What is Poetry?
The word poetry infact comes from a Greek verb which means "to make" (poet means maker). Poetry is a language that
says, more than ordinary language and says it with fewer word(compact) and in less space. Poets use language in a special
way, like other writers, poets choose words for their sense, but they also choose words for what they hint or suggest (conotation
of words), for the way they sound and for the word pictures, they create. Ordinary language, makes sense. Poetry makes sense
and sound, rhythm, music and vision.
Kinds of Poetry
- Narrative Poetry: narrates a story, like a short-story. A narrative poem has a plot, charactes, setting, and theme
and unlike a shrot-story it is written in verse, language with definite rhythm or beat.
- Epic
- Ballad
- Road side Ballad
- Literary Ballad
- Romance
- Lyric: In this kind of poetry, the poet expresses his or her own feeling.
- Sonnet:
- The Italian OR Petrarchan Sonnet (abba abba cde cde)
- English OR Shakespearian Sonnet (abab cdcd efef gg)
- Spensarian Sonnet (abab bcbc cdcd ee)
- Ode
- Regular Ode
- Irregular Ode
- Horation Ode
- Elegy
- Dramatic Poetry: In this kind of poetry, the poet employs form or technique. It
is a poetry in which the speaker is clearly some one other than the poet.
Approaches to Poetry:
There are broadly speaking two main ways of thinking about poetry. One approach is to concentrate on the poet himself
, undelying this approach very often is the idea that poetry is primarily an expression of the poets motion the clearest statement
of the view point is a comment by William Wordsworth that: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling"
The second approach is to concentrate on discussing the poem itslef, the focos of our attention here is
on the poet as a "maker", a maker of meanings with words, the moment we stress this element of craftsmanship, it becomes possible
to talk both content and form of poetry.
In much more tangible terms:
- "Content" is what a poem says, what is about, it is subject matter.
"Form" is the way in which it says ot, how is it written, the language it uses, the pattern it employs.
Most poems are written in lines of the same length; usually these lines are arranged into the symmetrical groups we called
"stanza", often the poem has a repeated rhyme pattern running through each stanza, which is usually fairly conspicous.
In theory a poem can be about anything, there are, however, certain topics that concern us all and these are the recurrent themes of poetry.
"LOVE" is a center expression and experience in life, and it is not surprising that love poems out number than all others.
"DEATH" is also a major concern to us all, and this can be limited with religion. Most people at same time wonder, whether
life ends with death or if they are part of some greater pattern, poet need not, however, concerns themselves with such weighty topics, they (poet) might
wish to write about nature or family or some other domestic matter. Poetry becomes less frightening if we release that it is always concerns with daily
matter of everybody's life.
|