Acoustic rhythm in Randall Jarrell's the death of the ball turret gunner

Abstract

Impressionistic speculations on cadence, rhythmic structure, pause length, and pause position are still made in poetic stylistics. Empirical testing to verify and supplement such criticism is done for taped oral readings of Randall Jarrell's The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. Readings are by the author of the poem, ten university professors of English, and ten adults inexperienced with poetry. Analysis and statistical data are based on level recordings from a graphic level recorder attached to an audiospectrometer. John Ciardi's theory of the fulcrum, in addition to other more traditional poetic conventions, is empirically analyzed. This methodology applied to the Jarrell poem demonstrates the value of measures of the spoken voice (duration, pause, levels of energy) not only for analysis of poetic style, but for interpretation as well. Standard deviations and t-tests establish that differences between readers' renditions of the poem are expressive rather than simply phonologically conditioned.