An enormous quantity of poetry, literary criticism and theory, and much else besides is now available on the Internet, and new sites appear by the week, many of them excellent. Even more staggering is the growth in non-English and non-European language sites, which is surely to be welcomed. Literary ezines also appear like overnight mushrooms, disappearing just as fast. Keeping up with such phenomenal activity is not easy, and many academic sites have given up trying, arguing that the better work is still in printed form.
I think that is true, but only for the moment. When the new generation of ebook readers finally arrive, most of what is carried at great cost and inconvenience in major libraries will move online, a boon not only to scholarship but immensely important to education in the Third World. Even the 3,000-odd small presses should benefit, of which only a few currently have more than token Internet representation. Some have disdained Internet representation altogether, and continue to assert an avant garde status in a seventies magazine style, guaranteeing that circulations stay in the low hundreds, and finances a recurring nightmare.
All that will change as readers demand value for money. Marketing has become enormously sophisticated — I am writing now as the Editor of a well-known site for online selling — and some very sharp minds in large corporations are figuring out how content can be turned into ready cash. Believe them when they say it will be done. Even now it's practically impossible to get a good listing in the major search engines unless your site is astonishingly good, or you are prepared to pay, and pay handsomely.
How does all this affect the resource listings here? Only that you should take advantage of a service that is already under threat. I don't have the time to maintain these 2,800 listings by more than automated link checkers at intervals of a few months, and would ask you let me know when your site address changes, or you come across something of interest in your own browsing.
Poetry Online
On this page are listed directories of poetry magazines and ezines, popular (amateur) poetry sites, sites for mainstream British and American poetry, for foreign poetry, for sites with audio and multimedia, and sites announcing poetry readings. Poetry ezines per se are not listed, and the small presses have their own page (see below). Please don't ask me to list your own poetry site or ezine — there are just too many to do this properly — but submit to the directories that do maintain such listings.
Poetry Resources
Poetry is also an intellectual activity, and calls on a great deal of material. On the poetry resources page is to be found general writer's resources, online libraries and dictionaries, guides to style, rhetoric and grammar, plus leading sites for philosophy, literary theory and criticism, poetry teaching, book news, poetry publishers and publishing advice, legal matters, electronic publishing, website hosting and access by subscription libraries.
Workshops
Your local writing circle or community centre will be your first port of call, but this lists on- and off-line poetry workshops, Internet bulletin Boards and individual critiquing or tutorial services.
Bibliography
Books and printed sources cited in the text are listed some eight hundred in all.
© C. John Holcombe 2007. Material can be freely used for non-commercial purposes if cited in the usual way.
Friday, January 23, 2009
TRADITIONAL POETRY
Introduction
Poets and workshop conveners dread the question, but it can hardly be avoided. What exactly is poetry? Dictionaries generally offer something like: the expression or embodiment of beautiful or elevated thought, imagination or feeling in language adapted to stir the imagination and the emotions.
But if this expresses the expectations of the man in the street, it doesn't describe the aims of most poets working today, nor take us far in appreciating the variety of past work.
Traditional Poetry
Traditionalists generally believe that poems give enduring and universal life to what was merely transitory and particular. Through them, the poet expresses his vision, real or imaginative, and he does so in forms that are intelligible and pleasurable to others, and likely to arouse emotions akin to his own. Poetry is language organized for aesthetic purposes. Whatever else it does, poetry must bear witness, must fulfill the cry: 'let not my heart forget what mine eyes have seen.' A poem is distinguished by the feeling that dictates it and that which it communicates, by the economy and resonance of its language, and by the imaginative power that integrates, intensifies and enhances experience. Poems bear some relationship to real life but are equally autonomous and independent entities that contain within themselves the reason why they are so and not otherwise. Unlike discourse, which proceeds by logical steps, poetry is intuited whole as a presentiment of thought and/or feeling. Workaday prose is an abbreviation of reality: poetry is its intensification. Poems have a transcendental quality: there is a sudden transformation through which words assume a particular importance. Like a bar of music, or a small element in a holographic image, a phrase in a poem has the power to immediately call up whole ranges of possibilities and expectations. Art is a way of knowing, and is valuable in proportion to the justice with which it evaluates that knowledge. Poetry is an embodiment of human values, not a kind of syntax. True symbolism in poetry allows the particular to represent the more general, not as a dream or shadow, but as the momentary, living revelation of the inscrutable.
The poet's task is to resurrect the outer, transient and perishable world within himself, to transform it into something much more real. He must recognize pattern wherever he sees it, and build his perceptions into poetic form that has the coherence and urgency to persuade us of its truth: the intellectual has to be fused with the sensuous meaning. All poets borrow, but where good poets improve on their borrowing, the bad debase. The greatness of the poet is measurable by the real significance of the resemblances on which he builds, the depth of the roots in the constitution, if not of the physical world, then of the moral and emotional nature of man.
Poetry can be verse or prose. Verse has a strong metrical element. An inner music is the soul of poetry. Poetry withers and dries out when it leaves music, or at least some imagined music, too far behind. The diction of poetry is a fiction, neither that of the speaker nor the audience. Without its contrivance poetry is still possible, but is immensely poorer. Subtly the vocabulary of poetry changes with the period, but words too familiar or too remote defeat purpose of the poet. {1}
Poets and workshop conveners dread the question, but it can hardly be avoided. What exactly is poetry? Dictionaries generally offer something like: the expression or embodiment of beautiful or elevated thought, imagination or feeling in language adapted to stir the imagination and the emotions.
But if this expresses the expectations of the man in the street, it doesn't describe the aims of most poets working today, nor take us far in appreciating the variety of past work.
Traditional Poetry
Traditionalists generally believe that poems give enduring and universal life to what was merely transitory and particular. Through them, the poet expresses his vision, real or imaginative, and he does so in forms that are intelligible and pleasurable to others, and likely to arouse emotions akin to his own. Poetry is language organized for aesthetic purposes. Whatever else it does, poetry must bear witness, must fulfill the cry: 'let not my heart forget what mine eyes have seen.' A poem is distinguished by the feeling that dictates it and that which it communicates, by the economy and resonance of its language, and by the imaginative power that integrates, intensifies and enhances experience. Poems bear some relationship to real life but are equally autonomous and independent entities that contain within themselves the reason why they are so and not otherwise. Unlike discourse, which proceeds by logical steps, poetry is intuited whole as a presentiment of thought and/or feeling. Workaday prose is an abbreviation of reality: poetry is its intensification. Poems have a transcendental quality: there is a sudden transformation through which words assume a particular importance. Like a bar of music, or a small element in a holographic image, a phrase in a poem has the power to immediately call up whole ranges of possibilities and expectations. Art is a way of knowing, and is valuable in proportion to the justice with which it evaluates that knowledge. Poetry is an embodiment of human values, not a kind of syntax. True symbolism in poetry allows the particular to represent the more general, not as a dream or shadow, but as the momentary, living revelation of the inscrutable.
The poet's task is to resurrect the outer, transient and perishable world within himself, to transform it into something much more real. He must recognize pattern wherever he sees it, and build his perceptions into poetic form that has the coherence and urgency to persuade us of its truth: the intellectual has to be fused with the sensuous meaning. All poets borrow, but where good poets improve on their borrowing, the bad debase. The greatness of the poet is measurable by the real significance of the resemblances on which he builds, the depth of the roots in the constitution, if not of the physical world, then of the moral and emotional nature of man.
Poetry can be verse or prose. Verse has a strong metrical element. An inner music is the soul of poetry. Poetry withers and dries out when it leaves music, or at least some imagined music, too far behind. The diction of poetry is a fiction, neither that of the speaker nor the audience. Without its contrivance poetry is still possible, but is immensely poorer. Subtly the vocabulary of poetry changes with the period, but words too familiar or too remote defeat purpose of the poet. {1}
Understanding Literary Archetypes
Archetypal analysis of a work is one of the most common forms of literary analysis. It is easy to understand and use with a little knowledge of the basics.
First of all, an archetype is a pattern from which copies can be made. That is, it is a universal theme that manifests itself differently on an individual basis. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that these archetypes were the result of a collective unconscious. This collective unconscious was not directly knowable and is a product of the shared experiences of our ancestors. Jung believed it was:
Primordial: That is, we, as individuals, have these archetypal images ingrained in our understanding even before we are born.
Universal: These archetypes can be found all over the world and throughout history. The manifestation of the idea may be different, but the idea itself is the same.
Archetypes fall into two major categories: characters, situations/symbols. It is easiest to understand them with the help of examples. Listed below are some of the most common archetypes in each category.
Characters:
1. The hero - The courageous figure, the one who's always running in and saving the day. Example: Dartagnon from Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers"
2. The outcast - The outcast is just that. He or she has been cast out of society or has left it on a voluntary basis. The outcast figure can oftentimes also be considered as a Christ figure. Example: Simon from William Golding's "The Lord of the Flies"
3. The scapegoat - The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for everything, regardless of whether he or she is actually at fault. Example: Snowball from George Orwell's "Animal Farm"
4. The star-crossed lovers - This is the young couple joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate. Example: Romeo and Juliet from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"
5. The shrew - This is that nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband with verbal abuse. Example: Zeena from Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome"
Situations/symbols:
• The task - A situation in which a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete some duty of monstrous proportion. Example: Frodo's task to keep the ring safe in J. R. R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy
• The quest - Here, the character(s) are searching for something, whether consciously or unconsciously. Their actions, thoughts, and feelings center around the goal fo completing this quest. Example: Christian's quest for salvation in John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress"
• The loss of innocence - This is, as the name implies, a loss of innocence through sexual experience, violence, or any other means. Example: Val's loss of innocence after settling down at the mercantile store in Tennessee William's "Orpheus Descending"
• The initiation - This is the process by which a character is brought into another sphere of influence, usually (in literature) into adulthood. Example: Ayla's initiation both into the Clan and into adulthood in Jean Auel's "The Clan of the Cave Bear"
• Water - Water is a symbol of life, cleansing, and rebirth. It is a strong life force, and is often depicted as a living, reasoning force. Example: Edna learns to swim in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"
Hopefully, you will now be able to recognize and understand archetypes as you come across them in your readings. They help to add depth and underlying significance to some of the world's best literature.
First of all, an archetype is a pattern from which copies can be made. That is, it is a universal theme that manifests itself differently on an individual basis. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that these archetypes were the result of a collective unconscious. This collective unconscious was not directly knowable and is a product of the shared experiences of our ancestors. Jung believed it was:
Primordial: That is, we, as individuals, have these archetypal images ingrained in our understanding even before we are born.
Universal: These archetypes can be found all over the world and throughout history. The manifestation of the idea may be different, but the idea itself is the same.
Archetypes fall into two major categories: characters, situations/symbols. It is easiest to understand them with the help of examples. Listed below are some of the most common archetypes in each category.
Characters:
1. The hero - The courageous figure, the one who's always running in and saving the day. Example: Dartagnon from Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers"
2. The outcast - The outcast is just that. He or she has been cast out of society or has left it on a voluntary basis. The outcast figure can oftentimes also be considered as a Christ figure. Example: Simon from William Golding's "The Lord of the Flies"
3. The scapegoat - The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for everything, regardless of whether he or she is actually at fault. Example: Snowball from George Orwell's "Animal Farm"
4. The star-crossed lovers - This is the young couple joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate. Example: Romeo and Juliet from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"
5. The shrew - This is that nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband with verbal abuse. Example: Zeena from Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome"
Situations/symbols:
• The task - A situation in which a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete some duty of monstrous proportion. Example: Frodo's task to keep the ring safe in J. R. R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy
• The quest - Here, the character(s) are searching for something, whether consciously or unconsciously. Their actions, thoughts, and feelings center around the goal fo completing this quest. Example: Christian's quest for salvation in John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress"
• The loss of innocence - This is, as the name implies, a loss of innocence through sexual experience, violence, or any other means. Example: Val's loss of innocence after settling down at the mercantile store in Tennessee William's "Orpheus Descending"
• The initiation - This is the process by which a character is brought into another sphere of influence, usually (in literature) into adulthood. Example: Ayla's initiation both into the Clan and into adulthood in Jean Auel's "The Clan of the Cave Bear"
• Water - Water is a symbol of life, cleansing, and rebirth. It is a strong life force, and is often depicted as a living, reasoning force. Example: Edna learns to swim in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"
Hopefully, you will now be able to recognize and understand archetypes as you come across them in your readings. They help to add depth and underlying significance to some of the world's best literature.
Poetry
This article is about the art form. For the magazine, see Poetry (magazine).
Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making") is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.
Poetry, and discussions of it, has a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy.[1] Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.[2] From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.[3]
Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poetry's use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor and simile create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as being written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are traditions, such as those of Du Fu and Beowulf, that use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. In today's globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from diverse cultures and languages.
Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making") is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.
Poetry, and discussions of it, has a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy.[1] Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.[2] From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.[3]
Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poetry's use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor and simile create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as being written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are traditions, such as those of Du Fu and Beowulf, that use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. In today's globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from diverse cultures and languages.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tip Sheet on: Poetry Analysis
Poetry has many of the same elements as fiction: theme, narrator, setting, and characters. However poetry concentrates its elements in fewer words. Poets choose the words that they use very carefully. They delight in using figurative language, rhyme, imagery, and vocabulary that has more than one meaning.
Before focusing on specific poetic elements, here are a few steps to help acquaint you with the poem:
1. Look at the poem – are there any striking characteristics about the way it is set up? Do the lines/stanzas have a pattern?
2. Read the poem out loud – take note of the way it sounds. Does it have a certain rhythm to it?
3. After reading the poem and obtaining a general idea of what it is about, look at the title. How does the title relate to the poem?
Now it is time to analyze the five different components of the poem, (1) the speaker, (2) the structure, (3) the meaning, (4) the imagery and (5) the rhythm, meter and rhyme scheme.
Speaker
Understanding the Speaker is an essential component of poetry analysis. When looking at a poem, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Who is the speaker? Is it a male or female? An object? An historical figure?
2. To whom or what are they speaking? Is the speaker talking about someone? About the past? Present? Future?
3. What is the speaker’s tone? What is the speaker’s mood and how is it created? Is the poet reflective? Happy? Angry?
Structure
Examine the way the poem looks and is presented on the page.
1. How is the poem set up? Is it separated in to stanzas? Does it follow the pattern of one of the closed forms, such as sonnet, limerick, or haiku?
2. Is the poem in free verse?
3. How are the lines set up? Is there one word per line? Is the poem one continuous sentence?
4. How does the structure of the poem contribute to meaning?
Meaning
Now that you’ve determined the speaker and noted any special qualities about structure, read the poem for meaning.
1. As you’re reading, note any words that you do not know. After you’ve finished reading the poem, look these words up in a dictionary. This is important because poets choose each word on purpose, not only for its sound, but for the nuance of meaning or multiplicity or meanings a particular word has.
2. After you’ve looked up unfamiliar words, read the poem again as a whole. Try to determine the main idea of the poem - feel free to paraphrase in your own words.
3. You may want to treat the poem as a puzzle: First figure out the meaning of the first line in the first stanza, then the meaning of the second and so on. At the end of the stanza, figure out how the lines work together to create meaning. Jot this down and continue to do the same for the next stanza. After you have mini-summaries for each stanza, put them together to determine the larger meaning of the poem as a whole.
Imagery Not only do the words in a poem create a physical image on the page, but in their meaning and connection, they convey images to the reader.
1. The easiest images to pick out are similes and metaphors.
2. Look for words that reflect the five senses. Are there phrases and words that create a picture, sound, taste, feeling or smell in your mind? Are words used such as buzz or cuckoo (onomatopoeia) which imitates what they name?
3. Look for the repetition of colors, sounds, images, or specific sensory words. Repetition of certain words creates meaning and puts importance on those words that are repeated.
Rhythm, Meter and Rhyme Scheme The most effective way to find rhythm, meter and rhyme in a poem is to read it out loud.
1. Rhythm is the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds. Depending on
how the words are arranged in a poem, it can sound melodic or discordant,
fast or slow, etc. Rhythm’s what gives some poems their “sing-song” quality.
A recurring pattern of rhythm is called meter.
2. The rhyme scheme of a poem describes the pattern of end rhymes. Rhyme
schemes are mapped out by noting patterns of rhyme with small letters: the
first rhyme sound is designated a, the second b, the third c, and so on.
By the time you have read the poem six or seven times, and identified all the parts, you should be able to come to some basic conclusions. “Oftentimes the point will be a complex thing—a tension of forces between potentially opposed moods or images or ideas…A really good analysis covers the whole poem, uniting all its parts” (Padgett).
Before focusing on specific poetic elements, here are a few steps to help acquaint you with the poem:
1. Look at the poem – are there any striking characteristics about the way it is set up? Do the lines/stanzas have a pattern?
2. Read the poem out loud – take note of the way it sounds. Does it have a certain rhythm to it?
3. After reading the poem and obtaining a general idea of what it is about, look at the title. How does the title relate to the poem?
Now it is time to analyze the five different components of the poem, (1) the speaker, (2) the structure, (3) the meaning, (4) the imagery and (5) the rhythm, meter and rhyme scheme.
Speaker
Understanding the Speaker is an essential component of poetry analysis. When looking at a poem, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Who is the speaker? Is it a male or female? An object? An historical figure?
2. To whom or what are they speaking? Is the speaker talking about someone? About the past? Present? Future?
3. What is the speaker’s tone? What is the speaker’s mood and how is it created? Is the poet reflective? Happy? Angry?
Structure
Examine the way the poem looks and is presented on the page.
1. How is the poem set up? Is it separated in to stanzas? Does it follow the pattern of one of the closed forms, such as sonnet, limerick, or haiku?
2. Is the poem in free verse?
3. How are the lines set up? Is there one word per line? Is the poem one continuous sentence?
4. How does the structure of the poem contribute to meaning?
Meaning
Now that you’ve determined the speaker and noted any special qualities about structure, read the poem for meaning.
1. As you’re reading, note any words that you do not know. After you’ve finished reading the poem, look these words up in a dictionary. This is important because poets choose each word on purpose, not only for its sound, but for the nuance of meaning or multiplicity or meanings a particular word has.
2. After you’ve looked up unfamiliar words, read the poem again as a whole. Try to determine the main idea of the poem - feel free to paraphrase in your own words.
3. You may want to treat the poem as a puzzle: First figure out the meaning of the first line in the first stanza, then the meaning of the second and so on. At the end of the stanza, figure out how the lines work together to create meaning. Jot this down and continue to do the same for the next stanza. After you have mini-summaries for each stanza, put them together to determine the larger meaning of the poem as a whole.
Imagery Not only do the words in a poem create a physical image on the page, but in their meaning and connection, they convey images to the reader.
1. The easiest images to pick out are similes and metaphors.
2. Look for words that reflect the five senses. Are there phrases and words that create a picture, sound, taste, feeling or smell in your mind? Are words used such as buzz or cuckoo (onomatopoeia) which imitates what they name?
3. Look for the repetition of colors, sounds, images, or specific sensory words. Repetition of certain words creates meaning and puts importance on those words that are repeated.
Rhythm, Meter and Rhyme Scheme The most effective way to find rhythm, meter and rhyme in a poem is to read it out loud.
1. Rhythm is the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds. Depending on
how the words are arranged in a poem, it can sound melodic or discordant,
fast or slow, etc. Rhythm’s what gives some poems their “sing-song” quality.
A recurring pattern of rhythm is called meter.
2. The rhyme scheme of a poem describes the pattern of end rhymes. Rhyme
schemes are mapped out by noting patterns of rhyme with small letters: the
first rhyme sound is designated a, the second b, the third c, and so on.
By the time you have read the poem six or seven times, and identified all the parts, you should be able to come to some basic conclusions. “Oftentimes the point will be a complex thing—a tension of forces between potentially opposed moods or images or ideas…A really good analysis covers the whole poem, uniting all its parts” (Padgett).
Types of Poetry: A World-Class Virtual Encyclopedia
Has anyone ever asked you, "What types of poetry do you write?"
What people generally mean by “types of poetry” is “What particular poetic forms do you employ?” or “What is the subject matter you explore?” They may really be asking you to describe your poetry in some kind of terms they may understand from their high school English classes.
These questions are difficult to answer if you do not understand the different types of poetry on the market (and many people, particularly the uninitiated, don’t).
Nevertheless, learning different techniques can be a lot of fun. And the study of the different types of poetry is an excellent way to become familiar with the history of poetry, with individual poets with whom we may not be familiar - or that we admire - and a great way to improve on our own craft.
Of course, types of poetry are determined by several key factors. We’ll refer to them as elements:
The elements of poetry are form, style, tone, philosophy, school (aka movement) and subject matter.
The elements of poetry: Form, Style and Tone
Versus Philosophy, School and Subject Matter
The first element, form, is the particular genre of poetry, or category, the poem may fall into. For instance, sonnet, haiku, cinquain, sestina, villanelle and ballade are all different forms of poetry. However, there are many more.
Click one of the links below to learn more about that poetry form:
Sonnet
Ars Poetica
Haiku
Ballade
Kyrielle
Style and tone have to do with the individual uniqueness of every poet and, many times, individual poems. Style refers to how poetry is written using such tools as capitalization, punctuation, line breaks and word choice. Tone has more to do with the overall feeling a poem arouses in its reader.
Is it a sad poem? Or is it funny? Does it evoke feelings of despair or joy? Love or hate? Does it inspire, criticize, and have a sort of mystery to it? All of these questions are answered by the tone of the poem itself.
The elements of poetry vary by individual poem as much as they do by the poets who write them. William Shakespeare wrote in the sonnet form but each of his thousands of sonnets has an individual style and tone that sets it apart from all the others. You can even tell the difference between a Shakespearean Sonnet and the sonnets of other poets who used that form as well – two that come to mind are Petrarch and Edmund Spenser – simply because they each had their own unique style and tone. In other words, the elements set them apart.
Philosophy is another element of poetry that bears mentioning. Every poet, and every poem for that matter, has a particular philosophy underlying it. You may even call it a worldview. It can be religious, secular, romantic, puritan, nihilistic, esoteric or any number of other philosophical schools of thought. But every poet approaches the craft of poetry from a different point of view. Inevitably, that worldview is going to seep in, either intentionally or unintentionally. It’s good to be aware of your particular worldview and exploit it for all it’s worth.
What's more, entire schools or movements may have an underlying philosophy behind them, which makes certain types of poetry difficult to define.
The particular school of poetry, or class, is also important. It could just as well be called movement and is closely related to philosophy but is different from philosophy because poets from different, or even competing, worldviews may belong to the same poetic school or movement.
Follow one of the links below to learn more about each school or movement of poetry:
Harlem Renaissance Poetry
Finally, subject matter is of prime importance in influencing the type of poetry one writes. Are you writing about politics? Love? War? Vengeance? An epic tale of heroism? Or a trivial conversation?
While any form or style of poetry can theoretically be used to write about any subject matter, the type of poetry one does write is closely related to subject matter. The sonnet, for instance, is mostly used to write about love and romance. Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," however, a political rant, addresses another subject altogether and is written in a completely different style and tone.
So, no matter what types of poetry you write, subject matter is at least of some consideration when discussing form, style and tone.
The Chicken or the Egg
Or, Which Came First? Form, Style and Tone, or Subject Matter?
When writing a poem, where do you start?
That’s a good question. Theoretically, you can start anywhere, and different poets have started at different places, even when writing on similar themes. The same poet may even start two different poems from two different beginnings.
You may get an idea for a title first, or you may get the idea for the first line – or any line – and work off of that. You may decide you’d like to write about a feeling you have for a particular person or event, or maybe you want to write about what you witnessed on the way to school one morning.
It really doesn’t matter where you start, but it does matter how you incorporate all of the elements so they work together. Before you can do that, though, you need to study each poetic element on its own to understand how they all fit into the whole.
We invite you on a little journey. Take a step into the World-Class Poetry web universe and embark on a fascinating study of poetry, the types of poetry that have been written down through history and a philosophy of poetics as unique as your grandmother's apple pie.
Poetry Terms
Sign up for our weekly e-zine Hyperbole. Chock full of insights into the best forms, poetry terms, poet bios, poetry book reviews, and other helps to provide poets with the tools necessary to improve their craft and get published.
What people generally mean by “types of poetry” is “What particular poetic forms do you employ?” or “What is the subject matter you explore?” They may really be asking you to describe your poetry in some kind of terms they may understand from their high school English classes.
These questions are difficult to answer if you do not understand the different types of poetry on the market (and many people, particularly the uninitiated, don’t).
Nevertheless, learning different techniques can be a lot of fun. And the study of the different types of poetry is an excellent way to become familiar with the history of poetry, with individual poets with whom we may not be familiar - or that we admire - and a great way to improve on our own craft.
Of course, types of poetry are determined by several key factors. We’ll refer to them as elements:
The elements of poetry are form, style, tone, philosophy, school (aka movement) and subject matter.
The elements of poetry: Form, Style and Tone
Versus Philosophy, School and Subject Matter
The first element, form, is the particular genre of poetry, or category, the poem may fall into. For instance, sonnet, haiku, cinquain, sestina, villanelle and ballade are all different forms of poetry. However, there are many more.
Click one of the links below to learn more about that poetry form:
Sonnet
Ars Poetica
Haiku
Ballade
Kyrielle
Style and tone have to do with the individual uniqueness of every poet and, many times, individual poems. Style refers to how poetry is written using such tools as capitalization, punctuation, line breaks and word choice. Tone has more to do with the overall feeling a poem arouses in its reader.
Is it a sad poem? Or is it funny? Does it evoke feelings of despair or joy? Love or hate? Does it inspire, criticize, and have a sort of mystery to it? All of these questions are answered by the tone of the poem itself.
The elements of poetry vary by individual poem as much as they do by the poets who write them. William Shakespeare wrote in the sonnet form but each of his thousands of sonnets has an individual style and tone that sets it apart from all the others. You can even tell the difference between a Shakespearean Sonnet and the sonnets of other poets who used that form as well – two that come to mind are Petrarch and Edmund Spenser – simply because they each had their own unique style and tone. In other words, the elements set them apart.
Philosophy is another element of poetry that bears mentioning. Every poet, and every poem for that matter, has a particular philosophy underlying it. You may even call it a worldview. It can be religious, secular, romantic, puritan, nihilistic, esoteric or any number of other philosophical schools of thought. But every poet approaches the craft of poetry from a different point of view. Inevitably, that worldview is going to seep in, either intentionally or unintentionally. It’s good to be aware of your particular worldview and exploit it for all it’s worth.
What's more, entire schools or movements may have an underlying philosophy behind them, which makes certain types of poetry difficult to define.
The particular school of poetry, or class, is also important. It could just as well be called movement and is closely related to philosophy but is different from philosophy because poets from different, or even competing, worldviews may belong to the same poetic school or movement.
Follow one of the links below to learn more about each school or movement of poetry:
Harlem Renaissance Poetry
Finally, subject matter is of prime importance in influencing the type of poetry one writes. Are you writing about politics? Love? War? Vengeance? An epic tale of heroism? Or a trivial conversation?
While any form or style of poetry can theoretically be used to write about any subject matter, the type of poetry one does write is closely related to subject matter. The sonnet, for instance, is mostly used to write about love and romance. Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," however, a political rant, addresses another subject altogether and is written in a completely different style and tone.
So, no matter what types of poetry you write, subject matter is at least of some consideration when discussing form, style and tone.
The Chicken or the Egg
Or, Which Came First? Form, Style and Tone, or Subject Matter?
When writing a poem, where do you start?
That’s a good question. Theoretically, you can start anywhere, and different poets have started at different places, even when writing on similar themes. The same poet may even start two different poems from two different beginnings.
You may get an idea for a title first, or you may get the idea for the first line – or any line – and work off of that. You may decide you’d like to write about a feeling you have for a particular person or event, or maybe you want to write about what you witnessed on the way to school one morning.
It really doesn’t matter where you start, but it does matter how you incorporate all of the elements so they work together. Before you can do that, though, you need to study each poetic element on its own to understand how they all fit into the whole.
We invite you on a little journey. Take a step into the World-Class Poetry web universe and embark on a fascinating study of poetry, the types of poetry that have been written down through history and a philosophy of poetics as unique as your grandmother's apple pie.
Poetry Terms
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Welcome
Welcome to my web blog. Here you can discuss or share about literature: short story, poem, novel, etc. In addition, if you need any articles, you can find out here because everyone can copy everything. This blog dedicates to all people who interested with literature, classic and modern. I just want to say "let go literature".
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