Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century
<p>This thesis argues that the making of poems is entwined with their meaning. I suggest that revision offered poets in the long nineteenth century an imaginative resource that was far more than a process of verbal fine tuning. More specifically, I examine how the process of composition in Wor...
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| Eará dahkkit: | |
| Materiálatiipa: | Oahppočájánas |
| Giella: | English |
| Almmustuhtton: |
2023
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| Fáttát: |
| _version_ | 1826314573202849792 |
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| author | Hart, J |
| author2 | Douglas-Fairhurst, R |
| author_facet | Douglas-Fairhurst, R Hart, J |
| author_sort | Hart, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis argues that the making of poems is entwined with their meaning. I suggest that revision offered poets in the long nineteenth century an imaginative resource that was far more than a process of verbal fine tuning. More specifically, I examine how the process of composition in Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dickinson, and Hopkins is intimately tangled up with a broader set of questions each poet is working through, which range from philosophical enquiries into the continuity of the self to the practical matter of how poems work on the page. If revision is often characterised as a process of gradual improvement between drafts of a work, or a preparation for public consumption, this thesis suggests that revision can be a far more private dynamic that we should be alert to within drafts. Each writer studied in this thesis reflects something of Forster’s conviction ‘How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?’, as they continue to discover new ways of working through uncertainties in their compositions. Throughout this thesis, I connect textual theories with a close study of finer textual details, in order to shed light on the writing of these particular poets and to show how revision offers a mode of thinking that is built into the composition of a poem, and also remains detectable in the ‘finished’ work.</p>
<p>My introductory section suggests that Romantic notions of organic form do not wholly account for the labour detectable in a poet’s manuscripts, and that these theories are in fact at odds with the cognitive importance of revision. Chapter One then examines Wordsworth’s revisions as a process of self-division, arguing that a more fragmentary form of revision might vouch for the self’s amplitudes. My second chapter explores how revision in Tennyson is capable of effecting the continuity-through-change his poetry is often drawn to. Paying attention to his manuscript drafts, I suggest, helps us to see how this ongoing process of change registers at the level of his technique. In Chapter Three, I turn to the shorter forms of Dickinson, whose compositional process investigates various kinds of in-betweenness. My final chapter considers Hopkins’s revisions as a form of forward thinking, revealing an in-the-moment futurity and waywardness that runs parallel to the role of telos in his writing.</p>
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:01:34Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:194290d1-e245-41df-97dd-db3a38328113 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:36:00Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:194290d1-e245-41df-97dd-db3a383281132024-09-23T11:48:00ZPoetic revision in the long nineteenth centuryThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:194290d1-e245-41df-97dd-db3a38328113PoetryNineteenth centuryLiteratureEnglishHyrax Deposit2023Hart, JDouglas-Fairhurst, RBevis, MPerry, STyler, D<p>This thesis argues that the making of poems is entwined with their meaning. I suggest that revision offered poets in the long nineteenth century an imaginative resource that was far more than a process of verbal fine tuning. More specifically, I examine how the process of composition in Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dickinson, and Hopkins is intimately tangled up with a broader set of questions each poet is working through, which range from philosophical enquiries into the continuity of the self to the practical matter of how poems work on the page. If revision is often characterised as a process of gradual improvement between drafts of a work, or a preparation for public consumption, this thesis suggests that revision can be a far more private dynamic that we should be alert to within drafts. Each writer studied in this thesis reflects something of Forster’s conviction ‘How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?’, as they continue to discover new ways of working through uncertainties in their compositions. Throughout this thesis, I connect textual theories with a close study of finer textual details, in order to shed light on the writing of these particular poets and to show how revision offers a mode of thinking that is built into the composition of a poem, and also remains detectable in the ‘finished’ work.</p> <p>My introductory section suggests that Romantic notions of organic form do not wholly account for the labour detectable in a poet’s manuscripts, and that these theories are in fact at odds with the cognitive importance of revision. Chapter One then examines Wordsworth’s revisions as a process of self-division, arguing that a more fragmentary form of revision might vouch for the self’s amplitudes. My second chapter explores how revision in Tennyson is capable of effecting the continuity-through-change his poetry is often drawn to. Paying attention to his manuscript drafts, I suggest, helps us to see how this ongoing process of change registers at the level of his technique. In Chapter Three, I turn to the shorter forms of Dickinson, whose compositional process investigates various kinds of in-betweenness. My final chapter considers Hopkins’s revisions as a form of forward thinking, revealing an in-the-moment futurity and waywardness that runs parallel to the role of telos in his writing.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Poetry Nineteenth century Literature Hart, J Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| title | Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| title_full | Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| title_fullStr | Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| title_full_unstemmed | Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| title_short | Poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| title_sort | poetic revision in the long nineteenth century |
| topic | Poetry Nineteenth century Literature |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hartj poeticrevisioninthelongnineteenthcentury |