The Stanza

Book excerpt: First published in 1978, this work bridges the gap between the study of poetic form, which tends to isolate form from meaning and structural poetics, which tends to focus on meaning without considering the stanza’s impact. Beginning with an examination of the various definitions of the stanza, the book goes on to describe the many forms of the stanza and the different strategies by which poets achieve stanzaic units of meaning. It then evaluates the logical relationships between stanzas, and, finally, assesses their place and function as parts within the poetic whole. This work will be of interest to those studying poetry and literature.