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Poetry. Consider how we talk to one another. Do we speak the same way a book is written? Does our speech flow as easily as if we were reading a novel or essay? NO!.
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Consider how we talk to one another. • Do we speak the same way a book is written? • Does our speech flow as easily as if we were reading a novel or essay? • NO!
Our speech is more closely linked to poetry as we often take breaks and pauses at odd times or we may repeat ourselves or even make odd leaps in logic. • The words that we use are often picked specifically for the audience that we are around, our emotions, or even to suit the situations in which we find ourselves.
Because our spoken language is so closely linked to the irregular, informal, freedoms of poetry we need to embrace this art form to keep us in touch with our natural voices and to better understand our emotions and feelings. • Perhaps this is why so many of our lives are touched by music and lyrical poetry; these genres offer us a way to make sense of the world in which we live.
For many people learning and creating poetry is difficult and intimidating but it doesn’t have to be. Poetry is an opportunity to express yourself in a variety of different ways. It gives us a conduit in which to express our thoughts . I Wonder How Many People in This City Leonard Cohen I wonder how many people in this city live in furnished rooms. Late at night when Ilook out at the buildingsI swear I see a face in every window looking back at me and when I turn awayI wonder how many go back to their desksand write this down.
What are your thoughts about Leonard Cohen’s poem? • What do you think he was trying to say? • Have you ever had similar thoughts about who you see around your daily life?
Poetry doesn’t have to be all about analysis and critiques and study – it is an activity. This activity gives you an opportunity to create something alongside all the other famous poets and artists., something that is important. • Poet, e.e. cummings, writes: A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feeling through words. This may sound easy. It isn't. A lot of people think or believe or know they feel-but that's thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling-not knowing or believing or thinking. Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
Epic • An epic is a long, often book-length, narrative in verse form that retells the heroic journey of a single person, or group of persons. Elements that typically distinguish epics include superhuman deeds, fabulous adventures, highly stylized language, and a blending of lyrical and dramatic traditions. • Many of the world’s oldest written narratives are in epic form, including the Babylonian Gilgamesh, the Sanskrit Mahâbhârata, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid. Beowulf is another of the famous examples of the epic poem.
Greek and Latin epics frequently open with an appeal to the muse, as is shown in the opening lines of the Odyssey: Speak, memory--Of the cunning hero,The wanderer, blown off course time and againAfter he plundered Troy’s sacred heights.SpeakOf all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped,The suffering deep in his heart at seaAs he struggled to survive and bring his men homeBut could not save them, hard as he tried--The fools--destroyed by their own recklessnessWhen they ate the oxen of Hyperion the Sun,And that god snuffed out their day of return.
Elegy - An Elegy is a sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person. • ELEGY FOR A NATURE POETIt was in October, a favorite season,He went for his last walk. The covered bridge,Most natural of all the works of reason,Received him, let him go. Along the hedgeHe rattled his stick; observed the blackening bushesIn his familiar field; thought he espiedLate meadow larks; considered picking rushesFor a dry arrangement; returned home, and diedof a catarrh caught in the autumn rainsAnd let go on uncared for. He was too raptIn contemplation to recall that brainsLike his should not be kept too long uncappedIn the wet and cold weather. While we mourned,We thought of his imprudence, and how Nature,Whom he’d done so much for, had finally turnedAgainst her creature. His gift was daily his delight, he peeledThe landscape back to show it was a story;Any old bird or burning bush revealedAt his hands just another allegory.Nothing too great, nothing too trivialFor him; from mountain range or humble verminHe could extract the hidden parable-If need be, crack the stone to get the sermon.And now, poor man, he’s gone. Without his nameThe field reverts to wilderness again,The rocks are silent, woods don’t seem the same;Demoralized small birds will fly insane.Rude Nature, whom he loved to idealizeAnd would have wed, pretends she never heardHis voice at all, as, taken by surpriseAt last, he goes to her without a word.
Thoughts • It’s easy to forget in our admiration of nature’s beauty that there’s always a darker side to that beauty. If you only see wolves or tigers in the zoo, you’re liable to forget that they survive by killing all those other animals you find so beautiful. • What omens foreshadowed the poets death? • What effects will the poet’s absence have on nature?
Ballad • Ballads are fairly short, simple poem telling a story, often about a tragic event, popular legend, courageous act, or great love. • Folk Ballads were not originally transcribed, but rather preserved orally for generations, passed along through recitation. Their subject matter dealt with religious themes, love, tragedy, domestic crimes, and sometimes even political propaganda. Other literary ballads are written to be read or recited.
Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the tale of a cursed sailor aboard a storm-tossed ship, is one of the English language’s most revered ballads. It begins: It is an ancient mariner And he stoppeth one of three. —“By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stoppest thou me? The bridegroom’s doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin; The guests are met, the feast is set: Mayst hear the merry din.” He holds him with his skinny hand, “There was a ship," quoth he. “Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!” Eftsoons his hand dropped he. He holds him with his glittering eye— The wedding-guest stood still, And listens like a three-years’ child: The mariner hath his will.
Sonnet • A sonnet is a lyrical poem consisting of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter (think rhythm) with a complicated rhyme pattern. Sonnet are most commonly either Shakespearean or the Petrarchan. • The Shakespearean sonnet follows the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG pattern. The Petrarchan, or Italian Sonnet, consists of a ABBA ABBA CDE CDE pattern.
Shakespearean Sonnet My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare. ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Pastoral • Pastoral poems traditionally are brief poems that focus on scenes from rural or pastoral life. These poems often contain descriptions of shepherds and idealized views of life. In Virgil’s First Georgic, the speaker is instructive, describing how the work is done: The time has come for my groaning ox to dragMy heavy plow across the fields, so thatThe plow blade shines as the furrow rubs against it.Not till the earth has been twice plowed, so twiceExposed to sun and twice to coolness willIt yield what the farmer prays for...
One of the most well-known love poems in the English language, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe, is a pastoral. Throughout the poem, the speaker describes the beauty of the landscape as a means for wooing his love interest: A belt of straw and ivy buds,With coral clasps and amber studs:And if these pleasures may thee move,Come live with me, and be my love.
Free Verse • Free verse poetry has no regular pattern of rhyme. Meter or line length. Instead, it relies on natural speech rhythms. Free verse poetry allows for great flexibility and freedom compared to more traditional poetry types. • Such poems are without rhythms and rhyme schemes; do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules and still provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his/her own shape to a poem how he/she desires. However, it still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences or rhythms to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.
Langston Hughes is an important and highly influential American free verse poet. He was also important as a protest poet. His poetry contains elements of traditional poetry, negro spirituals and the blues. I, Too, Sing Americaby Langston HughesI, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong. Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed—I, too, am America.
These are the most common forms of poetry but there are many other poetry types that you may find appealing. It is important to familiarize ourselves with the variety of styles and find one that is appropriate for what we want to express. • Take a moment to read through the poems found in chapter one of Inside Poetry and see what one is most appealing. Why?
