L’effet de longueur dans un poème tardif de George Oppen

Abstract

Rather than looking at the long poem as a genre or as the sum of various strategies developed by the text, this article focuses on the structural effects of length, especially on length as it is prosodically effected by the line. Based on a close reading of one of George Oppen’s late poems, the working hypothesis here will be as follows: if the dimensions of the poem are perceived as problematic, one should start with the line itself as the place where the poem as a whole starts on its path towards achieving an adequate form.