Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse by John Hollander (review)

290ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW single course. Its greatvalue is as a lifelong reference source to develop writing skills. If as a teacheryou like an orderly, controlled, predictable (dull) teaching experience, this book is not for you. If on the other hand your interest is in the writing process itself and guiding others to become better writers, you just might find Writing with Power the most exciting book on the market today. DONNELL HUNTER Ricks College John Hollander. Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981. 54p. Rhyme's Reason "surveys the schemes, patterns, and forms of English verse, illustrating each variation with an original and wittily self-descriptive example," as the back cover announces. Hollander provides a pleasant short guide for students, including "structures of lines of verse; patterns of rhyme, alliteration, and assonance; schemes of syntax and word order; groups of lines called strophes or stanzas; overall patterns of repetition and variation (refrains, etc.); and larger arrangements of these." I believe the book would be enhanced by the addition of illustrations from well-known poems to supplement the illustrative definitions in verse, thereby demonstrating effective use of the forms. Hollander's "handmade" verses, informative and amusing, cannot supplantpoetry thatjustifies use ofa given scheme aesthetically. Verse systems are identified and illustrated: accentual-syllabic, accentual, syllabic, free verse, "aberrant forms," the ode, quantitative verse, and classical meters. Repetitive structures, comical schemes, rhetorical schemes, variation and mimesis are followed by excellent suggestions for further reading. However, the omission of Poe, Lanier, Thomson, Classe, Croll, Hendren, and more recentanalysts of temporal aspects of prosody is unfortunate. Such an omission does, admittedly, reflect the author's rejection ofconcern for temporal aspects ofprosody, which leads to some confusion in the book. Hollander's original verse, simultaneously defining and illustrating his subject, is generally clear, but sometimes proves misleading. w/ y rf/w/V?' Iambic meter runs along like this: Pentameters will have five syllables More strongly stressed than other ones nearby — Ten syllables all told, perhaps eleven. Hollande· is concerned only with number of strongly stressed syllables and stress-slack sequence in the metrical pattern of iambic pentameter. He neglects the role of time which is part of the ideal line of meter. While the first line, scanned, is indeed iambic, the potential unacknowledged spondees (five syl — , Ten syl — , and perhaps More strong — ) in the following lines would create six strongly stressed syllables per line, rather than five. But timing preserves the ideal pattern of Book Reviews291 expectation for the meter. Five rhetorical accents (/) act as isochronous stresses (V) coming at roughly equal time intervals, helping to define the ideal line, as in the first line of the passage above: V / \t/ ,J / u / U S Iambic meter runs along like this When an actual rhythm makes other syllables as strongly accented as the timekeeping stresses in the ideal meter, the ideal time pattern must be preserved. The initial stress in each spondee issimply a rhetorical accent, not an isochronous accent. (Scansion is mine in this paragraph.) Pentameters will have five syllables More strongly stressed than other ones nearby Ten syllables all told, perhaps eleven. Evidence that time as well as number of accents and sequence of stress-slack pattern really does play a part in English accentual-syllabic verse is provided by the fact that one may use the same words in a line of anapestic trimeter or iambic pentameter. Hollander provides the line; the scansion is mine, as numberofaccents, sequence of stress-slack, and timing change: wv V w w ^ w w y Rushing by between cars of a train Rushing by between cars of a train Hollander's omission of the role of time as a significant factor in accentualsyllabic and accentual English verse diminishes the accuracy and effectiveness of what is otherwise a very useful, entertaining guide for students. MARJORIE J. LIGHTFOOT Arizona State University Harry Russell Huebel. Jack Kerouac. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series, no. 39, 1979. 48p. Though best known for his depiction of the "Beat Generation" and for his celebration of the myth of the American West, the late novelist and poet Jack Kerouac is also becoming recognized...