Thursday, August 28, 2014

Lyric Forms from France

Helen Louise Cohen - Lyric Forms from France: Their History and Their Use (1922)

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I have a weakness for these types of anthologies - blatantly "educational" but still standing as a readable collection and with background material of some substance.  At least two of these forms (sestina and villanelle) still have currency though none have completely died - the result I suspect of poets moving to free verse but still wanting some type of structure.  Cohen was a high school teacher best remembered for dramatic anthologies (such as One-Act Plays by Modern Authors) and who did her doctoral dissertation on the ballade.