title: Mechanized metrics: from verse science to laboratory prosody, 1880-1918.
abstract: From roughly the 1880s on, a methodical verse "science" was beginning to assert itself. Gripped by the thought of articulating an objective, fact-based metrics, poetry scientists brought to bear on the traditional verse-line principles of observation and, later, on full-blown experimental practices—not to mention a curious array of instrumentation. By the turn of the century, metrical verse was being subjected to a rigorous measurement regime, which employed techniques and apparatuses derived from the new disciplines of experimental physiology and psychology. Proponents of this newly mechanized metrics pitched themselves enthusiastically into the turn-of-the-century prosody fray, believing they could resolve, once and for all, some of the fundamental dilemmas of versification.
authors.forename: Jason David
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007753:Laboratories / Q000266:history; D019370:Observation; D010827:Physiology / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history; D011589:Psychology, Experimental / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D012586:Science / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D014894:Weights and Measures / Q000266:history