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A Commentary on “John Crowe Ransom's Poetic Revisions”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Walter E. Meyers ,
Samuel H. Woods Jr.  and
David Mann
Walter E. Meyers
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
Samuel H. Woods Jr.
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
David Mann
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
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Extract

ON A recent exam, I gave my students the following problem: Of the two passages below, the first describes the opening of the gates of Hell; the second, the opening of the gates of Heaven. Point out how the sounds help to indicate the manner of the opening of each. On a sudden op'n fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder. Heaven op'n'd wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound On golden hinges moving.

Type
Notes, Documents, and Critical Comment
Information
PMLA , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , May 1970 , pp. 532 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1970

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References

Note 1 in page 532 Throughout I use the Trager-Smith transcription system as outlined in H. A. Gleason, Jr., An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, rev. ed. (New York, 1961).

Note 2 in page 532 Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York, 1958), p. 69.

Note 3 in page 532 One among many is Francis P. Dinneen, S.J., An Introduction to General Linguistics (New York, 1967), pp. 270, 284.

Note 4 in page 532 A colleague of mine, asked to read the line aloud, read:/Sa+pehrist+wahr+Sa-f-fehriSt/. As the transcription shows, in both his dialect and mine, the first syllables of the two words rhyme, leading the tongue to stumble on the fricative following.

Note 5 in page 533 John Crowe Ransom, “Of Margaret,” in Poems and Essays (New York, 1955).

Note 6 in page 533 The Structure of American English (New York, 1958). The imbedded subjects of the clauses create intersecting lines, making a “tree” diagram less suitable in this case.