Poetry and its types

As we have discussed about literature and its classification in the previous article, now we are going to discuss poetry which is one of the major genre of literature and its types.

Poetry:-

The word  "poetry" has been derived  from Greek word "poetes" which means 'doer, creator '. 

Following are some of the definitions of poetry regarding various authors.

"Poetry is as charming to our air as sleep to the weary"

           ( Virgil )

" If poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree, it had better not come to all ".                        

           ( John Keats ) 

"Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history ; for poetry expresses the universal and history only the specific"

           ( Aristotle )

" Poetry is a musical thought "

           ( Carlyle )

" Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things " 

           ( Mathew Arnold )

" Prose is words in best order while poetry is the eat words in their best words "

           ( S.T Coleridge )

   Kinds of Poetry 

 

There are two kinds of poetry

 

#1 Subjective poetry :-

The following genres come in the subjective poetry.

Lyric :-

Lyric is usually a  song to be sung with the accompaniment of lyre ( musical instrument ).

lyric is usually fairly short, not often longer than fifty  or sixty lines,  and often between a dozen and thirty lines.

 It usually expresses the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker in a personal and subjective fashion.

Elegy :-

Elegy has been derived from Greek, meaning    'lament' ( To mourn ).

In classical literature an elegy was any poem with discuss death, war, love and similar themes.

Now elegy has come to be called poem of mourning for an individual or to lament for some tragic event.

Ode :-

Literally 'ode' is a Greek word meaning ' song '

An idea is generally unusually free flow of feelings and imagery and often in the form of address, elevated in tone and style.

There are other some features and types of odes that will be discussed in the later articles.

Sonnet :-

Literally, 'Sonnet' means ' sound '

The term sonnet has been derived from Provencal word 'sonet' and Italian word ' sonetto '  which means little song.

It is a short poem comprising of fourteen lines.

Sonnet usually signifies a poem of fourteen lines following a strict rhyme scheme and logical structure.

There are a lot of things about sonnets which we will discuss in its separate article on time.

#2 Objective poetry :-

Ballad :-

It is usually a short poem to be recited .

A short story in verse is called ballad.

Ballad is derived from the word 'ballare' which means to dance.

In classical literature people use to sung ballad with dance and the lines were frequently repeated by the bard, but then the dance was dropped out.

Epic :-

It is a long story in verse. It is a narrative poem dealing with heroic achievements, military deeds and tributes of national heroes.

There are two kinda of epic 

1- primary_ also known as oral or primitive 

2- secondary_also known as literary.

Dramatic Monologue :-

The continuously speaking of a  man with or without audience without the interruption of someone is called dramatic monologue.

It must be not confused with soliloquy which is a different thing.