Hardy's Metres and Victorian Prosody: With a Metrical Appendix of Hardy's Stanza Forms

Thomas Hardy's experiments in poetic metre were rooted in dramatic developments in Victorian metrical theory, which, nurtured by the ideas of Hegel and theories of Gothic architecture, represented the first mature understanding of the abstract nature of the metrical form. This is the first book to explore the enormous range of Thomas Hardy's metrical poetry, providing also a history of metrical theory and its climax in the Victorian period. Taylor includes a metrical glossary of Hardy's stanzas, the most exhaustive metrical glossary available, and explores the visual nature of the stanza in both traditional and free verse.