The Broader Relevance of Prosody

Prosody is primarily a part of the study of how poetry is put together. The term is also used in linguistics to discuss the rhythmic element of speech. But the point in this blog is the use of the term in the field of poetry. Poetry is a subset of the field of writing, and has become a marginalized, specialized outlier in the field of writing. The basics of prosody are for eccentrics or specialists in academic departments.

For most of the history of writing as an academic study, prosody was a fundamental part of the study of literature. Keep in mind that, with a few exceptions, the novel and the short story are recent developments. Prose was not the default for those who were literary and ambitious.

Elegant prose has its own rules, but the old fields of rhetoric and prosody informed the writing of earlier ages and are a part of modern style as well. Familiarity with the basics of prosody can enrich one's study of prose as well as of poetry, and can enhance one's writing of prose, too. It should be obvious that the study of prosody makes sense for poets--though clearly many "poets" and many academics don't really have much fluency with it these days. As I said, it was once an integral part of education.

In earlier posts, I have used examples of prosodic elements in prose. I have pointed out meter hidden in a lovely passage by Thomas Wolfe and I have discussed the role of prosody in one of the most admired chapters of James Joyce's Ulysses. In both cases, the consideration of prosody allowed for a critical focus that colors close reading in a positive way.

Prosody is not so isolate and irrelevant a field of study. It is a part, consciously or unconsciously, of a lot of what is around us. What gives a prose passage or oratory its aural beauty? Sometimes poetic prose or poetic oratory is so because poetic tools are employed. Is this not reason enough to add it to the toolset of the writer's and the reader's crafts?