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Tennyson and the Weight of a Pause

Tennyson and the Weight of a Pause OWEN BOYNTON ennyson deployed and revised punctuation in his poems with diligent care; his critics have responded in kind.1 Christopher Ricks, Eric Griffiths, Herbert Tucker, and a more recent generation including Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and Kirstie Blair have all turned their attention toward the pointing of Tennyson's verse, but they have turned their attention toward it when looking away from the other matters with which they are chiefly concerned, glancing briefly and occasionally at marks, rather than granting Tennyson's punctuation the sustained scrutiny it deserves.2 Such scrutiny can take various forms. A critic might enumerate the diverse repercussions of punctuation across works or in a single work, or else a critic might fix upon a single function of punctuation as it pertains to some of Tennyson's deepest preoccupations. In what follows, I pursue the latter path, hoping, by way of a discussion of Tennyson's punctuation, to arrive at a greater understanding of Tennyson's poetic procedures and intentions. Whether it elucidates syntax or whether it modulates rhetorical emphasis, punctuation has an inherently temporal character, with different marks inviting readers to pause for greater or lesser durations. Throughout the nineteenth century, at least four marks of punctuation were synonymous with variously http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Victorian Poetry West Virginia University Press

Tennyson and the Weight of a Pause

Victorian Poetry , Volume 53 (3) – Jan 21, 2015

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Publisher
West Virginia University Press
Copyright
Copyright © West Virginia University.
ISSN
1530-7190
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Abstract

OWEN BOYNTON ennyson deployed and revised punctuation in his poems with diligent care; his critics have responded in kind.1 Christopher Ricks, Eric Griffiths, Herbert Tucker, and a more recent generation including Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and Kirstie Blair have all turned their attention toward the pointing of Tennyson's verse, but they have turned their attention toward it when looking away from the other matters with which they are chiefly concerned, glancing briefly and occasionally at marks, rather than granting Tennyson's punctuation the sustained scrutiny it deserves.2 Such scrutiny can take various forms. A critic might enumerate the diverse repercussions of punctuation across works or in a single work, or else a critic might fix upon a single function of punctuation as it pertains to some of Tennyson's deepest preoccupations. In what follows, I pursue the latter path, hoping, by way of a discussion of Tennyson's punctuation, to arrive at a greater understanding of Tennyson's poetic procedures and intentions. Whether it elucidates syntax or whether it modulates rhetorical emphasis, punctuation has an inherently temporal character, with different marks inviting readers to pause for greater or lesser durations. Throughout the nineteenth century, at least four marks of punctuation were synonymous with variously

Journal

Victorian PoetryWest Virginia University Press

Published: Jan 21, 2015

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