‘The hot-house of decadent chronicle’: Michael Field and the dance of modern verse-drama

This article examines Michael Field's avant-guard poetic dramas post 1895, in particular the Roman Trilogy (The World at Auction, The Race of Leaves, and Julia Domna), to suggest they should be read for their extraordinary poetic experimentation, which precedes, prefigures and is at the heart of modernism's innovations in the genre. It argues that influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly The Birth of Tragedy, Michael Field turned to Latin decadence and to contemporary German philology to re-energise the genre. The essay also suggests that the Trilogy's emphasis on dance foreshadows the impact of Ballet Russes on modern aesthetics