Nineteenth-Century Verse and Technology

This book repositions thinking about rhythm, meter and versification during the "Mechanical Age." Cutting across disciplinary boundaries, the book examines the rhythmical workings of poems alongside not only Victorian theories of prosody and poetics but also contemporary thinking about labor practices, pedagogical procedures, scientific experiments, and technological innovations. By offering an exploded definition of meter--one that extends beyond conventional foot-based scansion--this book explicates the conceptual and, at times, material exchanges between poetic meter and machine culture. The machines of meter include mid-century theories of abstraction and technologies of smoothness and even spacing; a deeply influential, though rarely credited, system of metrical manufacture; verse produced by a Victorian automaton; the mechanics of the human body and mind and the meters that issued from them; and the promise of scientific machines to resolve metrical dilemmas once and for all.

Aceasta carte repozitioneaza gandirea la ritm, metru si versificatie in timpul „erei mecanice”. Trecand peste granite disciplinare, cartea examineaza functionarea ritmica a poeziilor alaturi de nu doar teoriile victoriene ale prozodiei si poeticii, ci si gandirea contemporana despre practicile de munca, procedurile pedagogice, experimentele stiintifice si inovatiile tehnologice. Oferind o definitie explodata a contorului - una care se extinde dincolo de scanarea conventionala pe picior - aceasta carte explica schimburile conceptuale si, uneori, materiale intre contorul poetic si cultura masinilor.