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Literary notes about prosody (AI summary)

The term "prosody" has been used in literature to denote a range of ideas from the rhythmic measures of language to the expressive qualities of both speech and writing. Some authors evoke prosody to suggest a musical flexibility where language itself—like a melody—is permitted to dance freely, as seen in the portrayal of music’s unconfined rhythm [1]. In other texts, prosody carries a more personal or consolatory weight, even offering comfort in its study or application [2]. Authors have also contrasted rigid structures, such as those found in classical studies of Latin, Greek, or Vedic traditions, against the fluid, sometimes amorous, qualities of poetic language [3][4][5][6]. Additionally, prosody is occasionally depicted as a test of eligibility for literary plans and poetic forms, highlighting its dual role as both formal constraint and creative expression [7][8].
  1. Music, on the contrary, has a more flexible measure; its prosody ad mits every word.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  2. Teach Bazin prosody; that will console him.
    — from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  3. However lax he might be about early rising and the prosody of Vergil, he was tireless in tinkering.
    — from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
  4. You may well suppose it was the prosody of love and not that of grammar that occupied us.
    — from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous
  5. There is an essential difference between Greek and Vedic prosody.
    — from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell
  6. When I began the study of Latin prosody, I devised and explained to my professor a system of signs indicating the different meters and quantities.
    — from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
  7. and then we read them through, So that their plan and prosody are eligible, Unless, like Wordsworth, they prove unintelligible.
    — from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron
  8. We could wish the capacities of our noble language in prosody were better understood.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe

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