Poetic Closure
Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End —
Structure of the book
The book addresses the following topics:
- Formal Structure
- Thematic Structure
- Special Terminal Features
- Problems of Closure
Structural closure
Herrnstein Smith observes that regularity — such as the regular repetition of lines of iambic tetrameter — builds the expectation of continuance, and the desire for closure. Examples of how a sense of closure may be achieved include:
- breaking the regularity of the repetition as in the final alexandrine of the Spenserian stanza
- returning to the norm after a brief departure from it; Herrnstein Brown offers Robert Herrick's brief lyric 'I dare not ask a kisse' as an example.
Wyatt's practice of varying the final repetition of a refrain — as in the poem 'Forget not yet' — is cited as an example of the first kind.
Other examples of closure brought about by structural means include: where the last stanza repeats (or closely echoes) the first stanza, thereby 'framing' the entire poem (such as in Wyatt's 'My Lute Awake!'); where enjambent is used in blank verse, and only at the close does a line end correspond to a full stop (the example given is from the conclusion of Book XI of Paradise Lost).
Notes
- ISBN 0-416-84610-6, page 55.