Of course, through their meanings, word-sounds indicate the
causes and objects of emotion--and this differentiates music from
poetry--but in poetry the emotion is still the primary thing, springing
from inner strivings, and not from objects, as in painting and
sculpture. It is therefore no accident that the contemporary imagists
tend to abandon the forms of verse; their poetry has little or no
regular rhythm; it approximates to prose. For in proportion as poetry
becomes free, it ceases to be tied to musical expressiveness, and may
become objective, without prejudice to its own nature. Prose poetry,
and prose too, of course, may be highly emotional and subjective, for
words can express emotions directly without any rhythmical ordering;
yet prose need not be subjective, as poetry must be. There is no
absolute difference between prose and poetry; for even prose has its
rhythm and its euphony, its expressiveness of the medium; yet in prose
the rhythm is irregular and accidental and the expressiveness of the
medium incomplete, while in poetry the rhythm is regular and pervasive
and ideally every sound-element, as mere sound, is musical. But this
more complete musical expressiveness of the medium restricts poetry
to a more inward world.
By abandoning the strict forms and restraints of regular rhythms, the
writers of free verse think to gain spontaneity and something of the
amplitude of prose; yet it is doubtful whether they gain as much as
they lose. For, in the hands of the skillful poet, the form, having
become second nature, ceases to be a bond; and the expression, by
taking on regularity of rhythm, acquires a concentration and mnemonic
value which free verse cannot achieve.
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