I have not had the pleasure of hearing M. H. Abrams in person deliver his lecture “The Fourth Dimension of a Poem,” but, next best thing, I have seen a video of it online at fourthdimensionofapoem.com.1 This has helped me to understand his emphasis on the phonology of reading poetry, the physiology of the production of sound. He begins by quoting the first paragraph of Lolita to show the sort of thing he means:
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth, Lo. Lee. Ta.
He goes on to describe the four dimensions of a poem:
One dimension is its visible aspect, which signals that you are to read the printed text as a poem, not as prose, and also offers visual clues as to the pace, pauses, stops, and intonation of your reading. A second dimension is the sounds of the words when they are read aloud; or if they are read silently, the sounds as they are imagined by the reader. A third, and by far the most important dimension, is the meaning of the words that you read or hear. The fourth dimension—one that is almost totally neglected in discussions of poetry—is the activity of enunciating the great variety of speech sounds that constitute the words of a poem.
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