The middle voice: A doubling of agency within the poetics of Larkin and Eliot

The middle voice recognizes an oscillation of agency between subjects and objects. An English version of this grammatical element is found in poetry across enjambment by an initial separation between subjects and objects. When intransitive verbs end a line, the emotion intensifies because there is no object in which to release action. Once action is released upon objects, it reverts back toward and affects the subject. Since objects are recognized as affecting subjects, the middle voice allows for alternative interpretations of poetry. A case study of Philip Larkin's poetry reveals objects physically and cognitively affecting subjects through this oscillation of agency; gestures of embarrassment and inertia affect his speakers. A case study of T. S. Eliot demonstrates that the suppression of objects is a poetical technique that intensifies emotion. The structure of this voice reveals how it can represent a mediality during writing processes that creates condensed and unified poems.