The nature and significance of rhythm in the poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt: (with transcripts of two principal manuscripts)

[摘要] The contention of the essay which follows is that the presumption that Wyatt's rhythm can be judged by standards which are impervious to the actual performance of his poetry, to the actual affects achieved and the 'meanings' thereby imparted, leads ineluctably to the rejection of Wyatt's poetry by prosodists and that the rejection of that presumption leads as rigourously to the conclusion that prosody (as that term is widely understood) has no role to play in the assessment of Wyatt's poetry.Evidence in favour of this conclusion is providedby the slight and previously unacknowledged testimonyof the punctuation of two principal Wyatt manuscripts(transcripts of which are provided in vols. 2 and 3) and slightly reinforced by attention to the phrasalrhyme-scheme of some of the poems. The evidence isconsidered suggestive rather than conclusive, but byfollowing through the suggestion of a non-quantitativerhythmical principle an attempt is made to show thatin Wyatt's poetry there is a creative and dramatic significance indicative of a pervasive though limitedset of preoccupations - metaphysical, political andpsychological - within the poems.In conclusion it is maintained that, although nofinal placing of Wyatt can rest purely upon his rhythmical accomplishment, the approach to Wyatt's rhythm which has been proposed is important in thatit reveals a presence of such basic and importantpreoccupations in the poems and these, set within buttransforming the conventions of amour courtois, are finally adduced to establish Wyatt's place in relationto the sixteenth century.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies, The Shakespeare Institute

[关键词] P Language and Literature;PN Literature (General);PN0441 Literary History