Divisions of Literature

Poetry Prose Poetry may or may not Prose does not make use rhyme, as ordinarily use of rhyme at all. it does not in blank and free verse.

Both prose and poetry can stir the emotion as well as the intellect.

Both can convey information as well as pleasure.

Poetry It expresses a strong emotion or a lofty thought compressed and intense utterance.

The main purpose of poetry is to provide pleasure and delight.

Prose It is generally concerned with the presentation of an idea, concept or point of view in a more ordinary and leisurely manner. The purpose of prose is to furnish information, instruction, or enlightenment. It appeals to the intellect.

It appeals to the emotion and imagination.

I. POETRY

Poetry may be described as rhythmic imaginative language expressing invention, thought, imagination, taste, passion, and insight of the human soul. Its purpose is enthrallment.

William Wordsworth describes it as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.

Characteristics of Poetry
A. Rhythm 1. Meter ( Organized Rhythm ) 2. Rhyme and other Sound Devices B. Imagery 1. Figures of Speech 2. Symbols C. Sense or Meaning

A.RHYTHM

Rhythm is the regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed, long and short, or high-pitched and lowpitched syllables creating a pattern in the lines of a poem. This gives the poem its melodious quality and makes it grand, solemn and majestic; sonorous and full; slow and mournful; rapid and light, etc.

1. Meter ( Organized Rhythm )

Meter is the measured pattern or grouping of syllables, called metric foot, according to accent and length. A group of metric feet forms a poetic line or verse. A group of poetic lines or verses is called stanza.

According to the placement of accent, there is a variety of patterns or feet of which the four basics are.

The The The The

Iamb ( Iambic foot ) Anapest ( Anapestic foot ) Trochus ( Trochaic foot ) Dactyl ( Dactylic foot )

a. IAMB

The Iambic foot consists of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable ( X / )

Ex. x

/ x

x /

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. -Gray, Elegy in a Country Churchyard

b. Anapest

The Anapestic foot consists of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable. ( X X / )

Ex. x x / x x / Did you fall in the race? x x / x x / Did you faint in the spurt
-Robins, The Best

c. Trochus

The Trochaic foot consists of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable. (/x)

Ex. / x /x / x Up the airy mountain / x / x / Down the rushy glen -Allingham, The Fairies

d. Dactyl

The Dactylic foot consists of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. ( / x x )

Ex.
/ x x / x x /x x / x x / x x / x
This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks.
-Longfellow, Evangeline

According to the number of feet in a poetic line, the principal verse lengths are: monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octameter, and nonameter. Scansion is the system by which a poem is described according to its metrical structure by identifying its accents and verse lengths.

Free verse is the natural flow of cadenced rhythms as created by the poet Blank verse is unrhymed verse

2. Rhyme and other sound devices

Rhyme is the regular recurrence of similar sounds usually at the end of lines or also within one line. The pattern or sequence in which the rhyme words occur in a stanza or poem is called the rhyme scheme. To find the rhyme scheme, the same letter of the alphabet is usually assigned to each similar sound in a stanza.

B. Imagery

Imagery refers to expressions evocative of objects of sensuous appeal. It may be in the form of direct description or may be figurative, which latter involves the use of figures of speech and symbols.

C. Sense or Meaning

A poem must say something. It must enlighten, reveal a truth, open new vistas, give new perceptions, enable to understand the world around us more deeply, and see things beyond the physical senses.

How do we try to understand a poem?

When reading a poem, it would help much to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words; to keep in mind that a poem is never purely literal; and to remember that the poet means and feels more than what he actually says.

Imagine yourself in the situation of the poet and try to see and feel as he does, give free rein to your imagination and feelings, and use all of your life experience to enlighten you so that the poem can acquire meaning for you.

Kinds of Poetry

1. Lyric 2. Narrative 3. Dramatic

Lyric Poetry

It is the utterance of the human heart in poetic form. It is described as brief and subjective, marked by imagination, melody and emotion, and creating a single unified expression

Popular types of lyric poetry:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Simple lyric Song Sonnet Elegy Ode

Simple lyric includes those lyrical poems that do not properly belong under any of the other types of lyrics. Song is a short lyric poem which has a particularly melodious quality and is intended primarily to be sung, or can easily be set to music.

Sonnet is a lyric of fourteen lines with a formal rhyme scheme or pattern. Types: Italian or Petrarchan, named after Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, consists of an octave which develops the theme, followed by a sextet which recapitulates the idea. The octave has a rhyme scheme of abba abba and the sextet, cde cde or cdcdcd, or some other combination.

Sonnet 5 (Francesco Petrarch)

I find no peace, and all my war is done; I fear and hope, I burn and freeze likewise; I fly above the wind, yet cannot rise; And nought I have, yet all the world I seize on; That looseth, nor locketh, holdeth me in prison, And holds me not, yet can Iscape no wise; Nor lets me live, nor die, at my devise. And yet of death it giveth none occasion. Without eyes I see, and without tongue I plain: I wish to perish, yet I ask for health; I love another, and yet I hate myself; I feed in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain; Lo, thus displeaseth me both death and life, And my delight is causer of my grief.

English, Elizabethan or Shakespearean Sonnet, named after William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I, is divided into three quatrains plus a couplet with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. The idea is developed in the three quatrains, and is summarized and reinforced in the closing couplet.

Sonnet XXIX (William Shakespeare)

When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state. And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself, and curse my fate. Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featurd like him, like him with friends possest, Desiring this mans art and that mans scope With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising Haply I think on thee, and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heavens gate; For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Spenserian Sonnet, named after the English poet Edmund Spenser, is divided into three quatrains and a closing couplet with a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee.

Elegy is a lamentation or an expression of mourning for the dead. By its very nature, the poems mood is solemn and sorrowful, yet it usually contains suggestions of hope and faith to allay the sorrow. Ode is the most majestic type of lyric poetry. It is exalted in tone and expresses lofty praise for some person, event, object or idea. It is elaborately designed and is formal in structure and content.

Narrative Poetry

It tells a story following a chronology of events. Types: 1. Ballad is a short simple narrative poem composed to be sung, and altered as it was orally transmitted from generation to generation until it was written down much later.

2. Metrical Tale relates real or imaginary events in simple straight forward language. It can choose from a wide range of subjects, characters, life experiences, emotional situations, and may project a mood that is serious or light. It is usually concerned with ordinary events.

3. Metrical Romance is a long rambling love story in verse revolving around the adventures of knights and lords and their highborn ladies during the age of chivalry. Heavily flavored with romance, fantastic events, supernatural occurrences, magic and the ideals of the medieval period such as honor, truth, courage, justice, and reverence for woman, the story is often rich in allegory and permits a great play of fancy and the conflict between the forces of good and of evil.

4. Epic is a long majestic narrative poem which tells of the exploits of a traditional hero and the development of a nation. Characteristics of an epic: -the story is broad in scope and theme; its subject matter is often a mixture of legend, history, myth, religion, and tradition

-the action is grand and on a huge scale, the supernatural element is highly pronounced and the characters are larger-than-life (gods, demi-gods and highborn mortals) -the source of conflict involves elemental passions; the events center on a prodigious struggle or effort to achieve a great purpose or carry out a great task against powerful forces

-the plot consists of numerous episodes and sub-plots peopled by numerous characters -the plot often begins in media res and the story is completed by a series of flashbacks -the style is solemn and majestic in keeping with the grandeur of the subject matter

Dramatic Poetry

It has elements that closely relate it to drama, either because it is written in some kind of dramatic form, or uses a dramatic technique. It may also suggest a story, but there is more emphasis on character rather than on the narrative.

Forms of dramatic poetry: -Dramatic Monologue presents the speech of a single character who addresses one or more persons who are present and who are listening to the speaker, but remain silent.
-Soliloquy is a passage spoken by a speaker in a poem or by a character in a play, except that there is no one present to hear him.

-Character Sketch is a poem in which the writer is concerned less with matters of story, complete or implied, than he is with arousing sympathy, antagonism, or merely interest for an individual.