Introduction to Poetry

4.1.1 What is poetry?

The poem is a capsule where we wrap up our punishable secrets (Wiliam Carols Wiliams)
A poem is a well- wrought urn( Cleanth Books)
A verbal icon (W.K. Wimsatt)
A poem is a walk ( A.R. Ammons)
A poem is a meteor (Wallace Stevens)
A poem might be called a pseudo person.(Gerald B Nelson)
Like a person it is unique and address the reader personally( W.H. Auden)
A poem is a hand, a hook, a prayer. It is soul in action (Edward Hirsch)
The various statements given above by poets and poetry critics suggest the difficulty one faces in
defining poetry. As Murfin and Ray (1997) argue, ‘there are as many ways to characterize poetry as
there are people. The word poetry originates from the Greek word ‘poiesis’, which means ‘making’ and
as the ancient Greeks recognized, the poet is first and foremost a ‘maker’. It suggests that there is no
contradiction between the truth that poetry is somehow or other inspired and, simultaneously, an art
(techne), a craft requiring a blend of talent, training, and long practice. But the ‘made thing’ has magical
potency. What Picasso said about painting being more than an aesthetic operation is equally true of
poetry. According to him, ‘ art is a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile
world and us, a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires’.

4.1.2 History of poetry

Poetry has long and illustrious history. Many of the earliest literary and often religious works
are poems. At the beginning poetry was a collective construction as is witnessed by the folk
ballad and religious hymns – it played a major role in religious and other ceremonial functions. It also
helped to preserve history and traditions. This information was often passed orally from
generation to generation. This situation changed over time. Poetry became the vehicle for drama
and then for individual expression. Today poetry is seen as a highly individualistic endeavour.
Actually no other form of expression is as intensely personal and unique as poetry.

4.1.3 Poetry and Prose

Poetry is often distinguished from prose. There is an obvious difference in form. A deeper
difference is that the meaning of a prose passage can be easily restated while the meaning of a
poem cannot be so easily paraphrased. ‘While poetry can be approached intellectually, it is
equally an emotional experience (Murfin and Ray, 1997) unlike prose which is meant to be read,
poetry is meant to be experienced. Poetry is not exact; neither is it factual. It is rich with a
suggestiveness born from the interplay of words and sounds. The suggestive essence of poetry
means that poets commonly make use of figurative language and symbolism. Poetry uses tropes
as well as figures of speech that enhances both the imagery and the sensory impact of the poem.
The connotations of words and the relationships among words, phrases, and ideas all add to the
purely denotative meanings of the poet’s language. Furthermore, auditory elements – the sound
and rhythms of letters, words, phrases and lines – are key aspects of the poem and play a large
role in how the poem is read and understood.
The language of poetry also distinguishes it from prose. Prose is often discursive. Poetry uses
language economically. The brevity of poetic expression in contrast to prose affords it a
particular intensity.

Prose- more denotative and discursive

poetry – more connotative and economical

4.1.4 Poetry and verse.

As poetry is different from prose, it is also different to verse – any rhythmical or metrical
composition. Poetry is distinguished from verse by virtue of its imaginative quality, intricate
structure, serious or lofty subject matter or noble purpose.

4.1.5 Poetic ‘Genres’

With its long history originating in religious ritual and tribal narrative, poetry has taken
many forms and acquired many features. To put poetry into a historical perspective, it seems to
be rational to begin with the ballad.

4.1.6 Language in poetry

According to Coleridge, poetry is the arrangement of the best words in the best order.
Widdowson (1983) puts it much more elaborately when he says. “When word is worked into the
language patterns of poems it takes on meaning as a feature of their design. Just as familiar and
commonplace objects become a part of the configuration of colour and form in a painting and so acquire
a particular significance, the word takes on a different value in the unique frame of reference created by
the internal patterns of language within the poem.”

Different types/genres of poetry

Narrative poetry
 A narrative poem is a type of longer form of poem which tells a story with a beginning,
middle, and end.
 Narrative poems contain all of the elements of a fully developed story, including
characters, plot, rising action, conflict, climax and resolution.
 These poems are typically told by just one narrator or speaker.
 Narrative poetry tells stories through verse.
 It uses the poetic techniques you might normally find in a poem (such as rhyme, rhythm,
similes and metaphors) to create a narrative.
 The 5 types of narrative poetry include:

1. The Epic
2. The Ballad – folk/literary
3. The Idyll – a type of pastoral poem.
4. The Lay.
5. The Novel in Verse.

Sonnets: Petrarchan and Elizabethan/ Shakespearean

The sonnet is a lyrical poem that almost always consists of 14 lines. The word sonnet is derived
from the Italian word “sonnetto” meaning “little song”. It follows one of the several conventional
rhyming schemes. A sonnet may address a range of issues or themes but love is the most
prevalent. The two major types of sonnets are the Italian or Petrarchan sonnets and the
Shakespearean or the English sonnet.

The Italian sonnet consists of an octave rhyming abbaabba and a sestet rhyming cdcdcd. The
sonnet form was introduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey.

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETS
Form and language:

o Shakespeare (1564-1616) uses the 14-line sonnet form of Petrarch imported to England by
Wyatt and Surrey
o However, he modifies the rhyme scheme by using independent rhyming patterns for each of
the quatrains as well as the couplet.
o Shakespearean sonnets have three quatrains and a rhyming couplet with a rhyming scheme of
ababcdcdefefgg.
o In the Shakespearean sonnet, the three quatrains express three different ideas and the final
couplet offers a solution of a sort for the poetic persona’s predicament
o He also employed the metrical structure of iambic pentameter in all his sonnets. An iambic
pentameter is a line of 5 iambic feet, each iamb consists of an unstressed syllable followed by
a stressed syllable thus making a ten-syllable line.
o Shakespeare uses Anglo-Saxon monosyllabic words which makes his language both
phonetically and semantically powerful – promotion of English identity
o There is a certain rhythm and musicality when monosyllabic words are put together
o They are also semantically rich – the poet seems to say a lot in few words –economy of
language
o The use of Anglo-Saxon words make Shakespeare’s work more ‘English’ – earlier courtly
love poetry used more Latin and French polysyllabic words
o Further, he departed from conventional subject matter – exaggerated and unnatural praise of
women. His themes vary from love to mortality, transience, time, deception and the
immortalizing power of the written word.
o There are 154 sonnets attributed to Shakespeare published in a collection titled
“Shakespeare’s Sonnets” in 1609 by Thomas Trope. The collection was rather cryptically
dedicated to a “Mr W. H.” (William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke? Henry Wriothesley,
Third Earl of Southampton? – both of men of means and of literary interest enough to be
patrons of Shakespeare)
o Three main figures recur in Shakespeare’s sonnets:
o A fair youth – nearly all of the first 126 sonnets are dedicated to a handsome young
man in which Shakespeare praises the beauty of this young man and requests him to
get married and have an heir to carry on his line
o A dark lady - Sonnets 127 to 152 are dedicated to a Dark Lady, possibly a Lady in
Waiting to Elizabeth I. Shakespeare was in love with her but she had an affair with
the ‘young man’ and said to have a child by him. The above mentioned love triangle
had provided Shakespeare with insight to human nature and relationships.
o And a rival poet.

Lyrics
Lyric poetry is a category of poetry, encompassing many different subgenres (such as sonnets),
styles, cultures, and eras of time. The defining traits of a lyric poem:

 short
 songlike
 explores emotions and personal feelings.
 narrated in the first person.

Unlike narrative poetry (The Highwayman), which recounts events and tells a story, lyric
poetry explores the emotions of the speaker of the poem. Lyric poetry originated in ancient
Greek literature and was originally intended to be set to music, accompanied by a musical
instrument called a lyre, which resembles a small harp. Lyric poetry traditionally follows strict
formal rules, but because there have been many different types of lyric poetry over centuries,
there are now various different forms of lyric poetry.

In the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare popularized lyric poetry in England. It remained
dominant in the seventeenth century thanks to poets like Robert Herrick, and later, in the
nineteenth century, through the work of poets including Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and
later on in the century, Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Elegy:

Folk poems
Folk poetry (sometimes referred to as poetry in action) is poetry that is part of a society's
folklore, usually part of their oral tradition. When sung, folk poetry becomes a folk song. The
term ‘folk poetry’ can be properly used for texts which have some characteristics marking them
as poetry and belong to the tradition of the common people, as against the dominant ‘polite’
literary culture of the area.

Types:
a. Poetry related to agriculture
i. Planting poetry
ii. Harvesting poetry
iii. Watch-hut poetry
b. Poetry related to travel and transport
c. Poetry related to particular trades
i. Miners’ poetry, etc.
The definition can also be extended to include:
 Latrinalia
 child-lore (skipping-rope rhymes, the words of counting-out games, etc.)
 limericks
 anonymous or improvised poems
Narrative folk poetry is often characterized by repetition, a focus on a single event, and an
impersonal narration, as well as use of exaggeration and contrast.
It is thought that epics such as The Iliad, and The Odyssey derive from, or are modeled on earlier
folk-poetry forms.

Some characteristic features. 

Folk poetry in general has several characteristics:
1. It may be informal and unofficial
2. Needs a performer
3. Generally lacks an owner and may "belong" to the community
4. Recitation may be an implicitly social activity:
5. Orally transmitted - traditionally, writing did not play a prominent role in the
transmission of folk poetry
6. Fluidity and flexibility is characteristic of oral literature
 7. Some types of folk poetry allow for a considerable amount of extemporizing- however,
essential features of such improvisations still tend to be determined by the genre
8. In most cases the singer or performer of a text neither is nor claims to be its composer.
Anonymity, in fact, is sometimes held to be a characteristic of folk poetry, which is not
true in all cases
9. It is often claimed or assumed that the transmitter reproduces the text exactly as he has
learned it (though in practice variations still tend to occur in such traditions)
10. In other cases a certain flexibility of transmission is acknowledged to exist
11. In either case the essential elements of the text in question are usually well known to the
audience before the performance.
12. In Sri Lanka, jana kavi, originated as communal song shared within individual groups as
they engaged in daily work.
13. Today, they remain a popular form of cultural expression.
14. Kavi was also sung to accompany annual rituals.
15. Another traditional Sri Lankan folk style is called the Virindu - an improvised poem sung
to the beaten melody of a rabana.
16. Traditional song contests were held in which two virindu singers would compete through
spontaneous verse.
17. The Portuguese influenced Baila has been a popular folk tradition along the coastal
districts in the past five hundred years and is now part of the mainstream music culture.

Folk poems in Sri Lanka

 History
 Different genres – examples
 Status
 Any threats
 What is being done to preserve folk poetry

Pastoral poetry
 Pastoral poetry is known for exploring the relationship between humans and nature, and for
romanticizing the ideals of a simple country life.
 Though the term pastoral refers to the life of the shepherds or rural folk and their ways of
living, manners and customs, pastoral poetry does not reflect the realities of country life
 From its beginning pastoral poetry created an imaginary landscape which was actually a
projection of the poet's feelings and ideas.
 A pastoral poem explores the fantasy of withdrawing from modern life to live in an idyllic
rural setting.
 The pastoral tradition can be traced back to Hesiod, a Greek oral poet active between 750
and 650 BC, roughly the same time as Homer.
 His most famous poem, Works and Days, is part farmer's almanac and part didactic
exploration of the nature of human labour.
 Pastoral poetry draws on the tradition of the ancient Greek poet Theocritus, who wrote
romanticized visions of shepherds living rich and fulfilled lives.
 'Pastoral' is a free-verse poem of 25 short lines in a single narrow stanza.
 Some notable examples of pastoral poems include The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by
Christopher Marlowe, A Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh, and The Bait
by John Donne
 The pastoral elegy is a poem about both death and idyllic rural life.
 Often, the pastoral elegy features shepherds. The genre is actually a subgroup of pastoral
poetry, as the elegy takes the pastoral elements and relates them to expressing grief at a loss
 Conventional features of pastoral elegies include: 
o the invocation of the Muse;
o expression of the "shepherd"-poet's grief;
o praise of the dead "shepherd";
o invective against death;
o effects of the death upon nature (disruptions in climate etc.
 Idyll/Idyl (from Greek eidyllion, “little picture”), a short poem of a pastoral or rural character
in which something of the element of landscape is depicted or suggested.

Ballads: folk/ literary

1. A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the
medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dance songs".
Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and
Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century.
2. Today, you can find ballads in a variety of musical styles, from country-western to rock
n' roll.
3. Folk ballads are often composed by anonymous composers, passed down from generation
to generation.
 4. A typical ballad is a plot-driven song (narrative), with one or more characters
hurriedly unfurling events leading to a dramatic conclusion.
5. Often, a ballad does not tell the reader what's happening, but rather shows the reader
what's happening, describing each crucial moment in the trail of events.
6. A ballad with lyrics traditionally follows a pattern of rhymed quatrains. This means
that for every four-line grouping, either the first and third line will rhyme or the second
and fourth lines will rhyme.
7. Classification: Traditional/folk ballads, broadsides and literary ballads.
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8. Folk (or traditional) ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic or heroic stories
with emphasis on a central dramatic event; examples include “Barbara Allen” and “John
Henry.”
9. In the Renaissance, poets have adapted the conventions of the folk ballad for their own
original compositions. Examples of this “literary” ballad form include John Keats’s “La
Belle Dame sans Merci,” Thomas Hardy’s “During Wind and Rain,” and Edgar Allan
Poe’s “Annabel Lee.” 
10. Summary: a ballad has the following structure.
 abcb or abab rhyme scheme is maintained.
 A series of quatrain or four-lined stanzas.
 The first and third lines are written in iambic tetrameter- it has one unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable. In ballads, there are usually eight or six
syllables in a line.
 The second and fourth lines are in the trimester.
 Narrative poetic form.
 On some occasions it is sung as a song.

Lord Randall
   "Oh where ha'e ye been, Lord Randall my son?
O where ha'e ye been, my handsome young man?"
      "I ha'e been to the wild wood: mother, make my bed soon,
     For I’m weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down."

   "Where gat ye your dinner, Lord Randall my son?

Where gat ye your dinner, my handsome young man?"
     "I dined wi' my true love; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down."

   "What gat ye to your dinner, Lord Randall my son?

What gat ye to your dinner, my handsome young man?"
     "I gat eels boiled in broo: mother, make my bed soon,
     For I'm weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down."

   "What became of your bloodhounds, Lord Randall my son?

What became of your bloodhounds, my handsome young man?"
     "O they swelled and they died: mother, make my bed soon,
     for I'm weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down."

   "O I fear ye are poisoned, Lord Randall my son!

O I fear ye are poisoned, my handsome young man!"
     "O yes, I am poisoned: mother, make my bed soon,
     For I'm sick at the heart, and I fain wald lie down."

The Highwayman - A LF RED NOY ES

PART ONE
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.   
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.   
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,   
And the highwayman came riding—
         Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,   

A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin.
They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh.   
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
         His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky. [visual image]

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.   
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there   
But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
         Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened. His face was white and peaked.   
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,   
But he loved the landlord’s daughter,
         The landlord’s red-lipped daughter.
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,

But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,   
Then look for me by moonlight,
         Watch for me by moonlight,
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand,

But she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;   
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
         (O, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

PART TWO

He did not come in the dawning. He did not come at noon;   [parallelism]

And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,   
When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor,   
A red-coat troop came marching—
         Marching—marching—
King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead.   
But they gagged his daughter, and bound her, to the foot of her narrow bed.
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!   
There was death at every window;
         And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest.

They had bound a musket beside her, with the muzzle beneath her breast!
“Now, keep good watch!” and they kissed her. She heard the doomed man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
         Watch for me by moonlight;
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!   
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
         Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest.   
Up, she stood up to attention, with the muzzle beneath her breast.   
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;   
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
         Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love’s refrain.

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horsehoofs ringing clear;   

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding—
         Riding—riding—
The red coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still.

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!   

Nearer he came and nearer. Her face was like a light.
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,   
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
         Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

He turned. He spurred to the west; he did not know who stood   

Bowed, with her head o’er the musket, drenched with her own blood!   
Not till the dawn he heard it, and his face grew grey to hear   
How Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
         The landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high.
Blood red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat;
When they shot him down on the highway,
         Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.
Epics

Epics
 The word “epic” comes from the Ancient Greek word epos, which simply means
“word, narrative, or song”.
 An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems typically detail
extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past. 
 Epics have seven main characteristics:

1. The hero is outstanding. They might be important, and historically or legendarily

significant.
2. The setting is large. It covers many nations, or the known world.
3. The action is made of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.
4. Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action.
5. It is written in a very special style (verse as opposed to prose).
6. The poet tries to remain objective.
7. Epic poems are believed to be supernatural and real by the hero and the villain
 Conventions of epics:

1. It starts with the theme or subject of the story.

2. In epics inspired from Western civilization the writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine
daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the Muses to provide divine inspiration to tell the
great story.
3. Narrative opens in medias res, or in the middle of things, usually with the hero at his
lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.
4. Catalogues and genealogies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people
place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Often, the poet is
also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.
5. Main characters give extended formal speeches.
6. Use of the epic simile.
7. Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases.
8. It presents the heroic ideals such as courage, honour, sacrifice, patriotism and kindness.
9. An epic gives a clear window of the social and cultural patterns of the contemporary life.
Beowulf thus shows the love of wine, wild celebration, war, adventure and sea-voyages.

Examples
Ancient

 20th to 10th century BC:

o Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia)
 8th century BC to 3rd century AD:
o Mahābhārata (Indian mythology)
 8th to 6th century BC:
 o Iliad and Odyssey, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
 1st century BC:
o Aeneid, Vergil (Latin)
Medieval

 Song of Roland
 8th to 10th century AD
o Beowulf (Old English)
 12th to 13th century AD
o Sirat Bani Hilal (Arabic)
 10th to 12th century AD
o Njál's saga (Old Norse)
 14th century AD
o Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (dialect of middle English)
Contemporary
Omeros (1990), Derek Walcott
Empire of Dreams (1988), Giannina Braschi

mock epics

panegyrics

odds

satire

free verse