consider his claims for poetry and the topics it should confront.

The study continues with an examination of Wallace Stevens' long poem, An Ordinary Evening in New Haven, published in 1949. Stevens explicitly defended the value of the long poem. Furthermore, within this poem, Stevens investigates the subject of writing poetry itself. His theory of poetry is in direct opposition to the closed couplet, the highest ideal of nineteenth century rationalism. Like Whitman, he used whatever necessary syntactical and structural devices to reveal the paradoxical and often irrational nature of reality.

This study concludes that both Whitman and Stevens left us with a new way of looking at poetry and the world, one richer in its potential than any we have had before.

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