Curriculum Vitae for Robert Einarsson

"A METREMIC ANALYSIS OF THE POETRY OF W. B. YEATS."  (1985) (Click here for the full text.)

Master of Arts Thesis, University of Victoria, British Columbia.

Throughout his literary career, William Butler Yeats commented often on the subject of literary style.  His comments on form and structure in poetry, however, are usually impressionistic, rather than technical.  His comments on poetic form, therefore, require explanation based on a systematic, technical study of the poetry.  The idea that "a poem comes right with a click like a closing box," for example, can be explained by a close metrical analysis of Yeats's poetry.

The field of contemporary metrical analysis, however, is marked by a sharp conflict between two major theoretical schools; that which bases its analysis on traditional metrical theory, and that which bases its analysis on current advances in linguistics.  But these two theoretical viewpoints are reconcilable, and in this thesis I present a method of analysis which reconciles the two theoretical schools.  This system of analysis is then applied to several poems, in order to give empirical corollary to Yeats's impressionistic comments.

In the conclusion, I suggest several possible applications of this system, which is called metremic analysis, to the study of poetry in general.  These applications include a structural analysis of free verse poetry, and a way to do statistical analysis that gives clear and meaningful results.
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"FORM AND CEREMONY IN 'A PRAYER FOR MY DAUGHTER.'" (1986). (Click here for the full text.)

Conference Paper.  Abstract published in Graduate Research Symposium (1986).  Edmonton: Graduate Students' Association, University of Alberta,  p. 26.

The prosody technique invented by W. B. Yeats is a fusion of metrical units from two different structures within the poetic line. One structure is the poetic feet of traditional metrics; these units are real, and exist by virtue of constituting the elements of a repeating pattern.  The other structure is the symmetrical accentuation pattern in phrases like "is-howl-ing" (-/-) and in the word "ce-re-mon-i-ous"(--/--).   These structures exist by virtue of their symmetry.  A new metrical analysis for this new poetic technique proceeds by extracting the units from both of these levels, and observing their interactions with each other and with the units of syntax.
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"THE CONCEPT OF RHYTHM IN LITERARY PROSODIC ANALYSIS." (1991). (Click here for the full text.)

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

In modern prosody, the prevalent thinking is that rhythm originates primarily in temporal repetition.  By closing in on the temporal series, this view fails to see the relational, integrative nature of rhythm as the principle which fuses the utterance and allows unified expression.  Focus on the temporal series rather than relational unity removes the traditional moral and pedagogical aspects from prosody.

The first chapter reports the concept of rhythm as relational integration.  The view of language rhythm which emerges connects rhythm to the logical unity of an utterance and hence to expression.  Eighteenth Century theories of language lead to the view that rhythm is the enabling factor in true expression:   the interjection represents decisive expression; it is rhythm which preserves the same force of unity even in sophisticated language.

Chapter Two surveys prosodic views of rhythm, either stated or implied, in five schools of metrical analysis:  the Modern Traditional, the Metrical Contract, the Traditional Linguistic, the Isochronal, and Structural Linguistic schools.  I defend the reputation of George Saintsbury as a true rhtyhm-theorist, and claim that the Modern Tradition which he represents has more in common with the Structural Linguistic school of prosody than it does with several intervening schools withich claim a traditionalist affinity.

The third Chapter and an Appendix demonstrate prosodic analysis based on this view of rhythm.  Methods are offered to determine the minimal units in the accentual, syntactical, and phonetic strata of language, and for showing their interconnection.

The prosodic system is justified by its elocutionary validity, because all of the units which it identifies are audible and thus contribute to the expression, and by its pedagogical usefulness, because students will come to understand expression in writing and in speech through understanding and learning to hear these units.
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"RICHARD CURETON, THE TRADITION, AND THE CAUSE OF PROSODIC RHYTHM." (1993).

Article published in the journal Style, vol. 27, No. 1, Spring 1993, 125-134.  (A positive reply published by Professor Cureton accompanies the article.)

Richard Cureton's "Traditional Scansion: Myths and Muddles" is one of the attacks that narrow the scope of traditional prosody even while alleging its flaws. The structuralist principles that Cureton and others adduce can be found at work there. While some contemporary prosody does focus exclusively on accent, a truly literary prosody takes a wider view with accentuation as the basis (or "foot") of a linguistic analysis that includes the grammatical phrase, the phonological phrase, and the lexeme. This method produces a "basis-to-superstructure" schematic which is very similar to the stratification that Cureton himself presents in "Rhythm: A Multilevel Analysis." Traditional prosody, which studies the intensive unity of each individual poetic line, follows a principle best suited to structural linguistics: the simultaneous overlapping of different language units is the cause of rhythmical unity and artistic expression. Hence traditional prosody and structural linguistic prosody are kin, while isochronal prosody is perhaps opposed to both of these.
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"'A FAITHFUL NARRATIVE:' FORENSIC RHETORIC IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE." (1993). (Click here for the full text.)

Conference Paper.  Annual Meeting of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast (PAPC), November 7, 1993. University of Washington, Seattle. Abstract published in the journal Pacific Coast Philology, vol. 28, No. 1, 182.
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"THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF TRADITIONAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR." (1994). (Click here for the full text.)

Conference Paper.  Full article Published in PARTIAL PROCEEDINGS of the Fifth Annual Conference of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, Illinois State University, August 12-13, 1994.

In classical, scholastic, and British grammar, the Parts of Speech present far more than name tags for different words: they constitute a theory of language. The Parts of Speech are intellectual functions that occur at various levels within language. Hence for example the function of "adjective" applies to words, phrases, and even clauses. The six Part of Speech functions (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, and conjunction) constitute a complete theory of the English language. Excerpts from the "Universal Grammar" school of Eighteenth-century Scotland show the range and vitality of this theory. The proper study of traditional grammar is not "grammar as errors;" it has only recently been reduced to such an impoverished state. Grammar is a subject of study analogous to one of the sciences, with language as its material and with Part of Speech functions as its phenomena.
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"EMBEDDED AND ALIGNED PHRASE STRUCTURES." (1994).

Article published in the newsletter SYNTAX IN THE SCHOOLS: Newsletter of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, vol. 11, No. 2, November 1994, 10-11. 

Once students pass the hurdle of the "phrase within a phrase" pattern, they quickly become adept at breaking down the internal clustering that characterizes sentence structure. It is important to have them analyze sentences composed by the most skillful authors of English.
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"TRADITIONAL ENGLISH SENTENCE STYLE."  (1997). (Click here to obtain this book.)

Class text on sentence analysis and examples of the style of classic English authors.  81/2 by 11 paper.  60 pages.  Two readings  from Hugh Blair included.
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"TOPICS IN THE GRAMMAR WARS: THE PLACE OF GRAMMAR IN THE LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM."  (1999). (Click here for the full text.)

Conference Paper.  Alberta Teacher's Association, English Language Arts Council.  Edmonton, May, 1999.
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"THE SUBJECT OF RHETORIC."  (1999). (Click here for the full text.)

Article published on the Classical Christian Homeschooling.

Classical definitions show that rhetoric is an abstract process or skill, is widely applicable to all subjects, and is tautologically connected to moral life.
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"SOME VARIETIES OF PARALLELISM IN ENGLISH PROSE." (1999).

Article published in the newsletter SYNTAX IN THE SCHOOLS: Newsletter of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, vol. 16, No. 2, November 1999, pp. 1-4.

Conference Paper: Poetries of Numerousness: Singularities, Movements, Idealities: An International Conference on Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Friday May 15, 2009. Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta.

Departement of English Speakers Series: Grant MacEwan University, October 21, 2009.