The Meters of Boethius: Rhythmic Therapy in the Consolation of Philosophy Open Access
Blackwood, Stephen James (2010)
Abstract
This dissertation examines the role of poetic meter in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Composed of alternating poetry and prose, the Consolation contains more poetic meters than any other surviving ancient text. However, despite the work's immense popularity and exquisitely crafted structure, there has never been a systematic study of these meters. This dissertation argues that the poetic rhythms are essential to the programmatic therapy, or consolation, the text aims to achieve.
The Introduction sets the dissertation's analysis in the context of aurality, both by evoking ancient literary culture, in which books were typically read aloud, and by pointing to the Consolation's many references to its own sound, and particularly to the sound of its poems. Chapter 1 contains a close reading of Book 1, and attends especially to the rhythms of its seven poems, and to the interplay between these rhythms and the prisoner's physical and psychological state. Chapter 2 traces the obvious metric repetitions of the text, and posits a therapeutic purpose to each. The first part of Chapter 3 contains an extensive formal analysis, which discovers several levels of rhythmic repetition that make up an intricate system that comprehends every line of the Consolation's poetry. The second part of the chapter situates this intricate rhythmic system in relation to recollection and the role of memoria in the formation of the soul, and concludes with an analogical reflection on the kinds of repetition that make up this intricate system. Chapter 4, by means of a close reading of Book 5, sets this acoustic system in relation to the Consolation's most comprehensive theological and psychological principles: the distinction and connection of the four modes of cognition; the divine vision that includes all things; and the human activity of prayer.
The analysis indicates that the poetic rhythms are a primary aspect of the prisoner's therapy, administered by the healing Philosophia. Because the text is portrayed as an after the fact encounter, the repetition of the prisoner's narration is parallel with the reader's re-reading or re-hearing, and thus the systematic rhythmic therapy has the quality of a repeated liturgical act.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Aural Tradition, 1
Music for the Mind, 1
Texts for the Ear, 3
Scriptura Continua and Reading Aloud, 8
The De institutione musica and the Sense of Hearing, 13
Sound, Rhythm, and Song: Hearing the Consolation of Philosophy, 19
Poetry as Theological Praxis, 24
Purpose, Method, and Structure of this Investigation, 25
Chapter 1: The Poetic Rhythms of Book 1, 34
1, I Maestos Modos, 36
1, 1 Adstitisse mulier, 44
1, II Heu, quam praecipiti, 46
1, 2 Sed medicinae, inquit, tempus est quam querelae, 55
1, III Subito vibratus lumine Phoebus, 58
1, 3 Philosophia, 66
1, IV Invictum potuit tenere vultum, 69
1, 4 Animo illabuntur?, 75
1, V Fortunae salo, 76
1, 5 Lenioribus paulisper utemur, 81
1, VI Signat tempora propriis, 82
1, 6 Modus curationis, 87
1, VII Gaudia pelle, pelle timorem spemque fugato, 89
Rhythmic Summary, Poems of Book 1, 94
Chapter 2: Repeated Meters, 97
Six Repeated Meters: Gruber's Diagram and 3, IX, 97
3, IX--Hexameter, 100
1, I and 5, I--Elegaic Couplets, 106
2, I and 3, XI--Choliambs, or Limping Iambic Trimeter, 111
2, V and 3, V--Anapaestic Dimeter Catalectic, 118
2, VI and 4, VII--Sapphic Hendecasyllable, 125
1, V, 3, II, 4, VI, and 5, III--Anapaestic Dimeter, 129
1, VI, 2, VIII, 3, XII, and 5, IV--Glyconic, 147
Repeated Sounds and the Levels of Soul, 167
Chapter 3: Repetition and Recollection: a System of Rhythmic Sound, 170
Part I, Formal Structure, 170
Repetition by Poem and Repetition by Line, 170
The Numerical Center, 176
Association and Acoustic Fabric, 178
Repetition by Element and 5, V, Anthology, 184
The Limits of Formal Analysis, 188
Part II, Functional Purpose, 191
Repetition, Memory, and Temporal Experience, 193
Sense Perception and Anamnesis, 196
Moral Character, ΜουσικηÌ, and Theosophic Design, 198
Memory as Cause and Effect of Literature, 203
Analogies of Rhythmic Repetition, 209
Other Kinds of Repetition, 221
Recognition and Recollection, 222
Chapter 4: Repetition and Narration: a Meditation on Book 5, 228
Repetition, Narration, and the Meditative Ascent, 228
Book 5: Freedom, Providence, and Prayer, 237
Divine Justice, Invisible, 237
Divine Power, Irresistible, 239
Philosophy's Response, Inscrutable Medicine, 240
Chance, Providence, and Freedom's Collapse, 242
Philosophy, Poet of the True Sun, 244
Prayer: the Solus Modus of Divine Grace, 247
Rhythm Remembered, Harmony Regained, 251
Knower and the Known, 255
Prayer and the Personality, 260
Time, Eternity, and Rhythmic Mediation, 264
The Divine Gaze, All Sustaining, 269
Silence and Sound: The Narrative and the Narrator, 273
Conclusion: Prayer, Mediation, and the Consolation's Theology, 278
Knowing, the One, and the Many, 278
Semi-Pelagianism, Grace, and the Freedom of the Will, 281
Theology as Speculative Science, 283
Poetry as Mediating Prayer, 287
Philosophia, Her Person and Her Poetry, 290
Philosophia as Sapientia: The Consolation and the Book of Wisdom, 293
Christian Ritual and Liturgical Prayer, 298
Figures, 304
List of Figures, 366
Bibliography, 368
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