The Orbit of Meter

Description

Robert Wallace (1932-1999) forged a distinguished career as a poet, teacher, editor, and prosodist. Printed here for the first time, the monograph Free Verse and the Orbit of Meter mounts a rigorous defense of his original—and still controversial—theory of prosody first outlined in the essay, “Meter in English,” which begins this volume. A native Ozarker, Wallace was a prolific letter writer whose correspondents included John Updike, Dana Gioia, Donald Hall, Ted Hughes, Linda Pastan, and Mary Oliver. The volume ends with a descriptive inventory of his literary correspondence. "With The Orbit of Meter, Robert Wallace makes a significant, posthumous addition to our study and practice of poetry-whether metrical or 'free' verse. Wallace was deeply learned but clear-headed; practical but a touch obsessive; and such are the features of The Orbit of Meter. In his earlier essay 'Meter in English,' he hoped to strike consensus among scholars and poets; some found his system to be spot-on, while others were indignant at his temerity to propose, for instance, that 'metrical counting in English is binary' or that 'anapestic, trochaic, and dactylic meters do not exist in English.' In The Orbit of Meter we see the second step of Wallace's holistic scheme-that by adding the bacchic to normative iambic meter, 'all verse turns out to be metrical, that is, measurable within the same system.' Both scholarly and deeply personal, The Orbit of Meter is a gift from one of poetry's most generous, full-blooded, and devoted citizens."
—David Baker, poetry editor of Kenyon Review, author of Scavenger Loop and Midwest Eclogue "In The Orbit of Meter, Robert Wallace combines intelligence, common sense, erudition, and poetic sensibility to produce a fresh understanding of meter and its functions in poems, including those written in so-called 'free verse.' He transforms the subject from what often seems esoteric and overcomplicated into something accessible and straightforward. Wallace shines a bright light on this shadowy element of poetry."
—William Trowbridge, author of Vanishing Point, Poet Laureate of Missouri (2011-2016) James S. Baum/in is Distinguished Professor English at Missouri State University.
Anne Marie Baker is Head of Special Collections and Archives, Missouri State University.

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