Poetry in Literary Studies Essay Example For Students

Poetry in Literary Studies Essay Outward Indications In addition, there are a number of outward signs that indicate a poem: Most obviously, the individual text lines in poetry do not fill the entire width of the page. Thus, before they have actually started reading, readers of poetry are given an instant indication that what they are going to read is probably a poem. In consequence, a readers attention is likely to focus on poetic features of the text. Poetry is often associated not only with specialized language but with a very dense use of such specialized language. Poems usually try to express their meaning in much less space than, say, a novel or even a short story. Alexander Pope once explained that he preferred to write poetry even when he wrote about philosophy because it enabled him to express himself more briefly (Pope, Preface to An Essay on Man, 1734). As a result of its relative brevity, poetry tends to make more concentrated use of formal elements, it displays a tendency for structural, phonological, morphological and syntactic overstraining, a concept which originated in formalist and structuralism criticism. It means that poetry uses elements such as sound patterns, verse and meter, rhetorical devices, style, stanza form or imagery more frequently than other types of text. Obviously, not all poems use all these elements and not all verse is poetry, as John Hollander remarks (Hollander 2001: 1). Especially odder poets deliberately flaunt reader expectations about poetic language (see the found poem in Chi. 1. 2. ). Nonetheless, most poetry depends on the aesthetic effects of a formalized use of language. Some people associate poetry with subjectivity and the expression of intense personal experience. While this is true for some poetry, especially lyrical poetry, there are a great number of poems this does not apply to; for example narrative poems like Coots Marion or didactic and philosophical poems like Popes Essay on Man or John Philips Cider. Just as it is often misleading to identify the author of a novel with its narrator, one should not assume that the author of a poem is identical with its speaker and thus even lyrical poems cannot be treated as subjective expressions of the author. The two levels of author and speaker should always be kept separate. The communication situation in poetry is very similar to the one in prose, except that poetry very often does not include dialogue, thus the inner box is optional: Basics of English Studies, Version 12/03, Poetry 142 POEM author speaker (character who speaks) (character who listens) addressee (optional) actual reader Code/Message Searching for a definition of poetry, other readers look for universal truth or some other deeper meaning in poetry more than in prose, the famous nineteenth-centum critic Matthew Arnold for instance (see Arnold 1880). Again, while some poetry might very well deal with universal truths, this is probably not the case for all. There is no doubt some poetry which is very lovely and very popular but which, at bottom, is really neither very profound nor the expression of a universal truth. Take these line by Ben Johnson for instance, one of the most popular love songs in the last 400 years To Celia Drink to me only with thin eyes And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And Ill not look for wine. The thirst that from the soul doth rise, Dot ask a drink divine: But might I of Coves nectar sup, I would not change for thin. In fact, to expect statements of universal truth from poetry can be rather misleading if one deduces from this that what matters in a poem is somehow what lies behind the language and its use (for this problem see the discussion in Warren/Brooks 196 6-20), whereas modern criticism insists that form cannot be separated from mean (See also Theme Chi. 1. 5. ). It is difficult to answer the question What is Poetry? Conclusively, though most people are more or less able to recognize poetry when the see it. One recent critic has suggested the following criteria in answer to the quests What poetry? M;leer-cattleman 2000: 73-156): 143 Poetic texts have a tendency to ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; relative brevity (with some notable exceptions) dense expression express subjectivity more than other texts display a musical or kinglike quality be structurally and phonologically overeducated be syntactically and morphologically overeducated deviate from everyday language esthetics self-referentially (which mean s that they draw attention to themselves as s FRR art form both through the form in which they are written and thro references to the writing of poetry) With all the difficulties of defining poetry it is worth remembering especially in the form of song, is one of the oldest forms of artistic older than prose, and that it seems to answer or to originate in that reaches for expression in Joy, grief, doubt, hope, loneliness, an 4. 2. Types of Poetry When studying poetry, it is useful first of all to consider the theme development of the theme in the poem (see Chi. 1. . ). Obviously, the development that takes place depends to a considerable extent on one is dealing with. It is useful to keep two general distinctions in detailed definitions consult Abram 1999 and Premiering et al 1993 narrative poetry. Dead Poets Society EssayThe twentieth century was more reluctant to proclaim literature openly as a teaching tool. . 3. Prosodic Features: Meter and Rhythm Prosody is the study of speech rhythms and versification. Most poetry is a rhythmical utterance, that is to say, it makes use of rhythmic elements that are natural to language: alternation of stress and non-stress, vowel length, consonant clusters, pauses and so on. Various rhythmical patterns have different effects on those who read or hear poetry. The central question for the analysis of meter and rhythm is to determine the function which these rhythmical elements perform in each poem. Unfortunately, there are no general rules about these functions. Once a specific pattern has been identified, its function needs to be determined for each text and context individually (see also isotope Chi. 1. 5. ). Key terms: ; prosody ; meter ; accentual meter ; accentual-syllabic meter ; syllabic meter ; free verse ; scansion ; nursery rhymes ; Old English Poetry ; sprung rhythm ; rap ; Haiku ; foot ; iamb ; trochee ; dactyl ; anapest ; spooned ; alexandrine ; scansion ; metric foot ; mastication principle ; metrical grid ; interplay 4. 3. 1. Meter Meter is the measured arrangement of accents and syllables in poetry. In any kind of utterance we stress certain syllables and not others.