Rhythm in Modern Poetry : An Essay in Cognitive Versification Studies

A pioneering work in cognitive versification studies, scrutinizing the rhythmical means of free verse. Investigating a previously neglected area of study, Rhythm in Modern Poetry establishes a foundation for cognitive versification studies with a focus on the modernist free verse. Following in the tradition of cognitive poetics by Reuven Tsur, Richard Cureton and Derek Attridge, every chapter investigates the rhythms of one modern poem, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sylvia Plath and others, and engages each element in the broader interpretation of the poem in question. In her examination of modernist poetry in English and other Germanic languages, Eva Lilja expands her analysis to discuss both the Ancient Greek and Norse origins of rhythm in free verse and the intermedia intersection, comparing poetic rhythm with rhythm in pictures, sculptures and dance. Rhythm in Modern Poetry thus expands the field of cognitive versification studies while also engaging readers writ large interested in how rhythm works in the aesthetic field.

Eva Lilja is Professor Emerita of Literature, specializing in Modernist poetry, in the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She pioneered the study of free versification since her doctoral thesis in 1981 and was the founder and chair for the Nordic Society for Metrical Studies (1995-2009). Lilja was also a Swedish Academy Researcher for writing the official Swedish handbook in metrics (1998-2006).

Alexander Bergs joined the Institute for English and American Studies of the University of Osnabrück, Germany, in 2006 when he became Full Professor and Chair of English Language and Linguistics. His research interests include, among others, language variation and change, constructional approaches to language, the role of context in language, the syntax/pragmatics interface and cognitive poetics. Alexander Bergs has taught at the Universities of Düsseldorf, Bonn, Santiago de Compostela, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Catania, Vigo and Thessaloniki and has organized numerous international workshops and conferences. Apart from several terms as Director of the Institute of English and American Studies, as Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics and Literatures, and as member of the University Senate, he is one of the founders and directors of the Research Cluster for Cognition and Poetics at the University of Osnabrück, Germany.

Margaret H. Freeman is Co-Director of the Myrifield Institute for Cognition and the Arts, MA, USA. Professor Freeman's past publications include The Poem as Icon: A Study in Aesthetic Cognition (2020).

Peter Schneck is Professor (Chair) for American Literature and Culture at Osnabrück University, Germany.