Introduction

The introduction explains how and why the book is based on a fourfold distinction between isochronous metrics, prosodic metrics, parametrical phenomena, and macrostructural metrics. It surveys some recent problems of metrical theory, such as the nature of isochronous meters, musical textsetting, the typology of prosodic meters, the properties of caesura and line-endings, and the para-metrical phenomena. It also investigates the phonological nature of metrical rhyme and the hierarchical structure of stanzas. Finally, each article in the book is presented in terms of the above classification.