Vers Libre: The Emergence of Free Verse in France 1886-1914

This is an attempt to map out modes of analysis on the basis of a study of the history and theory of free verse in France. There is an initial exploration of the scansional problems posed by a free-verse poem by Alkain Fournier and of the assumptions which might be made about its nature. Clive Scott looks for answers and verifications in the history of free verse's early years and in contemporary theoretical documents. He asks how far was free verse in France an inevitable outcome of the "liberalization" of regular verse, whether it was the result of fundamental changes in the way French rhythms were perceived, how much it owed to the popular song, to the prose poem, to translations and how far the practice of free verse coincided with its history. His principal concern is to establish on these foundations, working methods of scansion and to show how they can be applied in the interpretation of specific poems. Accordingly, the second part of the book is devoted to extended commentaries