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Structural Prosody

Structural Prosody Haj Ross This article examines in great detail an eighteen-line poem by Wil- liam Carlos Williams: "To Waken an Old Lady". It argues that the poem can be sectioned — seen as consisting of two nine-line halves, the first half being characterized by a desperate bustling activity, and the second half by a serenity, by the attainment of peace. It is also proposed that the poem be seen as divided into thirds, and in fact even into six three-line units, which six mention birds, snow, and wind in the first half, and again, these same three in the same order, in the second half. One of the arguments for this cosectioning is the number of words in each three-line unit: nine words in each bird-unit; seven in each snow unit, and ten in each wind-unit. This device of numerical rhyme, coupled with another poetic gesture — that of moving an element from the first place in a unit to a last place in a corresponding one (or the reverse of this movement) — this pattern of marking boundary in a poem by firsting and lasting - coupled with a masterful ascent to a climax of transcendent har- mony, which http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Cognitive Semiotics de Gruyter

Structural Prosody

Ross, Haj
Cognitive Semiotics , Volume 2 (s1): 18 – Mar 1, 2008
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
ISSN
2235-2066
eISSN
2235-2066
DOI
10.1515/cogsem.2008.2.spring2008.65
Publisher site
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Abstract

Haj Ross This article examines in great detail an eighteen-line poem by Wil- liam Carlos Williams: "To Waken an Old Lady". It argues that the poem can be sectioned — seen as consisting of two nine-line halves, the first half being characterized by a desperate bustling activity, and the second half by a serenity, by the attainment of peace. It is also proposed that the poem be seen as divided into thirds, and in fact even into six three-line units, which six mention birds, snow, and wind in the first half, and again, these same three in the same order, in the second half. One of the arguments for this cosectioning is the number of words in each three-line unit: nine words in each bird-unit; seven in each snow unit, and ten in each wind-unit. This device of numerical rhyme, coupled with another poetic gesture — that of moving an element from the first place in a unit to a last place in a corresponding one (or the reverse of this movement) — this pattern of marking boundary in a poem by firsting and lasting - coupled with a masterful ascent to a climax of transcendent har- mony, which

Journal

Cognitive Semiotics – de Gruyter

Published: Mar 1, 2008

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