Research Expertise and Interest

linguistics, English, poetry, meter, rhyme, and alliteration, textsetting, phonological theory, English grammar and usage

Research Description

Kristin Hanson's principal research interest is meter in English poetry considered from the perspective of phonological theory and the role of rhythm in universal grammar.  Her forthcoming book "An Art that Nature Makes" asks  "What is a meter?" and illustrates the proposed answer and way to get there through Shakespeare's Sonnets.  Her next project Pied Metrics asks "What is a metrical tradition?" and illustrates the proposed answer through consideration of various poets and meters across the modern English metrical tradition, from early sonneteers' adaptations of Italian and French meters through changes in the iambic pentameter nineteenth century adaptations of Old English meters.  Of special interest across this work is comparison of meter in poetry with rhythm in other domains, including not only language but also music and dance.