Abstract
This essay will acknowledge the prose poem as a ‘hidden’ form in English poetry, but will focus on the re-emergence of the British prose poem this century. I outline the practitioners and the exposure of the prose poem in publishing, and examine a number of key prose poets and works. Their poetry will be read in relation to the development of the prose poem on the one hand, and in relation to post avant-garde developments on the other. Attention is paid to how the prose poem is defined, the importance of the end-line, its relationship to fable and the occasional blurring with flash fiction. I will look at how poets are using prose and determine whether the prose poem affords more possibilities than closures.
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Notes
- 1.
David Caddy, “Hidden Form: The Prose Poem in English Poetry.” Previously published in Stress Fractures: Essays on Poetry, ed. Tom Chivers (Penned in the Margins, 2010), 103–13. Permission by the author to use with any necessary editing has been granted.
- 2.
See also T.S. Eliot ’s 1917 essay “Reflections on Vers Libre” and 1936 introduction to Djuna Barnes’ poetic novel, Nightwood, which he claimed was not poetic prose as it did not have sufficient rhythm and music.
- 3.
For an interesting discussion of the impact of Thomas De Quincey on Baudelaire and the development of the prose poem, see N. Santilli , Such Rare Citings: The Prose Poem in English Literature (USA: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002), 87–97.
- 4.
Don Paterson, “The Dark Art of Poetry,” T.S. Eliot Lecture, 2004, https://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=20.
- 5.
Roy Fisher , The Ship’s Orchestra (London: Fulcrum Press, 1966).
- 6.
Robert Sheppard, “Making Forms with Remarks: The Prose,” in The Thing about Roy Fisher , ed. John Kerrigan and Peter Robinson (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000), 134.
- 7.
Robert Sheppard, The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and Its Discontents 1950–2000 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005), 77–102.
- 8.
Sean O’Brien, The Deregulated Muse: Essays on Contemporary British & Irish Poetry (Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books, 1998), 112–22.
- 9.
Andrew Duncan, Origins of the Underground: British Poetry between Apocryphon and Incident Light 1933–79 (Cambridge: Salt, 2008), 62–70.
- 10.
Fisher, The Ship’s Orchestra, 43, 44.
- 11.
Ibid., 11–12.
- 12.
Ibid., 8.
- 13.
Ibid., 39.
- 14.
Ibid., 46.
- 15.
Ibid., 50.
- 16.
Bill Griffiths’ version of the The Nine Herbs Charm (Tern Press, 1981) emphasises its sound and prose qualities. Moreover, Griffiths’ Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic (Anglo-Saxon Books, 1996) makes a case for many Old English texts as list poems that can be translated with or without line breaks. Griffiths, of course, was a poet intensely concerned with questions of identity, language and power.
- 17.
- 18.
Todd Swift, “Catering to the Perfumed Cannibal,” Poetry London 65 (Spring 2010).
- 19.
Luke Kennard , The Migraine Hotel (Cambridge: Salt, 2009), 48.
- 20.
Brian Clements and Jamey Dunham , eds., An Introduction to the Prose Poem (Western Connecticut State University, Firewheel Editions, 2009), 233–54.
- 21.
Elisabeth Bletsoe , Landscape from a Dream (Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2008), 49–57.
- 22.
Carrie Etter, ed., Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by U.K. Women Poets (Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2010), 85–86. Mentioned here as an important and complementary resource to this volume, in terms of other exemplary female writers practising prose poetry and experimental poetry in the UK.
- 23.
Elisabeth Bletsoe, “Birds of the Sherborne Missal,” in Landscape from a Dream (Exeter: Shearsman, 2008). This extract from Etter, Infinite Difference, 85–86.
- 24.
Vahni Capildeo , “Person Animal Figure,” in Undraining Sea (Norwich: Egg Box, 2009), 57.
Works Cited
Bertrand, Aloysius, and Jean Palou. Gaspard de la nuit: fantaisies à la manière de Callot et Rembrandt. Paris: La Colombe, 1962.
Bletsoe, Elisabeth. Landscape from a Dream. Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2008.
Capildeo, Vahni. Undraining Sea. Norwich: Egg Box, 2009.
Charles, Baudelaire 1821–1867. Petits poëmes en prose / [by] Charles Baudelaire. Robert Kopp Éd. critique / par Robert Kopp. Paris: Librarie J. Corti, 1969.
Clements, Brian, and Jamey Dunham, eds. An Introduction to the Prose Poem. Danbury: Western Connecticut State University, Firewheel Editions, 2009.
Duncan, Andrew. Origins of the Underground: British Poetry between Apocryphon and Incident Light 1933–79. Cambridge: Salt, 2008.
Etter, Carrie, ed. Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by U.K. Women Poets. Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2010.
Fisher, Roy. The Ship’s Orchestra. London: Fulcrum Press, 1966.
Kennard, Luke. The Migraine Hotel. Cambridge: Salt, 2009.
O’Brien, Sean. The Deregulated Muse: Essays on Contemporary British & Irish Poetry. Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books, 1998.
Santilli, N. Such Rare Citings: The Prose Poem English Literature. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
Sheppard, Robert. “Making Forms with Remarks: The Prose.” In The Thing about Roy Fisher, edited by John Kerrigan and Peter Robinson. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000.
———. The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and Its Discontents 1950–2000. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005.
Swift, Todd. “Catering to the Perfumed Cannibal.” Poetry London 65 (Spring 2010), http://www.poetrylondon.co.uk/magazines/65/article/catering-to-the-perfumed-cannibal.
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Caddy, D. (2018). ‘Hidden’ Form: The Prose Poem in English Poetry. In: Monson, J. (eds) British Prose Poetry. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77863-1_2
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