Paull F. (Paull Franklin) Baum

Paull F. Baum was an American literary scholar best known for his work on English poetry and prosody. Duke University describes him as a James B. Duke Professor of English who taught there from 1922 until his retirement in 1955, and as a widely respected scholar of medieval and Victorian literature.

His studies centered on how poems are made and heard. He was especially known for work on English versification, and Duke's archival guide notes that he was regarded as an authority on Chaucer, Rossetti, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold. His book The Principles of English Versification became one of his best-known works, and other titles linked to him include Chaucer: A Critical Appreciation, Tennyson Sixty Years After, and Ten Studies in the Poetry of Matthew Arnold.

For readers, Baum's appeal is straightforward: he treats poetry as something living and carefully built, not remote or ornamental. Even when writing about technical matters like meter and rhythm, his reputation rests on making literary form feel worth noticing.