POETIC FORMS

1. Ballads. The traditional or popular ballad is a story told in song form which has been passed by word of mouth from singer to singer, generation to generation. Unlike formal written verse, ballads underwent change. They were common in the fifteenth century, and one, "Judas," is known to have passed down from the thirteenth century. The oral nature is shown in the effective transitions in the narrative, for weak verses tended to get taken out and forgotten, resulting in a highly effective series of pictures in words.

The tradition of the ballad runs through English and American verse. The anonymous ballads of the fifteenth century have their counterpart in the ballads of the twentieth century, in songs of social protest and stories of ordinary people. Traditional ballads were produced throughout the nineteenth century also, in America, commonly by sailors, loggers, and plantation workers—relatively isolated and illiterate people. In rural areas, such ballads are still flourishing today.

When professional poets write stanzas of this type, such as Auden's "I Walked out One Evening" they are called literary ballads. English and Scottish ballads have been imitated by serious poets. Probably the most famous ballads are Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci."

The ballad stanza rhymes abeb. ballads often contain refrains, musical repetitions of words or phrases. Some critics believe that ballads were originally two-line rhyming songs, thus explaining why there are only two rhymes in a four line stanza. Because early ballads were nonliterary, half-rhymes and slant rhymes are often used. The common stanza is a-quatrain of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Ballads sometimes employ incremental repetition, the repetition of some previous line or lines, but with a slight variation to advance the narrative, as in these lines from "The Cruel Brother":

О what will you leave to your father dear?

The silver-shode steed that brought me here.

And what will you leave to your mother dear?

My velvet pall and my silken gear.

Interestingly, there are frequent nonsense lines in the refrains—"Every rose is merry in time" is a misunderstanding of "Savory, rosemary, and thyme"—perhaps because of oral transmission.

Though the singers of ballads were usually common folk, the subjects were often noble, and the usual theme was tragic love.

A broadside ballad was a poem of any sort printed on a large sheet—thus the "broadside"—and sold by street singers in the sixteenth century. Not until the eighteenth century was the word "ballad" limited to traditional narrative song.

2. Blank Verse. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It was introduced into English poetry
in the middle of the sixteenth century. By the end of the century it had become the standard medium of
English drama. An example, by William Shakespeare, is; "Time hath, my Lord, a wallet at his
back/Wherein he puts alms for oblivion."

3. Burlesque. Burlesque not a type of verse, but any imitation of people or literary type which,
by distortion, aims to amuse. Its tone is neither savage nor shrill, and it tends to ridicule faults, not
serious vices. Thus it is not to be confused with Satire, for burlesque makes fun of a minor fault with
the aim of arousing amusement rather than contempt or indignation. Also, it need not make us devalue
the original. For example, T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" is parodied in Myra is Buttle's "Sweeniad." The
original reads:

Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the shadow

while the burlesque is:

Between the nullification And the deception Between the multiplication And the division

Falls the Tower of London.

4. Travesty. Also known as low burlesque, travesty takes a high theme and treats it in trivial
terms, as in the Greek "Battle of the Frogs and Mice" which travesties Homer.

5. Mock Epic or Mock Heroic. This is also known as high burlesque, the reverse of travesty, for
it treats a minor theme in a high, lofty, style. Despite its name, it does not mock the epic, but rather
mocks low activities by treating them in the elevated style of the epic. The humor results from the difference between the low subject and the lofty treatment it is accorded. In the theatre, a burlesque may be a play that humorously criticizes another play by imitating aspects of it in a grotesque manner, as in John Gay's "Beggar's Opera" which make fun of serious operas. The term is also used, especially in America, for a sort of variety show stressing crude humor and sex.

6. Didactic Literature. Didactic literature intends to instruct or teach. It is sometimes used in
contrast to pure poetry, which is said to be free from instruction and moral content and intends merely
to delight and entertain. The term need not be pejorative, though many use it in this manner. A good
case can be made that almost all of the world's finest poetry is didactic in some way. Satire makes fun
of certain modes of behavior; Milton wrote Paradise Lost to "justify the ways of God to men." The
problem, then, is one of degree, as true didactic literature deals mainly with instruction. This does not
make it any less "poetic." These lines by John Gay, explaining how to clean worms, are an illustration
of didactic literature:

Cleanse them from filth, to give a tempting gloss, Cherish the sully'd reptile race with moss; Amid the verdant bed they twine, they toil, And from their bodies wipe the native soil.

7. Doggerel. Doggerel is verse made comic because irregular metrics are made regular by stressing
normally unstressed syllables. In Butler's lines:

More peevish, cross, and splenetic

Than dog distract or monkey sick.

If the subject matter is mock heroic (see previous definition) and the lines are iambic tetrameter couplets (as in the example quoted above), the poem is also referred to as hudibrastic, after Samuel Butler's "Hudibras"

8. Dramatic Monologue. The speaker in a dramatic monologue is usually a fictional character or
an historical figure caught at a critical moment. His words are established by the situation, and are
usually directed at a silent audience. The speaker usually reveals aspects of his personality of which he
is unaware. To some extent, every poem is a dramatic monologue, as an individual speaker is saying
something to someone, even if only to himself, but in a true dramatic monologue, the above
conventions are observed. Fine examples of this mode include Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess,"
in which a duke who has eliminated his last duchess reveals his cruelty to an emissary, who wants to
arrange for the marriage to the latest duchess. T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," in
which the speaker's timid self addresses his aggressively amorous self, would serve as another example.

9. Elegy, An elegy is a poem that deals solemnly with death. In Greek and Latin verse, they are
poems that alternate lines of dactylic hexameter and dactylic pentameter. Gray's "Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard' is an example in point. If an elegy is a short funeral lament, it may be called a
dirge, which in ancient times was a funeral song. Threnody and monody are terms used for funeral
poems also, although the monody is often more complex and recited by an individual mourner. The
elegy is frequently a pastoral, in which shepherds mourn the death of a fellow shepherd. They use the
conventions of this type of verse, including invocation to the muses, processions of mourners, and lists
of flowers. Many poets have used this form to advantage, including Walt Whitman's elegy on Abraham
Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed' and Milton's "Lycidas."

10. Eulogy. Frequently confused with elegy, a eulogy is a poem praising the memory of the living
or the dead.

11. Emblematic Poems. Emblematic poems take the shape of the subject of the poem. An
emblematic poem on a swan, for example, would be in the shape of a swan. George Herbert's "Easter
Wings" is an example of an emblematic poem.

12. Epic. An epic is a long and serious narrative poem (a poem that tells a story) about a hero and
his heroic companions, often set in a past that is pictured as greater than the present. The hero often
possesses superhuman and/or divine traits. In Homer's Iliad, for example, the hero, Achilles, is the son
of a goddess; in Milton's Paradise Lost, the characters are God the Father, Christ, angels, and Adam
and Eve. The action is usually rather simple, Achilles' anger in the Iliad and the fall of man in Paradise
Lost, but it is increased by figurative language and allusions that often give it cosmic importance. The
style is elevated to reflect the greatness of the events, and certain traditional procedures are employed.
For example, the poet usually calls to the muses for help, asks them what initiated the action (the epic
question) and often begins his tale in the middle of the action (in medias res) At this point, the hero is
at his lowest fortunes, and later recounts the earlier part of the tale. Gods often participate in the tale, helping the heroes. There may be a trip into Hades. The epic simile, also called the Homeric simile, is an extended comparison, as a subject is compared to something that is presented at such length or detail that the subject is momentarily lost in the description. For example, in Paradise Lost, Satan walking in Eden is compared to a vulture:

Here walk'd the Fiend at large in spacious field,

As when a Vultur on Imam bred, '

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,

Dislodging from a Region scarce of prey

To gorge the flesh of Lambs or yearling Kids

On Hills where Flocks are fed, flies toward the Springs

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;

But in his way lights on the barren Plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With Sails and Wind their cany Waggons light;

So on this windy Sea of Land, the Fiend

Walk'd up and down alone bent on his prey.

There are two types of epics: the primary epic (sometimes called the primitive epic or a folk epic), which is a stately narrative about the noble class recited to the noble class; and the secondary epic (also called literary epic or artificial epic), a stately narrative about great events designed for a literary person to read from a book. Primary epics include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and the anonymous Old English Beowulf while secondary epics include Vergil's Aeneid and Milton's Paradise Lost. The poet of the primary epic speaks as the voice of the community, whereas the poet of the secondary epic may show more individuality. For example, Homer is not introspective; Milton sometimes is. Homer's poem? and Beowulf share discussion of aspects of an "heroic age" (virtue is identified with strength, celebrated by the poets). Because the poets in these heroic societies sang memorized poems, their chants contain a great many stock epithets and repeated lines. When such repetitions occur at particular positions in lines they are called formulas, and they served to help the poet compose his material and remember it. An example of formulaic poetry is Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha." Epics vary in structure. Beowulf, for example, uses alliteration and accentual stress, not rhyme or stanza length, to structure the poem.

13. Epigram. Originally meaning an "inscription," the epigram became for the Greeks a short
poem, usually solemn. But the Romans used the term to mean a short witty poem, with the sting at the
end. An example by John Wilmot:

We have a pretty witty King, Whose word no man relies on, Who never said a foolish thing. Nor ever did a wise one.

The term has come to mean any cleverly expressed thought in verse or prose.

14. Epitaph. An epitaph is a burial inscription, usually serious but sometimes humorous. John
Gay's own serves as an example: "Life is a jest and all things show it:/l thought so once, but now I
know it."

15. Epithalamion. (also spelled epithalamium). This is a lyric poem in honor of a bride or
bridegroom or both. It is usually ceremonial and happy, and is not simply in praise of marriage, but of a
particular marriage. Spenser's "Epithalamion" is the greatest in English. It begins, like its models in
Greek and Roman literature, with an invocation, and follows Catullus in calling on young people to
attend the bride, in praising the bride, and in welcoming the night. Spenser added deep Christian feeling
and realistic description of landscape.

16. Free Verse, (also called vers libre). Free verse is composed of rhythmical lines varying in
length, following no fixed metrical pattern, usually unrhymed. Often, the pattern is based on repetition
and parallel grammatical structure. Although it may appear unrestrained, it does follow the rules
outlined above. An example from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself:

I celebrate myself and sing myself

And what I assume you shall assume.

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

17. Haiku. Haiku is an Oriental verse form composed of seventeen syllables in three lines. Such
forms were greatly admired models for the Imagist school, an early twentieth century movement that
attempted to shed excess words to create poems of clear, concise details.

18. Idyll. An idyll is a short picturesque piece, usually about shepherds but sometimes a little epic, also called an epyllion. It presents an episode from the heroic past, but stresses the pictorial rather than the heroic.

19. Light verse. Light verse is considered playful poetry, since it often combines lightheartedness or whimsy with mild satire. The definition of light verse hanged in the late nineteenth century, however, to include less polished pieces such as nursery songs with funny rhymes and distorted pronunciations.

20. Limerick. A form of light verse, a limerick is a jingling poem composed of three long and two
short lines, the long lines (first, second, and fifth) rhyming with each other, and the short lines (third
and fourth) rhyming with each other. The rhyming words in the first line can sometimes be misspelled
to produce a humorous effect. The following limerick from an early sixteenth century songbook is an
example:

Once a Frenchman who'd promptly said "oui"

To some ladies who'd asked him if houi

Cared to drink, threw a fit

Upon finding that it

Was a tipple no stronger than toui

21. Lyric. Lyrics have regular rhyme schemes and are of a limited length, as in the fourteen-line
sonnet. Burns' famous drinking song "Avid Lang Syne," Robert Frost's short poems, and George
Herbert's religious meditations are examples of this form. If the emotion is hate or contempt, and its
expression is witty, the poem is usually called a satire, or if very brief, an epigram. A complaint is a
lyric expressing dissatisfaction, usually to an unresponsive love. Chaucer's humorous. "Complaint to
His Purse," for example, begins: "To you, my purse, and to noon other wight,/Complayne I, for ye be
my lady dere!" For a brief period in the 1800s, nature as well as love became a major subject for lyrics,
and poets such as William Wordsworth expressed their thoughts on clouds and daffodils more
frequently than those on iove.

22. Macaronic Verse. Macaronic verse is verse containing words resembling a foreign language or
a mixture of languages. For example:

"Mademoiselle got the croix de guerre, / For washing soldiers' underwear, / Hinky-dinky, parley-vous."

23. Narrative Verse. See epic.

24. Nonsense Verse. See light verse.

25. Occasional Poems. Poems that commemorate battles, anniversaries, coronations, or any other
occasions worthy of poetic treatment.

26. Ode. This form was usually a song in honor of gods or heroes, but is now usually a very long
lyric poem characterized by elevated feelings.

The Pindaric ode, named for the Greek poet Pindar (c. 522-443 B.C.), has two structurally identical stanzas, the strophe and antistrophe (Greek for "turn" and "counterturn"). These are followed by a stanza with a different structure, the epode (Greek for "stand"). The line length and rhyming patterns are determined by the individual poet. In the original Pindaric ode, the chorus danced a pattern while'singing during the strophe, retraced the same pattern while singing during the antistrophe, and sang without dancing during the epode. The odes were characterized by great passion. Notable English Pindaric odes are Gray's "The Progress of Poesy" and Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality."

Horatian odes, named after the Latin poet Horace (65-8 B.C.), are composed of matched regular stanzas of four lines which usually celebrate love, patriotism, or simple Roman morality. Notable English Horatian odes include Marvell's "Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return to Ireland," and Collins' "Ode to Evening" Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn'¹ is probably the best known Horatian Ode. Although the ode is a serious poem expressing the speaker's passion, it may be passion about almost anything. Especially during the 1800s, the ode tended to become less public and. more personal and introspective. Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" or Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" are examples of this introspection. The irregular ode, such as Wordworth's "Intimations on Immortality," has stanzas of various shapes, irregular rhyme schemes, and elaborate rhythms.

27. Sonnet. For the Elizabethans, sonnet and lyric were often considered one and the same, but to
the modern sensibility, sonnet has come to mean a poem of fourteen lines (sometimes twelve or sixteen,
but this is rare), written in iambic pentameter. There are two main kinds of sonnet: the Italian sonnet
(or Petrarchan; and the English sonnet (Elizabethan or Shakespearean).

The Italian sonnet has two divisions: The first eight lines are called the octave, rhyming abba abba cde cde. The section sets forth the theme of the poem, traditionally love and romance, and elaborates on it. The second section, the sestet, which rhymes cd cd cd, or a variant, reflects upon the theme and comes to a conclusion that ties everything together. Sidney's sonnets in English are Petrarchan, while Spencer's are linked rhymes with a variation. Milton, Wordsworth, and Keats have also written notable sonnets in the Italian form.

The English sonnet, in contrast, is arranged in three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab eded efefgg. In the Shakespearean sonnet, themes and recapitulations are developed the same way as in the Italian, but seven different rhymes are used instead of four or five. In many sonnets, there is a marked correspondence between the rhyme scheme and the development of thought. Thus the Italian sonnet gives the generalization in the octave and specific examples in the sestet. The English sonnet may give three examples, one in each quatrain, and draw a conclusion in the couplet.

A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets linked by a common theme, such as love betrayed, love renewed, love itself, etc. Some notable sonnet sequences include those of Elizabeth Barrett Browning ("Sonnets from the Portuguese"), George Meredith ("Modern Love"), W. H. Auden ("The Quest"), and Dylan Thomas ("Altai-wise by Owl-light"),

The Miltonic sonnet kept the Italian rhyme scheme, but changed the way the octet and sestet are constructed. Here, the sonnet no longer breaks at the octet but flows over or enjambs from line to line into the sestet. This type of sonnet appears to be more unified, beginning at one point and moving toward its inevitable conclusion. Milton also changed the theme of the typical sonnet. He moved into larger intellectual and religious concerns, a development begun by Donne.

28. Villanelle. A villanelle is a poetic form that not only rhymes but also repeats lines in a
predetermined manner, both as a refrain and as an important part of the poem itself. Five stanzas of
three linos each are followed by a quatrain. 1 he first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated in a
prescribed alternating order as the last lines of the remaining tercets, becoming the last two lines of the
final quatrain. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is an example cf a modern
villanelle.

Rhymed and Unrhymed Verse. Unrhymed verse is rather easy to classify, and can be divided into three main types. First is accentual verse, which originated in the eighth century, the earliest known kind of verse. Beowulf is an example of early accentual verse and Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Pied Beauty" is an example of nineteenth century accentual verse. Second is blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, a sixteenth-century invention made famous by Shakespeare. Third is modern free verse, found in the work of such poets as Walt Whitman, E. E. Cummings, Ezra Pound, and Denise Levertov.

Rhymed verse cannot be divided into three simple categories. There are those forms with a fixed length: the limerick with five lines, the sonnet with fourteen lines, and the villanelle with nineteen lines. There are other forms that do not have a fixed number of lines, although almost all are composed of stanzas. While each stanza usually has a fixed length, the number of stanzas may vary, so that a poem can be any length at all. There are a series of patterns, though, that we can isolate and discuss in depth.

The couplet is a stanza that has two lines that rhyme. A couplet is found at the end of an English sonnet to make the point and conclude: the discussion. An example from Shakespeare:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The triplet or tercet is composed of three rhyming lines, as we see here: He clasps the crag with crooked hands, Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

Another three-line stanza in which only the first and last lines rhyme is called terza rima. When several stanzas of terza rima are grouped together, the middle line of one stanza will rhyme with the first and third lines of the following stanza. For example:

О wild West Wind thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes:

0 thou Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The quatrain is a stanza composed of four lines which may have several different rhyme schemes: the second and fourth lines (abcb); the first and third, and the second and fourth (abab); the first and fourth and the second and third (abba); and the first and second, and third and fourth (aabb). Any one of these patterns may be used, or they may be combined in any variation. Thus, you cannot assume that if the first few stanzas follow a certain pattern, the rest of the poem will continue that pattern. It is always best to check the rhyme in each and every line to make sure the pattern follows what you assume.

(From: Kelly Griffith. Writing Essays about Literature, p. 119-123; Laurie Rozakis. AP English Literature and Composition, p. 187-193)

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1183