Formal or Free?: Work as Work
Presentation Type
Event
Full Name of Faculty Mentor
Dan Albergotti
Major
English
Minor
Pre-Law
Second Minor
New Media and Digital Culture
Presentation Abstract
In the early decades of the 20th century, in practice and in self-reflection, American poets developed a variation to formal poetry, namely free verse. This variation was defined by what it was not. That is, it defied structured patterns of meter and/or rhyme. As free verse became the most common mode of poetry in the mid-1900s, it risked losing part of its identity that was once reliant on its deviation from formal practice. The question arises: What does free verse mean to a generation not steeped in formal tradition? How can you rebel against what you don't know? The focus of my research is to determine how much free verse has become untethered from formal verse and to what degree formal verse is still relevant in contemporary practice.
Course
HFA310
Location
Brittain Hall, Room 112
Start Date
17-4-2019 3:30 PM
End Date
17-4-2019 3:50 PM
Disciplines
English Language and Literature
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Allison, "Formal or Free?: Work as Work" (2019). Undergraduate Research Competition. 42.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/ugrc/2019/oral/42
Formal or Free?: Work as Work
Brittain Hall, Room 112
In the early decades of the 20th century, in practice and in self-reflection, American poets developed a variation to formal poetry, namely free verse. This variation was defined by what it was not. That is, it defied structured patterns of meter and/or rhyme. As free verse became the most common mode of poetry in the mid-1900s, it risked losing part of its identity that was once reliant on its deviation from formal practice. The question arises: What does free verse mean to a generation not steeped in formal tradition? How can you rebel against what you don't know? The focus of my research is to determine how much free verse has become untethered from formal verse and to what degree formal verse is still relevant in contemporary practice.