Introduction to the Study of Literatures ( Only for educational use only )

1. Introductiontothe Study ofLiteratures(Onlyforeducationaluseonly) Features and Functions of Poetry (Slides are based on Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten’s previous lectures, modified accordingly by Pavan Malreddy)

2. SomecommonPejudicesagainstPoetry & Poets poetryisboring poetryisdifficult poetryisobscure poetryisoutdated poetryisalwaysaboutlove poetryisalwaysserious poetsareeithermador male femalepoetsareeitherfeministorlesbians

3. A little “who is who” in Anglo-American Poetry

4. George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh poet, orator and Anglican priest father of English deism

5. The Conceit • The conceit operates throughout the poem either through metaphor of symbolism. A Valediction As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say The breath goes now, and some say, No;

6. William Blake (1757-1827) Romanticism poet, painter & printmaker visionary idiosyncratic views; excentricity

7. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Romanticism Poet Laureate (1843) nature poetry Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

8. Robert Browning (1812-1889) Victorianism poet & playwright dramatic verse, dramtic monologue

9. Ezra Pound (1885-1972) Modernism Imagist Movement American poet, critic & intellectual

10. Ogden Nash (1902-1971) Post-modernism Light Verse unconventional American poet comic poetry; puns, irony in language & rhyme

11. The Hippopotamus Behold the hippopotamus!We laugh at how he looks to us,And yet in moments dank and grim,I wonder how we look to him.Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!We really look all right to us,As you no doubt delight the eyeOf other hippopotami. Ogden Nash

12. Nash’s poem exemplifies Some of the basic characteristics of the genre: • relative brevity • tendendy towards a very selective and limited treatment of the chosen theme (think of all the other things he could have said about a hippopotamus!) • subjective perspective of the speaker (“lyric persona”) • rhyme scheme (rhyming couplets) and an almost regular metre • division into stanzas • lack of plot • repeated use of exclamations and other deviations from everyday language = enhanced level of artistry

13. poetry • Narrative Poetry • tells a story with a clearly developed plot and characters in a rhymed form • usually long and often as complex as novels: example: epic long poem, romance, mock epic, ballad • Lyric Poetry Tells no story: event, image, idea.

14. poetry vs. narrative fiction Mock epic The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope Ballad Refrain at the end of a stanza (late 18th century, comedy, tragedy, folk, communal, (Robert Burns , 1759-1796; Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832). Elegy (funeral, mourning, solitude, melancholy: Thomas Gray (1716-1771) Ode (in praise of, Romantic, Wordsworth, Keats) Sonnet a little song, three stanzas of four lines (problem), and a couplet (resolve) Dramatic monologue ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning, and most occasional poetry (verse, lyric and free)

15. How poetry works/functions

16. Functions of Poetry/Foregrounding Paradigmatic - selection Syntagmatic – combination Artificality, self-reference, self-reflecive (referential function to reality is reduced and minimized) Equivalence/selection is determined by linguistic, contiguity, lexical, rhythemic, and ofen visual dimensions.

17. Analysing poetry – concepts and key terms • lexical-thematic dimension: diction, rhetorical figures, theme 2. visual dimension: stanzas, concrete poetry 3. rhythmic-acoustic dimension: rhyme and metre, onomatopoeia, etc.

18. Lexical • Diction – slection of words, style, vocabulary • Lyric persona, spekar, or poet himself tenor: the person, object or idea (“my love”) vehicle: object of comparison (“red, red rose) Rhetorical Figures • Metaphor (My love is a red red rose, Robert Burns) • Similie (My love is like a red red rose) • Symbols/Symbolism (equates emotion, feeling)

19. Lexical- 2 • Metonym We have always remained loyal to the crown', The pen is mightier than the sword‘ • (Robert Frosts’ Out and Out) • Imagism (generally represents an event or object) In A Station of the Metro (Ezra Pound) The apparation of these faces in the crowd Petals on a wet, black bough.

20. Funeral Blues Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun Pour away the Ocean and sweep the wood.

21. 2. visual dimension: stanzas, concrete poetry George Herbert “Easter Wings” (1633)

22. The Altar A broken ALTAR, Lord thy servant rears,Made of a heart, and cemented with tears:Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;No workmans tool hath touch'd the sameA HEART aloneIs such a stone,As nothing butThy pow'r doth cut.Wherefore each partOf my hard heartMeets in this frame,To praise thy Name:That if I chance to hold my peace,These stones to praise thee may not cease.O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.

23. l(aleaffalls)oneliness