Form in Bewegung

This work explores a poetics of rhythm as the foundation for an examination of modernist poetry. Drawing on the work of the French literary scholar Henri Meschonnic, the study demonstrates the significance of rhythm in literature. Tracing a path from Hölderlin through Mörike, Droste-Hülshoff, and Baudelaire, Mallarmé and George, to Rilke, Eliot, Lorca, and Celan, a new approach to modernist poetry emerges, one that views rhythm as an expression of form in motion and offers an alternative to traditional approaches.