Fantastic Shapes: Topology and Textuality in Romantic Poetry

Richard Marggraf-Turley is Professor of English Literature at Aberystwyth University. He is the author of several books exploring themes from Medieval to Romantic literature and culture, and has also published a novel as well as a number of poetry collections.

'Fantastic Shapes is an exceptionally interesting book: brilliant, dense, and startlingly original. The author proposes a wholly new understanding of poetic form, one that could only have been devised by someone who, like the author, is both a distinguished poet and a dazzlingly inventive interdisciplinary thinker.' Margaret Russett, Professor of English, University of Southern California

• Introductoryi. Hyperbolicii. Let X(anadu) be a spaceiii. At the top|ologyiv. In sumLocal Behavioursi. Strips and bottlesii. Zones and chequerworkiii. Boke, ditty, sangiv. The same but differentv. That kind of textualityvi. Topology and topographyvii. Concludingviii. Coda: CylindricalLimit Pointsi. Categories of spaceii. Here and thereiii. Transhorizonaliv. Endnotesv. These mournful linesLava Urns and Connected Sumsi. Textualii. Curvature, excessiii. Lava urns, connected sumsiv. Impress’dSpeech Marksi. Shelley spaceii. Metasourcesiii. To whom thou say’stCoda: Vanishing Pointsi. Refractionsii. Projectionsiii. Reflectionsiv. Impressionsv. Horizons