This book serves as a guide to understanding the fundamental principles of English prosody. G. S. Fraser elucidates how to recognize and analyze the structure of English verse by highlighting the close relationship between natural speech patterns and poetic forms.
The book emphasizes the crucial role of stress in English verse and explores the suitability of various metrical patterns for different poetic effects. It delves into the intricacies of pure stress metres, stress-syllable metres, quantitative and pure syllabic metres, as well as the elements of rhyme and the characteristics of free verse.
 
General Editor: John D Jump