Introduction to poetry
Hi guys
Welcome back to Amzzy's lectures.
In my previous lectures,we discussed the genre of literature with our focus on analysis of prose.
So in this lecture,we would be discussing poetry( poem) which is another element of literature.
Let's begin.
Poetry is an element of literature or a form of writting that is meant to
Educate
Entertain
Inform and also
Teachings moral
Poetry appears to be so unique from other forms or element of literature due to the following fact
It can take any format
The length varies
There is a poetic licence ie you can use punctuations if you wish and if you don't fine,
It can make use alot of sound device such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance or rhyme,
It can be written in stanza and verses.
It is not rigid like prose that has a particular format hence a writer can conveniently make use of his choice of words.
Forms of poetry.
There are different forms in which a poem or poetry can be written.
It can be written as a ballad,
Blank verse
Free verse
Heroic coupet
sonnet.
The forms of poetry and it's explanation.
Ballad: this is a form poetry that is written in four lines stanza with alternating lines.
Example.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying
‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
Excerpt from Danny Boy.
Free verse.
These are poems that have no specific pattern or rules that the writer is meant to follow.
Free verse poem don't usually have a rhyme scheme although there may be rhyming stanza.
Example of a free verse.
You spared no tale
You smooched the night with sonnets
And sauntered off
Into the pantheon of gods.
You left your beer unfinished
You left your mark as my generations vexed voice,
You the underground demon.
Excerpt from Amzzy's poem.
The above poem have no rhyme or pattern.it was freely written hence it can be called a free verse poem.
Blank verse poem
This is the type of poem that have a stated and specific metre without rhyme.
Example of blank verse.
Example: Mending Walls (By Robert Frost)
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
When you observe the poem above,you would observe they have same number of words hence are said to be in a specific metre but there is no rhyme.
Sonnet:
This is a form of poem written in fourteen lines.
Examples of Sonnet in Literature
Example : Petrarchan Sonnet
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Except from (“When I Consider How My Light is Spent” by John Milton, 1600s)
In my next lectures,we would be discussing the analysis poems.
Image designed by me.