Abstract
Traditionally, the borderline between poetry and prose was very clear: poetry was ‘verse’, and prose was not. In modem literature, however, this distinction has become blurred. A passage in a novel may exhibit patterns of rhythm, alliteration and other characteristics usually associated with verse:
Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, steelyringing
Imperthnthn thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips.
Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the
Gold pinnacled hair. (Joyce, Ulysses)1
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© 1976 Betty S. Flowers
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Flowers, B.S. (1976). The Prose-Poetry Borderline. In: Browning and the Modern Tradition. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02893-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02893-1_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-02895-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-02893-1
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