Meter Matters

<div> <p>Across the nineteenth century meter mattered-in more ways and to more people than we might well appreciate today. For the period's poets metrical matters were a source of inspiration and often vehement debate. And the many readers teachers and pupils encountered meter and related topics in both institutional and popular forms.</p> <p>The ten essays in <i>Meter Matters</i> showcase the range of metrical practice of poets from Wordsworth and Byron to Hopkins Swinburne and Tennyson; at the same time the contributors bring into focus some of the metrical theorizing that shaped poetic thinking and responses to it throughout the nineteenth century. Paying close attention to the historical contours of Romantic and Victorian meters as well as to the minute workings of the verse line <i>Meter Matters</i> presents a fresh perspective on a subject that figured significantly in the century's literature and in its culture.</p> </div>