“You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett

“No ideas but in hinges,” poet Stephen Rodefer once quipped in his poem “Numberless Shadows,” playfully modifying William Carlos Williams’s famous line. This essay examines line breaks as poetic hinges in the work of Ron Padgett: they are flexible spaces where the parts of the poem turn and articula...

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Main Author: Olivier Brossard
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2021-07-01
Series:Transatlantica
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/17248
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author Olivier Brossard
author_facet Olivier Brossard
author_sort Olivier Brossard
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description “No ideas but in hinges,” poet Stephen Rodefer once quipped in his poem “Numberless Shadows,” playfully modifying William Carlos Williams’s famous line. This essay examines line breaks as poetic hinges in the work of Ron Padgett: they are flexible spaces where the parts of the poem turn and articulate, the lines poised between conflicting forces, between formal interruption and syntactical momentum. An attempt at defining such versatile spaces, this essay seeks to explore line breaks as the pretexts for Ron Padgett’s metatextual poetics. Line breaks are pivotal points: not only are they constitutive of verse, but they also provide occasions for the poem to reflect upon itself. In Padgett’s work, they are critical junctures, when language hesitates between transitive and intransitive impulses. 
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spelling doaj.art-ba34992911f446dc95b2dabddbf46ea42023-12-06T15:49:37ZengAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesTransatlantica1765-27662021-07-01110.4000/transatlantica.17248“You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron PadgettOlivier Brossard“No ideas but in hinges,” poet Stephen Rodefer once quipped in his poem “Numberless Shadows,” playfully modifying William Carlos Williams’s famous line. This essay examines line breaks as poetic hinges in the work of Ron Padgett: they are flexible spaces where the parts of the poem turn and articulate, the lines poised between conflicting forces, between formal interruption and syntactical momentum. An attempt at defining such versatile spaces, this essay seeks to explore line breaks as the pretexts for Ron Padgett’s metatextual poetics. Line breaks are pivotal points: not only are they constitutive of verse, but they also provide occasions for the poem to reflect upon itself. In Padgett’s work, they are critical junctures, when language hesitates between transitive and intransitive impulses. http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/17248Ron PadgettAmerican poetryverseline breakenjambmentrun on line
spellingShingle Olivier Brossard
“You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
Transatlantica
Ron Padgett
American poetry
verse
line break
enjambment
run on line
title “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_full “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_fullStr “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_full_unstemmed “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_short “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_sort you are next in line moving down the line s with ron padgett
topic Ron Padgett
American poetry
verse
line break
enjambment
run on line
url http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/17248
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