“You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett

“No ideas but in hinges,” poet Stephen Rodefer once quipped in his poem “Numberless Shadows,” playfully modifying William Carlos Williams’s famous line. This essay examines line breaks as poetic hinges in the work of Ron Padgett: they are flexible spaces where the parts of the poem turn and articula...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Olivier Brossard
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2021-07-01
Series:Transatlantica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/17248
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832580822908010496
author Olivier Brossard
author_facet Olivier Brossard
author_sort Olivier Brossard
collection DOAJ
description “No ideas but in hinges,” poet Stephen Rodefer once quipped in his poem “Numberless Shadows,” playfully modifying William Carlos Williams’s famous line. This essay examines line breaks as poetic hinges in the work of Ron Padgett: they are flexible spaces where the parts of the poem turn and articulate, the lines poised between conflicting forces, between formal interruption and syntactical momentum. An attempt at defining such versatile spaces, this essay seeks to explore line breaks as the pretexts for Ron Padgett’s metatextual poetics. Line breaks are pivotal points: not only are they constitutive of verse, but they also provide occasions for the poem to reflect upon itself. In Padgett’s work, they are critical junctures, when language hesitates between transitive and intransitive impulses. 
format Article
id doaj-art-52f33240acd441a69c0f9ca63e3d0c06
institution Kabale University
issn 1765-2766
language English
publishDate 2021-07-01
publisher Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
record_format Article
series Transatlantica
spelling doaj-art-52f33240acd441a69c0f9ca63e3d0c062025-01-30T10:43:07ZengAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesTransatlantica1765-27662021-07-01110.4000/transatlantica.17248“You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron PadgettOlivier Brossard“No ideas but in hinges,” poet Stephen Rodefer once quipped in his poem “Numberless Shadows,” playfully modifying William Carlos Williams’s famous line. This essay examines line breaks as poetic hinges in the work of Ron Padgett: they are flexible spaces where the parts of the poem turn and articulate, the lines poised between conflicting forces, between formal interruption and syntactical momentum. An attempt at defining such versatile spaces, this essay seeks to explore line breaks as the pretexts for Ron Padgett’s metatextual poetics. Line breaks are pivotal points: not only are they constitutive of verse, but they also provide occasions for the poem to reflect upon itself. In Padgett’s work, they are critical junctures, when language hesitates between transitive and intransitive impulses. https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/17248line breakenjambmentRon PadgettAmerican poetryverserun on line
spellingShingle Olivier Brossard
“You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
Transatlantica
line break
enjambment
Ron Padgett
American poetry
verse
run on line
title “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_full “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_fullStr “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_full_unstemmed “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_short “You are next in line”: Moving down the Line(s) with Ron Padgett
title_sort you are next in line moving down the line s with ron padgett
topic line break
enjambment
Ron Padgett
American poetry
verse
run on line
url https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/17248
work_keys_str_mv AT olivierbrossard youarenextinlinemovingdownthelineswithronpadgett