The fetters of rhyme : liberty and poetic form in early modern England / Rebecca M. Rush.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rush, Rebecca M., 1987- author.

Series:

Princeton scholarship online.

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English poetry.

English language--Rhyme.

English language.

Poetics.

Couplets, English--History and criticism.

Couplets, English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 volume) : illustrations (black and white) ;

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2021]

Summary:

In his 1668 preface to 'Paradise Lost', John Milton rejected the use of rhyme, portraying himself as a revolutionary freeing English verse from 'the troublesome and modern bondage of Riming'. Despite his claim to be a pioneer, Milton was not initiating a new line of thought - English poets had been debating about rhyme and its connections to liberty, freedom, and constraint since Queen Elizabeth's reign. 'The Fetters of Rhyme' traces this dynamic history of rhyme from the 1590s through the 1670s. Rebecca Rush uncovers the surprising associations early modern readers attached to rhyming forms like couplets and sonnets, and she shows how reading poetic form from a historical perspective yields fresh insights into verse's complexities.

Contents:

Sweet Be the Bands: Spenser and the Sonnet of Association

Licentious Rhymers: Donne and the Late-Elizabethan Couplet Revival

An Even and Unaltered Gait: Jonson and the Poetics of Character

Rhyme Oft Times Over-Reaches Reason: Measure and Passion after the Civil War

Milton and the Known Rules of Ancient Liberty.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on May 6, 2022).

Also issued in print: 2021.

ISBN:

9780691217840

069121784X

9780691215686

0691215685

OCLC:

1193558191