Poetry Overview

Everything you wished you knew but were

afraid to ask…

Types of Poetry• There are two categories of poetry:– Narrative: stresses story and action– Lyric: stresses emotion and song

Narrative Poems

•Epic•Romance •Ballad

Epic • Definition: Long, narrative poem

that recorded the adventures of a hero whose exploits are important to the history of a nation.

Characteristics of the Epic

• Long narrative about a serious subject

• Centered on a quasi-divine figure on whose actions depend the fate of a

nation• Stories were told by “rhapsodes,”

“bards,” or “scops” (storytellers)• Begins “en medias res” – “in the

middle of things”• Invokes the muse at the beginning

of the work

Characteristics of an

Epic Hero• Great man who represents the finest values of his civilization – warrior

• Warrior who always fights fairly• His foes & obstacles are

extraordinary– Good versus evil

Characteristics of an

Epic Hero• He never loses his humanity• Goes on a voyage or quest• Names his weapons, ship, horse, etc.

Characteristics of an

Epic Hero• He his responsible for the fate of a great nation.

Epic Examples• Iliad by Homer–About the Trojan War

Epic Examples• Aenied by Virgil–About the founding of Rome

Epic Examples• Divine Comedy by Dante

Alighieri–One man’s journey through hell, heaven, and purgatory

Epic Examples• Paradise Lost by John Milton– About the revolt of the angels

and man’s creation and fall

Ballads• Ballad: Song or songlike poem that tells

a story. Originally derived from an old French word meaning “dancing song.”

• Poetry of the people – used as popular entertainment

• Subjects were predictably popular: domestic tragedy, false love, true love, the absurdity of husband-wife relationships, and the supernatural.

Types of Ballads• Folk Ballad: Anonymous singers

passed these down orally, generation to generation.- Examples: “Barbara Allan” p. 1056

“ Get Up and Bar the Door”

Types of Ballads• Literary Ballad: Written in the style

of folk ballads, composed and written down by a poet.

- “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats (p. 1132)

Characteristics of a Ballad

• Refrain: a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines in a ballad or song.- Contributes to song’s rhythm and often reinforced its theme. - Also allowed singer, who sang from memory

and often improvised, time to think of the next verse. • Ballad Format:• Consists of four line stanzas• 2nd and 4th lines rhyme• Must have five stanzas

Romances • Adventure is a central

feature• Popular in the Middle Ages &

Renaissance• Plots tend to be complex,

with surprising and even magical actions

• Chief characters are human, but they confront monsters, dragons, and disguised animals in a world that does not adhere consistently to the laws of nature

• Deals with the marvelous– Example: St. George slays

a dragon in a magical forest

Lyric Poetry• Story is subordinate to song

and emotion

• Subjective poems

• Characterized by brevity, melody,

and emotional intensity

• Originally designed to be sung to a musical accompaniment

(lyric comes from the Greek lyre)

• Predominant type of poetry in the West for several hundred years.

Forms of Lyric Poetry

• Epigram- Brief, witty poem that is often satirical– “Epigram Engraved on the Collar of

a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness ”

by Alexander PopeI am his Highness' dog at

Kew;Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

Forms of Lyric Poetry

• Elegy: a lament for the dead – Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break”

And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.At ten o'clock the ambulance arrivedWith the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. SnowdropsAnd candles soothed the bedside; I saw himFor the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

I sat all morning in the college sick bayCounting bells knelling classes to a close.At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying--He had always taken funerals in his stride--And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pramWhen I came in, and I was embarrassedBy old men standing up to shake my hand

Forms of Lyric Poetry

• Ode: a long stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form

• “Ode to a Grecian Urn”

Forms of Lyric Poetry

• Aubade: a love lyric expressing complaint that dawn means the speaker must part from his lover– Example: “Ode to a Nightingale” by John

Keats p. 1145• “The Sun Rising” by John Donne p. 811

Sonnet• Sonnet: a 14 line

lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter that has one of several rhyme schemes.

Three Types of Sonnets

1. Italian or Petrarchan2. Spenserian3. Shakespearean

Italian / Petrarchan Sonnet

Divided into 2 parts:- 8 line octave with rhyme scheme (abbaabba)

- 6 line sestet with rhyme scheme (cddcee OR cdcdee)

Tip: ABBA=father; Petrarch is the father of sonnets

• Octave: presents a problem or a question or expresses an idea

• Sestet: (turn) resolves, answers, or drives home the idea

Spenserian Sonnet Developed by Edmund Spenser Divided into 3 quatrains and a

couplet Rhyme scheme- abab bcbc cdcd ee Tip: interlocking rhyme scheme

English/Shakespearean Sonnet

• Has three 4 line units – quatrains• Followed by a concluding 2-line couplet• Three quatrains often express related

ideas or conclusion or message – Rhyme scheme- abab cdcd efef gg – Tip: (Shakespeare is a good guy “gg”)

*Group of sonnets of a related theme- Sonnet Sequence or Sonnet Cycle*

Sestina• Derived from French poetry• Consists of six stanzas of six lines

each followed by a three-line conclusion or envoy

• Requires a strict pattern of repetition of six key words that end the lines of the first stanza– Example: Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sestina”

on p. 1068

Villanelle• Derived from French poetry• Relies heavily on repetition• Composed of five three-line tercets and a

final four-line quatrain– 1st and 3rd lines repeat throughout the poem– 1st line reappears as the final line of the 2nd and

4th tercets, and again as the 3rd line of the third and fifth tercets and the concluding line of the poem

– Example: “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

»Dylan Thomas