Hand-Out

POETRY

by

Joey Dialogo Bichayda BSED 2Irr

Partido State University

College of Education

Goa, Camarines Sur

AY 2013-2014

joeybichayda@yahoo.com

joey.bichayda@gmail.com

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity."

William Wordsworth

What is a Poetry?

• —Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”
• — Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry.”
• —Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."

—Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you. Poetic definitions of poetry kind of spiral in on themselves, however, like a dog eating itself from the tail up.

—Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and older, present wherever religion is present, possibly—under some definitions—the primal and primary form of languages themselves.

Types of Poetry

            When studying poetry, it is useful first of all to consider the theme and the overalldevelopment of the theme in the poem. Obviously, the sort of development that takes place depends to a considerable extent on the type of poem one is dealing with. It is useful to keep two general distinctions in mind (for more detailed definitions consult Abrams 1999 and Preminger et al 1993): lyric poetry and narrative poetry.

 1. Lyric Poetry

A lyric poem is a short poem that has a song-like quality. It is a short and highly musical

poem, which usually articulates the interpretations, views and feelings of a single individual;

the feelings and thoughts of a person (the speaker).

Types of Lyric Poetry:

   a) Simple lyric, subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and which reveals the poet's thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression.

   b) Song, a short poem or other set of words set to music or meant to be sung.

Example of a Song:

Empty Wishing Well

You say your eyes are a wishing well
  And the future you can tell
You asked me what is my sign
  I said Scorpio was mine
You told me that astrology
  Had to do with cosmic harmony
You read divining signs to see what's up
  And the tea leaves in your cup

(Chorus)
But If you're so psychic, why couldn't you tell?
Where was your warning when you fell...
Into your empty wishing well

You crossed the gypsies palm with gold
  Then you had her read me the Tarot
I watched you cast the rune stones
  And then you tossed the bones
You looked into your crystal ball
  Then you turned over the eight-ball
You told me that your clairvoyance
  Is good for problem avoidance

(Chorus)
But If you're so psychic, why couldn't you tell?
Where was your warning when you fell...
Into your empty wishing well?

You say your souls like a lotus flower
  And you believe in pyramid power
You found your way through the shaman's drum
  And through the words of the chosen one
All your past lives you say you can see
  But your present life's a mystery
Aren't you afraid you'll fade
  Into a Mercury retrograde?

(Chorus)
But If you're so psychic, why couldn't you tell?
Where was your warning when you fell...
Into your empty wishing well

   c) Sonnet, was originally a love poem which dealt with the lover’s sufferings and hopes.

Example of A Sonnet:

Sonnet of Demeter (Italian Sonnet)

Oh the pirate stars, they have no mercy!
Masquerading as hope they tell their lies;
Only the young can hear their lullabies.
But I am barren and I am thirsty
Since she has gone. No hope is there for me.
I will roam and curse this earth and these skies--
Death from life which Zeus sovereign denies.
My heart's ill shall the whole world's illness be

Till she is returned-- my daughter, my blood--
From the dark hand of Hades to my care.
With my tears these mortals shall know a flood
To show Poseidon's realm desert and bare.
No myrtle shall flower, no cypress bud
Till the gods release her...and my despair.

   d) Elegy, a formal lament for the death of a particular person.

   e) Ode, a long lyric poem with a serious subject written in an elevated style

Example of an Ode:

An Ode To Dreamers

When dreamers dream
And lovers love
Do they receive their visions
From heaven above?
Or do they originate
Where all things start
Within our minds
Within our hearts?
I know not all
But what I do know is this
You cannot build a Kingdom
Upon a flimsy wish
So believe in your dreams
Follow them blind
Lest you loose them all,
To the hands of time. 

2. Narrative Poetry

Narrative poetry tells a story and comprises much of the oral tradition of many cultures.

Types of Narrative Poetry:

   a) Ballad, simple, narrative verse which tells a story to be sung or recited; the folk band is anonymously handed down, while the literary ballad has a single author.

Example of Ballad:

The Ballad of Marian Blacktree

Refrain:
Oh, do you know the mountain road
That leads to yonder peak?
A few will walk that trail alone,
Their dreams they go to seek.

(I)
One such was Marian Blacktree,
A lowly sheperdess,
And courting her was Tom, the swain,
Who loved her nonetheless.

(II)
A thought occurred to Marian
While watching o'er her sheep,
And gazing at the mountain thus
She nodded off to sleep.

(Refrain)

(III)
That night she came to Tom and said
She longed to know the sky.
"I'm weary of this valley, love,
I want to learn to fly!"

(IV)
Poor Thomas did not want to leave,
This valley was all he knew.
So when she turned and left him there
Her heart, it broke in two.

(Refrain)

(V)
Her faithful swain did track her,
All night the trail led on,
And finally at the mountain top
He looked, but she was gone.

(VI)
As morning broke and lit the sky
An eagle he did see:
It circled 'round him thrice and cried.
He knew now she was free.

(Refrain)

   b) Metrical romance, Metrical romance is a form of poetry that was popular in the high renaissance. It was a form of prose poetry that was popular among royals and the upper class. The stories of metrical romance typically involved stories that included the adventures, trials, and tribulations of knights as well as typically told stories of chivalrous feats of said knights.

   c) Epic, a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation.

Examples of epic:

3. Dramatic Poetry

   Dramatic poetry is a verse or verses which are written to be spoken, usually by a character invented by the author himself. As opposed to lyric and narrative poetry, dramatic poetry is narrated by the characters themselves. The term is also used to refer to plays written in verse, such as most of Shakespeare's plays.

Types of Dramatic Poetry

   a) Dramatic monologue, a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events.

   b) The soliloquy, an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, esp. by a character in a play.

   c) Character sketch, an abbreviated portrayal of a particular characteristic of people. The term originates in portraiture, where the character sketch is a common academic exercise.

4. Descriptive and Didactic Poetry

     Both lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed descriptions (descriptive poetry) or

scenes in direct speech (dramatic poetry).

The purpose of a didactic poem is primarily to teach something. This can take the form of

very specific instructions, such as how to catch a fish, as in James Thomson’sThe Seasons (Spring 379

442) or how to write good poetry as in Alexander Pope’sEssay on Criticism. But it can also be meant as

instructive in a general way. Until the twentieth century all literature was expected to have a didactic purpose

in a general sense, that is, to impart moral, theoretical or even practical knowledge; Horacefamously

demanded that poetry should combine prodesse (learning) anddelectare (pleasure). The twentieth century

was more reluctant to proclaim literature openly as a teaching tool.

Prepared by:

                     Joey Dialogo Bichayda

                     BSEd 2Irr

Prepared to:

DR. MYRNA C. BIGUEJA

References:

Date Retrieved: February 21, 2014

Websites:

• http://www2.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/PoetryTypes01.htm
• http://www.poeticterminology.net/
• http://examples.yourdictionary.com/types-of-poetry-examples.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry
• http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/epic.html

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