A woman with a book and a pen has the power to move nations. A womanwith a mind and a voice has the power to change worldsSasha Temerte 06KNOWLEDGEPEDIA

Ahead of World Poetry Day on March 21, we takea look at different types of poetic forms and the

poets who influenced India. Studentspick their favourite poets & pay

tribute to this fading art form

Poetry reaffirms our common hu-manity by revealing to us that in-dividuals, everywhere in theworld, share the same questionsand feelings. Poetry is the main-

stay of oral tradition and, over centuries, cancommunicate the innermost values of diversecultures. Poetry, as an art form, is also reviv-ing and transforming to fit into the digitalrealm, cutting short on words and making itmore relatable to the new-age audience.

In celebratingWorld Poetry Day,March 21, Unescorecognises the uniqueability of poetry to cap-ture the creative spir-it of the human mind.

One of the mainobjectives of the day isto support linguisticdiversity through po-etic expression andoffer endangeredlanguages the op-portunity to beheard within theircommunities. The ob-servance of World Poetry Day is also meantto encourage a return to the oral traditionof poetry recitals, promote the teachingof poetry, restore a dialogue with poetry sothat it will no longer be considered an out-dated form of art.

Sylvia Plath hasinfluenced me alot. Her poems

are deep and por-tray the darker problemswhich aren'taddressed. ANANYA RAO, classVIII, VidyashilpAcademy,Bengaluru

YOU, THE FADING

HAIKUHaiku is a Japanese form

of poetry which is com-posed of three non rhyming

lines. The first and third lineshave five syllables each and the

second line has seven syllables.They often express feelings and

thoughts about nature; however, youcould write a poem about any subject

that you would like to in this form. Perhaps the most famous example of

Haiku is BASHO'S OLD POND.

BALLAD

EPIC POEM

Are you familiar with theterm ‘ballad’? You proba-bly are, because peoplesometimes refer to songs— particularly romanticones — as ballads. In fact,ballad poems are fre-quently sung and areoften about love.Often, these ballads willtell stories and they tend

to be of a mysticalnature. Ballads tend tohave a refrain thatrepeats at various intervals. GUIDOCAVALCANTI'S BALLADand SIR WALTERRALEIGH'S AS YOU CAMEfrom the Holy Landdemonstrate the musicalquality of the ballad.

PASTORALOne of the poeticfavourites is pastoral poet-ry because it elicits suchwonderful senses of peaceand harmony. Examples ofthis form include KEATS'ODE ON A GRECIAN URN,which is also a type of ode.

IMAGERYWe decided to place a focus on imagerypoems because of the immense powerthat they possess. Many, many poemscan be classified as imagery poems;

however, some are better at the taskthan others.Individuals who often write imagery-based poems are known as Imagists.WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS' SHORTPOEM THE RED WHEELBARROW is afamous example of a short imagistpoem. These types of poems work to draw apicture in the mind of the reader, inorder to give an extremely powerfulimage of what the writer is talkingabout. They work to intensify the sens-es of the reader.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF POEMS

TERZA RIMAYou might be able to get some sort ofsense of what this poetry encompassesjust by looking at the name of it. Thelines in these types of poems arearranged in what are called "tercets."What this means is the lines come ingroups ofthrees.That does notmean that thepoem is onlythree lineslong. Therecan be multi-ple groups ofthree lines.Like the haiku,there are cer-tain syllablerequirements,as mostpoems writtenin terza rimahave lines of10 or 11 syllables.The Italian poet DANTE created thisform, and his DIVINE COMEDY is one ofthe best-known examples of the form.

SONNETOne of the most famous typesof poetry, the sonnet, hasbeen popular with authorsfrom Dante to Shakespeare.A sonnet contains 14 lines, typ-ically with two rhyming stan-zas known as a rhyming couplet at theend. There are several types of sonnets,including Italian (also known as

Petrarchan) SpenserianEnglish or SHAKESPEAREANSONNET.Shakespeare, famous forwriting more than 150 son-nets (including his popularSonnet 138) is credited with

creating for a form of the sonnet thatenjoyed widespread popularity through-out England for hundreds of years.

FREE VERSEWhile it is easy to think that poemshave to rhyme, free verse is a type ofpoetry that does not require anyrhyme scheme or meter. Poems writ-ten in free verse, however, do tend toemploy other types of creative lan-guage such as alliteration, words thatbegin with the same sound, or asso-nance, the repetition of vowel sounds.Some people find free verse to be a

less restrictive type of poetry to writesince it doesn’t have to employ theform or the rhyming schemes of othertypes of poetry.The free verse form of poetry becamepopular in the 1800s, and continues tobe popular among poets even to thisday. TS Eliot was one of the masters ofthe form

— THE WASTE LAND AND THE LOVE SONGOF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK.

KabirThis 15th century mystic poet is amongthe most recognised authorities inIndian literature. Kabir penned poemsin Hindi borrowing from arange of dialects, andwrote on variousaspects of life andfaith. Kabir was knownfor being critical of reli-gion as it existed at the time— primarily Hinduism and Islam, and thevarious rituals they came with.

KalidasaConsidered to be the greatest Sanskritpoet, Kalidasa is said to have belongedto the 5th century, though most detailsof his life are subject tospeculation. His epicsKumarasambhava andRaghuvamsa are amongthe most revered tothis day. His workrevolved around themes andstories from the ancient religious textsof the Vedas and Puranas.

GhalibOne of the most influential poets inUrdu, Ghalib wrote during the last yearsof the Mughal empire. He started com-posing poetry at the age of11, and was well versed inUrdu, Persian, Turkishand Arabic. Ghalib'spoetry, composed inUrdu and Persian, probesa range of topics includingphilosophy, existentialism, the mysteriesof life and other subjects.

Amir KhusrauBorn in 1253, this Sufi poet has beencalled the father of Urdu literature eventhough his poetry was primarily com-posed in Persian. He iscredited with havingfused traditions fromacross the continent tocreate the qawwali styleof songwriting. He is alsoremembered today for havingintroduced ghazals to the Indian subcon-tinent. His poetry took many formsincluding ghazals, masnavi, qatar & rubai.

MirabaiBorn in 1498, Mirabai’s mystic poetry isremembered mostly for its devotion tothe Hindu deity, Krishna.While several recordsfrom the time indicateto her having been ahighly-influential fig-ure in exploring topicssuch as divinity, mysticismand love in poetry, there are no surviv-ing original manuscripts of her work.

Sri Aurobindo GhoshBetter known as Sri Aurobindo, he isknown to the world as a scholar, anational leader and aspiritual guru. Hestarted writingpoetry as a youngstudent. Apartfrom The Life Divineand Synthesis of Yoga,his principal poetic work is Savitri: ALegend and a Symbol.

Rabindranath TagoreAmong the recognised figures frommodern Indian literature, Tagorewrote poetry primarilyin Bengali. He wasmuch more than apoet, having com-posed novels, dra-mas, short stories.However, he receivedthe Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913,for Gitanjali, a collection of poems.

Mir Taqi MirBesides being one of India’s mostimportant modern poets, SriAurobindo was also ahighly influentialphilosopher, yogiand political fig-ure. His poetryrevolved aroundthemes of spiritualityand mortality, and translations ofVedas, Upanishads and the Gita.

Sarojini NaiduKnown as the Nightingale of India,Sarojini Naidu, an influential poet, isa highly celebratedfreedom fighter.Naidu set thetone for modernIndian literary traditions.Her work exploresthemes such as love, death, patriot-ism, among others.

Kamala SurayyaBorn in 1934 in Kerala, KamalaSurayya is among the most influen-tial figures in IndianEnglish languagepoetry. Popularlyknown asMadhavikutty, shewrote on issuessuch as love, betray-al, sexuality and politics. Her workwas explicit and groundbreaking.

Robert Frost'spoems havegreatly influ-

enced me. They arefull of metaphorsfor thechoicesyou haveto make inlife. The Road Not Taken has influenced me towalk my own path. MAISHA MANN NAIR, class

XI, MGM Central Public

School, Tvm

N E W A G E P O E T R Y

Insta poetry

Over the lastfive years, po-ets across the

world have turned tothe social media plat-form to share ex-cerpts of their work.Nikita Gill has found herself in agrowing group of writers, includingRupi Kaur, R.M. Drake, Atticus, Aman-da Lovelace, Cleo Wade, and NayyirahWaheed, often referred to as "Insta-gram poets”.

Slam poetry

Slam Poetry is a type of com-petition where people readtheir poems without props,

costumes, or music. After perform-ing, they receive scores (0-10) from5 randomly selected judges. Thejudges can be anyone: they don’teven need to be poets! Scores are

awarded based on how much eachjudge likes a poem.

“Slam poetry” has an event-for-mat, where poets perform andjudges choose the winners. SpokenWord Poetry (or performance poet-ry) is poetry that’s written to be per-formed. What differentiates it is thatit’s an amalgamation of 2 art forms— literary art and performance art.Slam poetry is hence a subset of spo-ken word poetry.

FAMOUS POETS

OF INDIA

One of the longest typesof poems is known as theepic poem, which hasbeen around for thou-sands of years.Technically a type of nar-rative poem, which tells astory, epic poems usuallytell the story of a mythicalwarrior and the great things that he accom-plished in all his journeys such as THE ODYSSEYAND THE ILIAD.Epic poetry began as folk stories that werepassed down the generations, which were thenlater written in long form.

LIMERICKA limerick is a poem that is often silly orwhimsical, written in five lines with anAABBA rhyme scheme. Often, limerickstell a short, humorous story.These types of poems have been popularfor

hundreds of years, particularly in theEnglish language. When limericks firstbecame popular, they often expressedideas that were crude and off-colour buttoday, limericks express all sorts ofideas. The form of the limerick was madepopular by a British poet named EdwardLear in the 1800s – THERE WAS AN OLDMAN WITH A NOSE and THERE WAS AYOUNG LADY OF DORKING.

Wordsworth'spoems invented anew

style inwhichnature andthe dictionof the commonman trumpedformal,stylised lan-guage.SAMYUKTAA SIVAKU-MAR, class IX,Ryan int’l School,Kandivali East, Mumbai

Sarojini Naiduhas influencedme the most.Her poems have

a tinge of patriotismand the Swadeshispirit... Be it theBazaars ofHyderabad or Gift

of India.HELLY NAYAK, class XII, Anand

Niketan, Ahmedabad

ELEGYBecause poems can express awide variety of emotions, thereare sad forms of poetry as well ashappy ones. One of these sad formsis known as an elegy.Elegies express a lament, often over the

death of aloved one. Thismakes elegies especiallypopular for funerals.Some elegies are writ-ten not only to beread out loud;they can beput tomusicandsung.

TENNYSON'S IN MEMORIAM is anelegy to a close friend, Arthur HenryHallam, and was written over 20 years.

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images