Free Verse
An Essay on Prosody
This ground-breaking book, which was the first of its kind on the subject, has been used and treasured by poets and students of poetry for over four decades. It is still a staple of undergraduate and graduate courses in the reading and writing of poetry.
From the 1980 edition:
To make sense of “free verse” in theory and in practice, the study of prosody—the function of rhythm in poetry—must be revised and rethought. Here, Charles Hartman develops a theory of prosody that includes the most characteristic form of twentieth-century poetry. Hartman examines nonmetrical verse, discusses the conventions that have emerged in the absence of meter, and shows how these conventions can work prosodically. In his exploration of the means by which a poet controls the reader’s temporal experience of poetry, Hartman presents an invaluable treatment of the concept of verse.