Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson

The meaning that sounds carry has always mattered to poetry but in a culture developing new communication technology using sound, the Victorians heard poetry's capacities to signal to the ear anew. This essay considers a number of poets writing after the invention, principally, of Morse code, t...

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Main Author: Francis O’Gorman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2009-04-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5811
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author Francis O’Gorman
author_facet Francis O’Gorman
author_sort Francis O’Gorman
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description The meaning that sounds carry has always mattered to poetry but in a culture developing new communication technology using sound, the Victorians heard poetry's capacities to signal to the ear anew. This essay considers a number of poets writing after the invention, principally, of Morse code, the telegraph and the telephone, and their culturally-pertinent ruminations on what human messages sound could bear across space and time. The essay concludes with Alfred Tennyson's life-long interest in the meanings of sound. It suggests ways in which telegraphy provides an analogue to his conceptions of the survival of the meaning of the dead through messages in the air.
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spelling doaj-art-0ac0526925774f668e2cef0e655782472025-01-30T10:22:10ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492009-04-016910.4000/cve.5811Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to TennysonFrancis O’GormanThe meaning that sounds carry has always mattered to poetry but in a culture developing new communication technology using sound, the Victorians heard poetry's capacities to signal to the ear anew. This essay considers a number of poets writing after the invention, principally, of Morse code, the telegraph and the telephone, and their culturally-pertinent ruminations on what human messages sound could bear across space and time. The essay concludes with Alfred Tennyson's life-long interest in the meanings of sound. It suggests ways in which telegraphy provides an analogue to his conceptions of the survival of the meaning of the dead through messages in the air.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5811
spellingShingle Francis O’Gorman
Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
title Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson
title_full Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson
title_fullStr Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson
title_full_unstemmed Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson
title_short Poetry in the Age of New Sound Technology: Mallarmé to Tennyson
title_sort poetry in the age of new sound technology mallarme to tennyson
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5811
work_keys_str_mv AT francisogorman poetryintheageofnewsoundtechnologymallarmetotennyson