A Greek Lyric Metre as Vector of the Self in the Poetry of Arthur Symons and Christopher Brennan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13008598 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Buhagiar (0000-0002-8859-4434, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 163-180 |
| Publication date | 2012-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Victoriographies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2044-2416 • E-ISSN: 2044-2424 |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/vic.2012.0086 |
| OpenAlex | W2018957303 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
Arthur Symons was a major influence on the Australian poet Christopher Brennan (1871–1932). For his long poem The Wanderer, Brennan took from Symons's poetry of the fin de siècle the theme of longing for a lost love, and much of its associated imagery and rhythms. Chief among the latter is the dochmial rhythm of the Aeschylean drama, which expresses, in shorter irregular lines, the spasmodic emotional ejaculations of the common people, and stands in contrast to the measured iambic rhythm and longer lines of the great speeches of the nobles. Eros was highly problematic for both writers, contributing to Symons's breakdown of 1908, and Brennan's ongoing psychological crises of the 1890s. I propose that both writers’ employment of the dochmial rhythm in longer, measured lines, was to ennoble the Self as a subject worthy of respect and study, in a way typical rather of modernism than Decadence
Aesthetics · Art · Decadence · Drama · Fin de siecle · Iambic pentameter · Literature · Metre · Modernism (music · Poetry · Rhythm · Subject (documents · Theme (computing · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Media, Communication, and Education · Multisensory perception and integration · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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