Meter and meaning (Shakespeare's rhythmical skills)

Meter and meaning: Shakespeare’s rhythmical skills offers a new approach to understanding Shakespeare’s sonnets through the relationship between meter, rhythm and meaning. Drawing on linguistic and statistical methods developed over decades of research, Marina Tarlinskaya examines how Shakespeare manipulated established verse forms to create thematic emphasis and expressive nuance. The book analyses patterns of stress, rhythmical variation and metrical deviation, demonstrating how these formal features contribute to interpretation. It also traces the historical roots of Shakespeare’s rhythmical techniques through earlier English poetry, including the work of Chaucer and Surrey. Combining close reading with quantitative analysis, the study provides a detailed account of the architecture of the sonnets and proposes new insights into their composition and chronology. The result is a significant contribution to Shakespeare studies, showing how poetic form itself generates meaning.