The Rhapsodic Fallacy
Encyclopedia
'The Rhapsodic Fallacy' is an essay by United States
poet Mary Kinzie
in which she defines and attacks a "rhapsodic" conception of poetry. It was first published in Salmagundi
65 of Fall 1984 and was collected in The Cure of Poetry in an Age of Prose: Moral Essays on the Poet's Calling, and a somewhat shorter version of the essay was later anthologized in Twentieth-Century American Poetics The essay was one of several of the mid 1980s that sparked a heated discussion over the role of form in American poetry, and was thus implicated in the formation of the New Formalism
movement.
which she perceives as "begetting" the "rhapsodic" conception of poetry. These strands are:
She moves on to lament the loss of many forms or genres of poetry that were widely used in earlier times, including satire
, the epistle
, georgic, pastoral
, allegory
, philosophical poem, epic
, verse drama, and tragedy
, and quotes an essay by Australia
n poet A. D. Hope
: "One after another the great forms disappear".
Kinzie sees free verse
as the "great equalizer" and ushering in an age of reduced scope and ambition. "When poems not only set themselves at a uniform pitch, but also contract themselves to recurrent, predictable five- or ten-line climaxes, pretty soon the surprises do not surprise us any more. The new prosaic-lyrical effusion is organized to get us into and out of the poem with extraordinary rapidity and no lasting effects."
Kinzie proceeds to identify three main contemporary "substyles" of the prosaic-rhapsodic:
, non sequitur, and passivity. The last of these, she notes, claims "a kind of reportorial honesty" for the poem.
as a prime example of a poet of this style.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet Mary Kinzie
Mary Kinzie
-Life:She received her B.A. from Northwestern University in 1967, and returned there to teach in 1975. She won Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson fellowships to do graduate work at the Free University of Berlin and Johns Hopkins University....
in which she defines and attacks a "rhapsodic" conception of poetry. It was first published in Salmagundi
Salmagundi
Salmagundi is a salad dish, originating in the early 17th century in England, comprising cooked meats, seafood, vegetables, fruit, leaves, nuts and flowers and dressed with oil, vinegar and spices. There is some debate over the meaning and origin of the word...
65 of Fall 1984 and was collected in The Cure of Poetry in an Age of Prose: Moral Essays on the Poet's Calling, and a somewhat shorter version of the essay was later anthologized in Twentieth-Century American Poetics The essay was one of several of the mid 1980s that sparked a heated discussion over the role of form in American poetry, and was thus implicated in the formation of the New Formalism
New Formalism
New Formalism is a late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical and rhymed verse.-Origins and intentions:...
movement.
The rhapsodic conception of poetry
Kinzie begins the essay by identifying two contradictory strands in the critical writing and poetry of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
which she perceives as "begetting" the "rhapsodic" conception of poetry. These strands are:
- "intensity can only be achieved in spontaneous, fragmented utterance", and
- "the mental epic is viable"
She moves on to lament the loss of many forms or genres of poetry that were widely used in earlier times, including satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, the epistle
Epistle
An epistle is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians...
, georgic, pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
, allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
, philosophical poem, epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
, verse drama, and tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
, and quotes an essay by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n poet A. D. Hope
A. D. Hope
Alec Derwent Hope AC OBE was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.-Life:...
: "One after another the great forms disappear".
Kinzie sees free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
as the "great equalizer" and ushering in an age of reduced scope and ambition. "When poems not only set themselves at a uniform pitch, but also contract themselves to recurrent, predictable five- or ten-line climaxes, pretty soon the surprises do not surprise us any more. The new prosaic-lyrical effusion is organized to get us into and out of the poem with extraordinary rapidity and no lasting effects."
Kinzie proceeds to identify three main contemporary "substyles" of the prosaic-rhapsodic:
- the Objective Style
- the Mixed Ironic Style
- the Innocuous Surreal Style
The objective style
Kinzie describes the Objective Style as gaining its effects from "the cumulative effect of a string of brief, bland declarative sentences". She lists the tools of the style as being: juxtaposition, portentPortent
Portent may refer to:* Portent , a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future* The Portent, a comic book* USS Portent , an Auk-class minesweeper...
, non sequitur, and passivity. The last of these, she notes, claims "a kind of reportorial honesty" for the poem.
The mixed ironic style
In the Mixed Ironic Style the poet injects into the work a "stylistic agitation that at first feel rich, sensitive, conscious, attentive to response". Kinzie regards John AshberyJohn Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
as a prime example of a poet of this style.