literary genres poetic genres. a circular walking bookshelf, part of the archive series collection...

Literary Genres

Poetic Genres

A circular walking bookshelf, part of the Archive Series Collection designed by Barcelona born architect David Garcia (1970). The collection was showcased at the Royal Danish Art Academy Fall 2005

You can also “lie / In vacant or in pensive mood” on or in it.

(Who is the quotation by?)

Aristotle : On the Art of Poetry Translated by Ingram BywaterOxford: Clarendon Press, 1920

“Our subject being Poetry, I propose to speak not onlyof the art in general but also of its species and theirrespective capacities; of the structure of plot requiredfor a good poem; of the number and nature of theconstituent parts of a poem; and likewise of any othermatters in the same line of inquiry.”

Note: Aristotle’s work is better known under the title “Poetics” butthe translation quoted above is also relevant and reliable.

Aristotle cont.

“Epic poetry and Tragedy, as also Comedy,

Dithyrambic poetry, and most flute-playing and

lyre-playing, are all, viewed as a whole, modes of

imitation.

But at the same time they differ from one another in

three ways, either by a difference of kind in their

means, or by differences in the objects, or in the

manner of their imitations.”

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da

Urbino, 1483–1520)

Aristotle cont.Classification according to the difference in the

manner in which each kind of object is represented:

“Given both the same means and the same kind ofobject for imitation, one may either

(1) speak at one moment in narrative and at another inan assumed character, as Homer does; or

(2) one may remain the same throughout, without anysuch change; or

(3) the imitators may represent the whole storydramatically, as though they were actually doing thethings described.”

Tripartite Division

Aristotle in the first passages of his work argues thatdifferent arts can be separated on the basis of thekinds of means they employ. However, you won’t findthe so-called Aristotelian tripartite classification in hispoetics. There is a division between dramatic poetry(theatre as direct imitation of persons) and epic poetrywhich is the narrative portrayal of human actions.There is no clear-cut recognition of lyric poetry. Directexpression of personal feelings and thoughts wasadded after a long process by the 16th century.

Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb, TomFurniss and Sara Mills: Ways of Reading. 3rd Edition.

London and New York: Routledge, 2007

Genre(Source: Ways of Reading, pp 41-47)

“In its most general sense, ‘genre’ simply means asort, or type, of text: thriller, horror movie, musical,autobiography, tragedy, etc.”

“The word comes from the Latin word ‘genus’,meaning ‘kind’ or ‘type’ of anything, not just literary orartistic works.”

“(‘Genus’, in fact, is still used to describe a technical sense of type, in the classification of species; and ‘generic’ is sometimesused to mean ‘broad’ or ‘with the properties of a whole type orclass’.)”

Ways of Reading, cont.

“There is an obvious convenience in being able to labeltexts. We can fit any given text into a class that offers aconvenient shorthand in which to describe what it islike: it resembles others that people already know.”

“The notion is useful when applied not only to literaryworks but also to non-literary discourse,distinguishing the typical features of, say, a shoppinglist from those of food labeling, a menu or a recipe.”

Ways of Reading, cont.Difficulties

"For all its convenience, however, the notion of genrepresents difficulties. Is there a fixed number of sorts oftext? If so, when and how was this decided, and onwhat basis? And who will decide for still evolvingtypes, such as emergent styles in popular music,texting or multimedia?

A more theoretical question also arises: whether genreis a prescriptive category – grouping features to beincorporated into writing or production of a given type– or whether it is descriptive, generalizing on the basisof agreement among language users."


Classification on the basis of formal arrangement

"One basis for classifying texts is their formalproperties. Sonnets, for instance, have fourteen linesand follow distinctive stanzaic and rhyme patterns. Atthe same time, sonnets are a type of poetry, which inturn exists within a conventional three-way distinctionbetween poetry, drama and fiction – a classificationderived historically from Aristotle’s distinction

betweenlyric, epic or narrative, and drama."


"Aristotle further emphasized one particular,distinguishing aspect of form: who speaks. Lyrics areuttered in the first person; in epic or narrative, thenarrator speaks in the first person, then lets charactersspeak for themselves; in drama, the characters do allthe talking."

"Although common ever since Aristotle, genreclassification on the basis of formal differences can bedifficult to sustain. What about verse drama? Ornarrative poetry (as in ballads)?"

Ways of Reading, cont. Classification on the basis of theme or topic

"Sometimes subject matter is the basis for genreclassification. Texts show thematic affinities bytreating the same or similar topics, often topics orsubject matter that may be especially important for thesociety in which the texts circulate (e.g. war, love,independence struggles)."


"The pastoral, for instance, is concerned with countrylife; crime fiction is about crime; biography relatesevents in a life, etc.; but in principle it is possible to treatany of these topics following formal conventions ofany of the different kinds listed above, or in differentmoods that will create different kinds of effect on thereader or viewer."


Classification on the basis of mood or anticipated response

"What a text is about can overlap with an attitude oremotion conventionally adopted towards that subjectmatter. Pastoral often implies not just concernwith country life, but also a reflective or nostalgicmode. Elegies – although first defined on the basis ofthe metre they used – became primarily concernedwith lamenting deaths (and often take the form ofpastoral elegies, delivered in the personae ofshepherds)."


"A more complex case is that of tragedy. Classicaltragedy combines conventions about the protagonist(the ‘tragic hero’, who has a character with a crucialflaw) and conventions about the nature of the plot (inwhich the main character typically suffers and dies). Atthe same time, tragedy is also defined (at least inAristotle’s account in Poetics) by its characteristicmode of audience response: what Aristotle called catharsis, or a purging or purification by means of feelings of pity and fear aroused in the audience by thedramatic spectacle."


Classification on the basis of occasion

"Literary forms may now seem specialized kinds ofdiscourse, isolated from the rest of society and mainlydiscussed in literature classes, but for most of itshistory literature has not been marked off withinspecified boundaries in this way. Rather, itsinvolvement in public life, including in various kinds ofsocial ritual, meant that many different texts had theirorigins in composition for or performance on specifickinds of social occasion."


"An epithalamium is a poem written for – andproclaimed at – a public occasion, in celebration of a victorious person (e.g. an athlete or a general). Thegenre of elegy evolved during the seventeenth centuryinto its modern role as a consolatory lament for thedeath of a particular person. Ballads began as poemsto be danced to, but evolved into two divergenttraditions: continuing folk ballads in the oraltradition, and urban broadside ballads circulated assingle sheets or chapbooks that typically containedpopular songs, jests, romantic tales and sensationaltopical stories."


Classification on the basis of mode of address

"Even when dissociated from specific social occasionsor performance rituals, texts are still in some caseslabelled on the basis of how they address their readersor audience. Some texts involve direct address to areader or audience (e.g. public speeches, letters);others have a specific addressee named in the text butare written so as to be overheard (e.g. odes, dialoguein most stage drama). Sometimes within a single formthere is variation between modes of address."

Genre Classification

A few examples of various modes of address

Henry Fielding: The History of Tom Jones Book X. In Which the History Goes Forward about Twelve Hours

I. Containing Instructions Very Necessary to Be Perused by Modern Critics

READER, it is impossible we should know what sort ofperson thou wilt be; for, perhaps, thou may’st be aslearned in human nature as Shakespear himself was,and, perhaps, thou may’st be no wiser than some of

hiseditors. Now, lest this latter should be the case, wethink proper, before we go any farther together, to givethee a few wholesome admonitions; that thou may’stnot as grossly misunderstand and misrepresent us, assome of the said editors have misunderstood andmisrepresented their author.

Image is a frontispiece etching of Henry Fielding (1707-1754) from a 1920 edition of The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild the

Great. Original image is from a drawing by William Hogarth (1697-1764)

William Shakespeare: Julius CaesarAct III Scene 1

Rome. Before the Capitol; the Senate sitting above.

ANTONY O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:If I myself, there is no hour so fitAs Caesar's death hour, nor no instrumentOf half that worth as those your swords, made richWith the most noble blood of all this world.I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,I shall not find myself so apt to die:No place will please me so, no mean of death,As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,The choice and master spirits of this age.

Robert Browning: My Last Duchess

That's my last duchess painted on the wall,Looking as if she were alive. I callThat piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's handsWorked busily a day, and there she stands.Will't please you sit and look at her? I said"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never readStrangers like you that pictured countenance,The depth and passion of its earnest glance,But to myself they turned (since none puts byThe curtain I have drawn for you, but I)And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,How such a glance came there; so, not the firstAre you to turn and ask thus.

Robert Browning (1812-1889)Oil painting by Michele Gordigiani, 1858

Recognizing or deciding what genre a text is inWays of Reading

"Criteria for distinguishing different genres tend towork together rather than independently of oneanother. Deciding what genre a text is in thereforeinvolves weighing up a number of interlockingconsiderations. This can make it difficult to judgewhether a text fits a category simply by ticking offfeatures in a list of required attributes."

Genre as an expression of conventional agreement

Ways of Reading

"An alternative to thinking of genre as a list ofessential properties is to start instead with the ideathat genres may be focused in especially influentialtexts that serve as exemplary cases. Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex (c. 400 BC) is often appealed to as anexemplary tragedy, for example: a sort of benchmark,with other texts defined as tragedies to the extent thatthey are similar to it. This view of genre, where aprototype is taken to exist and where other textsare judged to be more or less close to the prototype,enables texts to be assigned to genres even when theydo not have all the apparently necessary features."

Genre as an expression of conventional agreement, cont.

Ways of Reading

"It then becomes possible for a text to be a novel evenif it has no discernible narrative (as many experimentalnovels don’t), so long as the text works with orexploits our expectation that it should have."

"Even notions of the typical or ‘prototypical’ are notfixed, however. Generic conventions come to us as ahistorical legacy, shaped and reshaped by thechanging production and circulation of texts, as well

asby changing attitudes to them."

Functions of genreWays of Reading

Genre as a framework for a text’s intelligibility

"The main psychological function of genre is to act as a sort of schema, or structured set of assumptions within our tacit knowledge, that we draw on to guide reading, rather like a series of signposts or instructions."

Genre as reflecting the nature of human experience

"Some critics have suggested connections between specific genres and fundamental kinds of human experience."

Functions of genre, cont. Ways of Reading

Genre as a promotional device"By comparison with the previous two functions, most other functions suggested for genre are concerned more with the social circulation of texts than with cognitive processes involved in interpreting them. Genres allow audiences to predict and plan kinds of experience for themselves. (The problemsolving pleasure of detective fiction, for a story to make you cry, etc.)"

Genre as a way of controlling markets and audiences"Genres in this view are part of a process of controlling the production of entertainment and directing culture markets, by actively repeating the formula of whatever has already been successful. (The financing of Hollywood films, with notable exceptions, is often argued to follow this pattern.)"

J. A. Cuddon: Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1999, p 342)

Genre is a French term for a kind, a literary type or

class. The major Classical genres were: epic, tragedy,

lyric, comedy and satire, to which would now be added

novel and short story. From the Renaissance and until

well on into the 18th century the genres were carefully

distinguished and writers were expected to follow the

rules prescribed for them.

Chris Baldick: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001,

pp 104-105)

Genre - The French term for a type, species, or class ofcomposition. A literary genre is a recognizable andestablished category of written work employing suchcommon CONVENTIONS as will prevent readers oraudiences from mistaking it for another kind. Much ofthe confusion surrounding the term arises from thefact that it is used simultaneously for the most basicmodes of literary art (LYRIC, NARRATIVE, DRAMATIC);for the broadest categories of composition (poetry,prose fiction),

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, cont.

and for more specialized sub-categories, which aredefined according to several different criteria includingformal structure (SONNET, PICARESQUE NOVEL),length (NOVELLA, EPIGRAM), intention (SATIRE),effect (COMEDY), origin (FOLKTALE), and subjectmatter (PASTORAL, SCIENCE FICTION).While some genres, such as the pastoral ELEGY or the MELODRAMA, have numerous conventions governingsubject, style, and form, others—like the NOVEL—haveno agreed rules, although they may include severalmore limited SUBGENRES.

Wikipedia definition of Literary genres

A literary genre is a category of literary composition.Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone,content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length.Genre should not be confused with age category, bywhich literature may be classified as either adult,young-adult or children's. They also must not beconfused with format, such as graphic novel or picturebook. The distinctions between genres and categoriesare flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups.

Wikipedia, cont.

The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic, tragedy, comedy, novel,short story, and creative nonfiction. They can all be inthe genres prose or poetry, which shows best howloosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre suchas satire, allegory or pastoral might appear in any ofthe above, not only as a sub-genre, but as a mixture ofgenres. Finally, they are defined by the general culturalmovement of the historical period in which they werecomposed.

Wikipedia, cont.

Sub-genres

Genres are often divided into sub-genres. Literature,for instance, is divided into three basic kinds ofliterature, the classic genres of Ancient Greece, poetry,drama, and prose. Poetry may then be subdivided intoepic, lyric, and dramatic. Subdivisions of dramainclude foremost comedy and tragedy, while e.g.comedy itself has sub-genres, including farce, comedyof manners, burlesque, satire and so on.

Wikipedia, cont.

Dramatic poetry, instance, might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and mixtures liketragicomedy. This parsing into sub-genres cancontinue: "comedy" has its own genres, including, forexample, comedy of manners, sentimental comedy,burlesque comedy, and satirical comedy.

Creative nonfiction can cross many genres but istypically expressed in essays, memoir, and otherforms that may or may not be narrative but share thecharacteristics of being fact-based, artisticallyrendered prose.

Wikipedia, cont.

Often, the criteria used to divide up works into genresare not consistent, and may change constantly, and besubject of argument, change and challenge by bothauthors and critics.

Genres may easily be confused with literarytechniques, but, though only loosely defined, they arenot the same; examples are parody, frame story,constrained writing, stream of consciousness.

Literary Kinds or Genres

Although the term seems highly flexible (if not vague) it

is yet to be used for literary analyses.

Literay kinds and genres are hierarchical, like a family tree:

Kind or GenreGenre SubgenreSubgenre Sub-subgenre


KindPoetry Drama Fiction Genre (e.g.)Elegy Ode Epistle etc. Tragedy Comedy Novel Short story Morality Miracle etc. Romance etc.

Sub-genre (e.g.)Funeral / Revenge / Picaresque /Pastoral Domestic Epistolary / Utopia / Detective


Here is a list of literary genres as defined by the

California Department of Education

(http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/ll/litrlgenres.asp)

Although kinds/genres are hierarchical, this list

differentiates between two main categories (fiction and

nonfiction, i.e. works of imagination and factual

information) and, for simplicity’s sake, within these

categories provides two lists in alphabetical order.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/ll/litrlgenres.asp

All Fiction

DramaStories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action.

Fable Narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans; legendary, supernatural tale.

Fairy Tale Story about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children.

Fantasy Fiction with strange or other worldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality.

Fiction, cont.

Fiction Narrative literary works whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.

Fiction in Verse Full-length novels with plot, subplot(s), theme(s), major and minor characters, in which the narrative is presented in (usually blank) verse form.

Folklore The songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or "folk" as handed down by word of mouth.

Historical Fiction Story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting.

Horror Fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and the reader.

Fiction, cont.

Humour Fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement, meant to entertain; but can be contained in all genres.

Legend Story, sometimes of a national or folk hero, which has a basis in fact but also includes imaginative material.

Mystery Fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unravelling of secrets.

Mythology Legend or traditional narrative, often based in part on historical events, that reveals human behaviour and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining to the actions of the gods.

Fiction, cont.

Poetry Verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that creates emotional responses.

Realistic Fiction Story that can actually happen and is true to life.

Science Fiction Story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future or on other planets.

Short Story Fiction of such brevity that it supports no subplots.

Tall Tale Humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with nonchalance.

All Nonfiction Biography/Autobiography

Narrative of a person's life, a true story about a real person.

Essay A short literary composition that reflects the author's outlook or point.

Narrative Nonfiction Factual information presented in a format which tells a story.

Nonfiction Informational text dealing with an actual, real-life subject.

Speech Public address or discourse.

California Department of Education

Despite its pragmatic reduction, even this division is

debatable. To what extent does a biased biography or

an apologetic autobiography distorting facts belong to

nonfiction?

Classification, categorization

For clarifications, definitions of terms, go for

Chris Baldick: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001

J. A. Cuddon: Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th ed. London: Penguin Books, 1999

Alex Preminger, ed.: Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, enlarged ed. London: Macmillan, 1975

http://www.britannica.com/

Narrative Poetry

1 Narrative Poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poemsmay be short or long. Narrative poems includeHeroic epic: BeowulfEpic poetry – John Milton: Paradise Lost

William Wordsworth: PreludeS. T. Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient

MarinerRomances – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Edmund Spenser: The Faeire QueeneMock heroic: Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock

Narrative Poetry, cont.

Novels in verse – George Byron: Don JuanBallads – Sir Patrick SpensIdylls – Tennyson: Idylls of the King

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is asequences of interrelated short stories resemblingshort stories

Poetic GenresNarrative, Dramatic, and Lyric Poetry

2 Dramatic PoetryDramatic poetry is any poetry that uses the discourseof the characters involved to tell a story or portray asituation. In this sense verse drama, such as WilliamShakespeare’s plays, belong to the category ofdramatic poetry. Poetic plays, not necessarily meantfor stage production, are also dramatic poetry. Theseare also termed as closet dramas. A good example is

P.B. Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Dramaticmonologues, such as Robert Browning’s My LastDuchess, can also be regarded as dramatic poetry.

Lyric Poetry

Scruples of categorization re-visited When discussing and classifying lyric poetry,

categories show a cavalcade of often incongruent

terms mixing up thematic, metrical, formal and other

approaches. Do philosophical poems or war poems

Constitute genres? When discussing the poetry of

John Donne, do love poems and devotional poems

represent genres? If yes, do epistles and elegies

written in that genre belong to different sub-genres? Is

the sonnet form a generic category? Is sonnet

sequence a generic category?

Poetic GenresNarrative, Dramatic, and Lyric Poetry

3 Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry is more difficult to define. It is a genre of

poetry that, broadly and somewhat vaguely speaking,

expresses personal and emotional feelings.

In the prehistoric age lyric poems were sung, in the

antiquity they were sung to the lyre. This tradition,

though permanently declining, survived up the 18th

century. Now popular songs seem to replace this

function, therefore it is necessary to make distinction

between poem and lyrics.

Most important Genres of Lyric Poetry

OdeSongElegyEclogueEpistleEpigramEpitaphRhapsodyDramatic monologue, etc.Ballads, though by definition classified as narrativegenre, are often referred to as lyric poem. Ballads arein fact generally included in lyric anthologies.

Song

In music, a composition for voice or voices, performed

by singing. A song may or may not be accompanied by

musical instruments (the latter case is called a

cappella). The text of a song is called lyrics.

There are art song (16th and 17th century English

madrigals), folk songs (Over the Hills and Far Away),

popular songs (Hey Jude by Lennon McCartney).

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Burns worked for the final

ten years of his life on

projects to preserve

traditional Scottish songs

for the future. In all, Burns

had a hand in preserving

over 300 songs for

posterity, the most

famous being Auld Lang

Syne.

Robert Burns: My luve is like a red, red rose Source: Complete Songs of Robert Burns - online book

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/burns-songs

My luve is like a red, red rose,That's newly sprung in June : My luve is like the melodie,That's sweetly play'd in tune. As fair art thou, my bonie lass,So deep in luve am I, And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi' the sun !And I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o' life shall run.And fare-thee-weel, my only luve,\And fare-thee-weel a while! ! ,. And I will come again, my Juve, JTho' it were ten thousand mile.'

o. 152. My luve is like a red, red rose.Tune : Major Graham Scots Musical Museum, 1796, No.

402.

Folk Song

Here is a folksong from Yorkshire.

The traditional term for folk text is “traditional”.

Country Life

was recorded by the folk group Watersons

from the city of Hull.

(For Pence and Spicy Ale, 1975)

Country Life (Traditional)

I like to rise when the sun she rises,Early in the morningAnd I like to hear them small birds singing,Merrily upon their laylandAnd hurrah for the life of a country boy,And to ramble in the new mowed hay.

In spring we sow at the harvest mowAnd that is how the seasons round they goBut of all the times choose I mayI'd be rambling through the new mowed hay.

Country Life, cont.

I like to rise when the sun she rises,Early in the morningAnd I like to hear them small birds singing,Merrily upon their laylandAnd hurrah for the life of a country boy,And to ramble in the new mowed hay.

In winter when the sky is grayWe hedge and ditch our times away,But in summer when the sun shines gay,We go ramblin' through the new mowed hay.

I like to rise etc.

The Watersons

Song

Yeats’s poem Down by the Salley Gardens was based

on a folk ballad Ye Rambling Boys of Pleasure. One

stanza of the folk ballad goes like this:

It was down by Sally's Garden one evening late I took my way.

'Twas there I spied this pretty little girl, and those words to me sure she did say

She advised me to take love easy, as the leaves grew on the tree.

But I was young and foolish, with my darling could not agree.

W. B. YeatsDown by the Salley Gardens

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Performed by (Brandon Farley – Cotton Eyed Joe)

Poem and Song

The term, in literary sense, usually denotes a poem and its musical setting; a poem for singing or chanting. Inliterature many poems, even if not set to music, may becalled songs.

Many poets of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periodswrote fine songs as well as poems that might be set tomusic. Yet we read them with no regard to the melody,but refer to them as songs.

Poem and Song

Here is an example by John Donne. The title of poem is

simply Song. The title indeed suggests that the poem

was composed for a tune which is the case, yet it is a

poem to be fully appreciated as a text on the page on

its own right.

This may be one difference between poems and lyrics.

John Donne (1572-1631)Song

Go and catch a falling star,Get with child a mandrake root,Tell me where all past years are,Or who cleft the devil's foot,Teach me to hear mermaids singing,Or to keep off envy's stinging,

And findWhat wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Donne, cont.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,Things invisible to see,Ride ten thousand days and nights,Till age snow white hairs on thee,Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear,No where

Lives a woman true and fair.

Donne, cont.

If thou find'st one, let me know,Such a pilgrimage were sweet;Yet do not, I would not go,Though at next door we might meet,Though she were true, when you met her,And last, till you write your letter,

Yet sheWill be

False, ere I come, to two, or three.

Madrigal Songs

A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition,usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and earlyBaroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals areunaccompanied; the number of voices varies from twoto eight, and most frequently from three to six.

Madrigal poems are lyrics, usually displaying lesserpoetic complexity.

Thomas Weelkes’s madrigal is performed by the AlfredDeller Consort

Thomas Weelkes (c. 1575-1623)To Shorten Winter’s Sadness

To shorten winter’s sadness,See where the nymphs with gladness,Falala.Disguised all are comingRight wantonly a-mumming,Falala.

Though masks encloud their beautyYet give the eye her duty,Falala.When heaven is dark it shinethAnd unto love inclineth,Falala.

Air

The following poem by Thomas Campion, titled Follow

thy fair sun is called an air. This is also a song, an air

for a solo voice and instrumental accompaniment. As

for the images and versification the text shows greater

poetic complexity.

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)Follow thy fair sun

Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow.Though thou be black as night,And she made all of light,

Yet follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow.

Follow her whose light thy light depriveth.Though here thou livest disgraced,And she in heaven is placed,

Yet follow her whose light the world reviveth.

Follow those pure beams whose beauty burneth,That so have scorched thee,As thou still black must be,

Till her kind beams thy black to brightness turneth.

Campion, cont.

Follow her, while yet her glory shineth.There comes a luckless night,That will dim all her light;

And this the black unhappy shade divineth.

Follow still, since so thy fates ordained.The sun must have his shade,Till both at once do fade,

The sun still proved, the shadow still disdained.

Lyrics

Here follow two examples for lyrics by Lennon

McCartney and Harrison, respectively.

The Lennon-McCartney composition shows great

thematic similarity to Thomas Campion’s air.

Harrison’s song seems to take up the theme of Thomas

Weelkes’s madrigal.

John Lennon / Paul McCartneyI'll Follow the Sun (1964)

One day you'll look to see I've gone

For tomorrow may rain,so I'll follow the sun

Some day you'll know I was the one

But tomorrow may rain,so I'll follow the sun

And now the time has comeand, my love, I must goAnd though I lose a friendIn the end you will know, oh

One day you'll find that I have goneBut tomorrow may rain,so I'll follow the sunBut tomorrow may rain,so I'll follow the sun

And now the time has comeand, my love, I must goAnd though I lose a friendIn the end you will know, oh

One day you'll find that I have goneBut tomorrow may rain,so I'll follow the sun

George HarrisonHere Comes the Sun

(1969)

Here comes the sun, do do do doHere comes the sun, and I sayIt's all right

Little darlingIt's been a long cold lonely winterLittle darlingIt feels like years since it's been here


Little darlingThe smiles returning to the facesLittle darlingI seems like years since it's been here


Sun, sun, sun, here it comesSun, sun, sun, here it comesSun, sun, sun, here it comesSun, sun, sun, here it comesSun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darlingI feel that ice is slowly meltingLittle darlingIt seems like years since it's been clear

Here comes the sun, do do do doHere comes the sun, and I sayIt's all rightHere comes the sun, do do do doHere comes the sunIt's all rightIt's all right

An edition of the Beatles lyrics and the Faber & Faber collection of Paul McCartney poems and lyrics. Faber is the most prestigious publisher of poetry in Britain.

Harrison, cont.

Harrison’s lyrics is hardly articulate as a poem, which

is not to say it fails to work as a song.

Mark the functional equivalence between “fa la la” and

“do do do do”.

Ode(Source: Cuddon)

Ode (Greek 'song') is a lyric poem, usually of somelength. The main features are an elaborate stanzastructure, a marked formality and stateliness in toneand style (which make it ceremonious), and loftysentiments and thoughts. In short, an ode is rather agrand poem; a full-dress poem.

However, this said, we can distinguish two basic kinds:the public and the private. The public is used for ceremonial occasions, like funerals, birthdays, stateevents; the private often celebrates rather intense,personal, and subjective occasions; it is inclined to bemeditative, reflective.

Ode cont.

Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of

Wellington is an example of the former; Keats’s

Ode to a Nightingale, an example of the latter.

Ode, cont.

The earliest odes were written by the ancient Greekpoets Sappho (c. around 6oo BC) and Alcaeus (c.620 BC-6th century BC).

Another ancient Greek poet, Pindar (ca. 522–443 BC)wrote his odes for public occasions, especially inhonour of victors in the Greek games. Modelled on the choric songs of Greek drama, they consisted of strophe, antistrophe and epode; a patterned stanzamovement intended for choral song and dance.

Horace’s (65 BC–8 BC) Latin odes were private andpersonal.

Sapphic Ode

Sapphic odes follow in regular stanzaic form, calledSapphics, in quatrain stanza with a particular metrical scheme. Since the metre is quantitative, very fewexperiments exist in English. One is by Ezra Pound:

Golden rose the house, in the portal I sawthee, a marvel, carven in subtle stuff, aportent. Life died down in the lamp and flickered,

caught at the wonder.(Apparuit)

Horatian Ode

Andrew Marvell’s An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell'sReturn from lreland (1650) is a good example of aHoratian ode. It does not follow the quantitativeversification of Latin poetry.

The forward youth that would appear Must now forsake his Muses dear,

Nor in the shadows singHis numbers languishing.

Horatian Ode, cont.

'Tis time to leave the books in dust, And oil the unused armour's rust,

Removing from the wallThe corslet of the hall.

So restless Cromwell could not cease In the inglorious arts of peace,

But through adventurous warUrged his active star.

Pindaric Ode

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) published his so-calledPindaric odes or, more properly, pseudo-Pindaric odesdispensing with the strophic arrangement. His stanzaswere free and varied; so are the lines and meters.

This flexibility had much influence on later writers,including John Dryden. His Song for St Cecilia's Day (1687) is such a pseudo-Pindaric ode.

(Musical illustration by Choir and Orchestra of theKing's Consort directed by Robert King)

Abraham CowleyPortrait by Sir Peter Lely

John Dryden (1631-1700) St. Cecilia at the Organ Portrait by John Michael Wright Painting by Carlo Dolci

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759)Portrait by Balthasar Denner

Ode for St. Cecilia's Day

(HWV 76) is a cantata

composed by Georg

Friderich Händel in 1739,

his second setting of the

poem by the English poet

John Dryden. The title of

the oratorio refers to

Saint Cecilia, the patron

saint of musicians.

John DrydenSong for St. Cecilia’s Day

(excerpt)

From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony This universal frame began:

When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay

And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high,

‘Arise, ye more than dead!’Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dryIn order to their stations leap,

And Music’s power obey.

Pseudo-Pindaric Ode

Pseudo-Pindaric odes had a revival in the Romantic

period. Ode. Intimations of Immortality from

Recollections of Early Childhood by William

Wordsworth and its complementary poem,

Dejection: An Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

S. T. Coleridge William Wordsworth

(1771-183.) (1770-1850)

Portrait by Pieter van Dyke Portrait by William Shuter

William WordsworthImmortality Ode

(Excerpt)

I

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,The earth, and every common sightTo me did seemApparelled in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore;--Turn wheresoe'er I may,By night or day,The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Immortality Ode, cont.

II

The rainbow comes and goes,And lovely is the rose;The moon doth with delightLook round her when the heavens are bare;Waters on a starry nightAre beautiful and fair;The sunshine is a glorious birth;But yet I know, where'er I go,That there hath past away a glory from the earth.


III

Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,And while the young lambs boundAs to the tabor's sound,To me alone there came a thought of grief:A timely utterance gave that thought relief,And I again am strong.The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep,-- No more shall grief of mine the season wrong:I hear the echoes through the mountains throng.


The winds come to me from the fields of sleep,And all the earth is gay;Land and seaGive themselves up to jollity,And with the heart of MayDoth every beast keep holiday;--Thou child of joy,Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happyShepherd-boy!

Rhapsody(source: Cuddon)

“Rhapsody means 'stitch song‘ in Greek. In ancientGreece a rhapsodist was an itinerant minstrel who recited epic poetry. Part came from memory: part was improvised. A rhapsodist was thus a poet who'stitched‘ together various elements. In a more generalsense a rhapsody may be an effusive and emotional(perhaps even ecstatic) utterance in verse.”

Pseudo-Pindaric odes are hardly distinguishable fromrhapsodies. This may one reason why the genre wastaken up be Romantic poets.

Rhapsody – a modern exampleT.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

Rhapsody on a Windy Night

Twelve o'clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations, Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum, And through the spaces of the dark Midnight shakes the memory As a madman shakes a dead geranium.

(Excerpt)

Back to Ode

The odes of John Keats (all composed in 1819), Ode on

a Grecian Urn, Ode on Indolence, Ode on Melancholy,

Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Psyche and To Autumn, or

Ode to the West Wind (also composed in 1819) by P. B.

Shelley are lyric odes in more general sense.

John Keats P. B. Shelley

(1795-1821) (1792-1822)

Portrait by William Hilton Portrait by Alfed Clint

Epithalamion(Source: Cuddon)

Epithalamion (Greek ‘at the bridal chamber') isoriginally a song or a poem sung outside the bride'sroom on her wedding night. It celebrates the marriedcouple.

At the Renaissance poets revived it. EdmundSpenser's Epithalamion is the most admired of its typein the English language. It was written for his weddingto his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle.

The tone of an epithalamion is often kin to the elevatedemotions expressed in an ode.

Portrait of Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)by unknown artist

Dramatic Monologue(Source: Cuddon)

Dramatic monologue or lyric soliloquy is a poem inwhich there is one imaginary speaker addressing animaginary audience. In most dramatic monologuessome attempt is made to imitate natural speech.

In a successful example of the genre, the persona will not be confused with the poet.

Andrew Marvell's (1621-1678) The Nymph Complainingfor the Death of her Faun is a metaphysical version of a woman’s complaint.

Dramatic Monologue, cont.

In its most fully developed form, the dramaticmonologue is a Victorian genre, effectively created byAlfred Tennyson (1819-1892) and Robert Browning(1812-1889) yet the idea of a lyric in the voice of animagined persona seems to be very ancient.

It is the role of the persona, or the interlocutor, more than anything else, that gives the Victorian monologue its innovatory distinctiveness.


The outstanding example of this device, as RobertBrowning uses it, is My Last Duchess, in which anItalian Renaissance duke, addressing the envoy of aprospective father-in-law appears to confess to themurder of the wife he is hoping to replace.

Browning tended to classify his monologues as either dramatic lyrics or dramatic romances. The distinction is not always very clear but he seems to have meant, by the first, a rhymed lyric ascribed to an imaginary persona, and by the second, a narrativedramatically related.


The subsequent history of the genre, however,emerges by way of the French Symbolist poets,many of whom transform the dramatic monologue into what the French writer Valéry Larbaud (1881-1957)was to call the interior monologue. These interiorreveries are the source for many important modernistpoems, such as T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.


Today the dramatic monologue is accepted as one of the fundamental poetic genres. Most modern dramatic monologues are indistinguishable frominterior monologues.

It is also common for poets to create personae distinct from, and yet connected with, themselves; like PhilipLarkin (1922-1985) in Mr Bleaney and Dockery and Son.A poet especially associated with the genre is CarolAnn Duffy (1955) who has used the genre for ironicallyand for gender-oriented purposes, lending her voice tohistorically muted women such as Mrs Lazarus.

Philip Larkin Carol Ann Duffy

Dramatic Monologue

The crucial feature of a dramatic monologue is that the

poet employs a persona so distances himself/herself

from the statements in the text, offering a

multiplication of perspective, often ironic, and creates

the illusion of objectivity.

Epistle(Source: Cuddon)

Epistle is verse-letter, a poem addressed to a friend orpatron. There are approximately two types:

(a) on moral and philosophical themes (e.g. JohnDonne’s epistolary poems or verse letters onreligious subject),

(b) on romantic or sentimental themes (e.g. AlexanderPope’s Epistle to Miss Blount, On Her Leaving theTown, After the Coronation).

Alexander Pope Martha and Theresa Blount

Portraits by Charles Jervas

Alexander Pope(1688-1744)

Epistle to Miss BlountOn Her Leaving the Town, After the Coronation

As some fond virgin, whom her mother’s care Drags from the town to wholesome country air, Just when she learns to roll a melting eye, And hear a spark, yet think no danger nigh; From the dear man unwillingly she must sever, Yet takes one kiss before she parts for ever: Thus from the world fair Zephalinda flew, Saw others happy, and with sighs withdrew; Not that their pleasures caused her discontent, She sighed not that They stayed, but that She went.

Pope, cont.

She went, to plain-work, and to purling brooks, Old-fashioned halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks, She went from Opera, park, assembly, play, To morning walks, and prayers three hours a day; To pass her time ‘twixt reading and Bohea, To muse, and spill her solitary tea, Or o’er cold coffee trifle with the spoon, Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon; Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire, Hum half a tune, tell stories to the squire; Up to her godly garret after seven, There starve and pray, for that’s the way to heaven.

Pope, cont.

Some Squire, perhaps, you take a delight to rack; Whose game is Whisk, whose treat a toast in sack, Who visits with a gun, presents you birds, Then gives a smacking buss, and cries – No words! Or with his hound comes hollowing from the stable, Makes love with nods, and knees beneath a table; Whose laughs are hearty, tho’ his jests are coarse, And loves you best of all things – but his horse.

Pope, cont.

In some fair evening, on your elbow laid, Your dream of triumphs in the rural shade; In pensive thought recall the fancied scene, See Coronations rise on every green; Before you pass th’ imaginary sights Of Lords, and Earls, and Dukes, and gartered Knights; While the spread fan o’ershades your closing eyes; Then give one flirt, and all the vision flies. Thus vanish scepters, coronets, and balls, And leave you in lone woods, or empty walls.

Pope, cont.

So when your slave, at some dear, idle time, (Not plagued with headaches, or the want of rhyme) Stands in the streets, abstracted from the crew, And while he seems to study, thinks of you: Just when his fancy points your sprightly eyes, Or sees the blush of soft Parthenia rise, Gay pats my shoulder, and you vanish quite; Streets, chairs, and coxcombs rush upon my sight; Vexed to be still in town, I knit my brow, Look sour, and hum a tune – as you may now.

Elegy(Source: Cuddon)

In Classical literature an elegy (Greek 'lament') wasany poem composed of elegiac distichs (a hexameterand a pentameter), also known as elegiacs, and thesubjects were various: death, war, love and similar themes. The elegy was also used for epitaphs and commemorative verses, and very often there was amourning strain in them. However, it is only since the 15th c. that an elegy has come to mean a poem ofmourning for an individual, or a lament for some tragicevent.

Elegy, cont.

John Donne’s elegies follow the Classical convention

as they are poems on various subjects, including

amatory topics, in pentametrical pair lines

Elegy, cont.

English literature is especially rich in elegiac poetrywhich combines something of the ubi sunt (Latin‘where are they’) motif with the qualities of the lyric

andwhich, at times, is closely akin to the lament and thedirge. For instance, the Old English poems TheWanderer, The Seafarer; Oliver Goldsmith's TheDeserted Village, Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, John Keats's Ode toMelancholy are such poems.

Elegy, cont.

Many elegies have been songs of lament for specific people. Well-known examples are Thomas Carew's An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean ofPaul’s, Dr. John Donne; P. B. Shelley’s Adonais(commemorating the death of John Keats), W.H. Auden's In Memory of W. B. Yeats.

W. B. Yeats W. H. Auden(1865-1938) (1907-1973)

W. H. AudenIn Memory of W. B. Yeats

(excerpt)

I

He disappeared in the dead of winter:

The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,

The snow disfigured the public statues;

The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.

What instruments we have agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

W. H. AudenIn Memory of W. B. Yeats

(excerpt)

III

Earth, receive an honoured guest:William Yeats is laid to rest.Let the Irish vessel lieEmptied of its poetry.

In the nightmare of the darkAll the dogs of Europe bark,And the living nations wait,Each sequestered in its hate.

(This can be regarded as an example of funeral elegy.)

Pastoral Elegy

The major elegies belong to a sub-species known aspastoral elegy, the origins of which are to be found in the pastoral laments of three Sicilian poets:Theocritus (3rd c. BC), Moschus (2nd c. BC) and Bion(2nd c. BC).

Theocritus called his poems idylls (Greek: eidyllion,‘little picture’). An idyll is a short poem, descriptive ofrustic life, written in the style of Theocritus.

Eclogue

Later the Roman poet Virgil (70 BC–19 BC) imitated

Theocritus in poems he called eclogues (Latin

‘selection’).

An eclogue is a pastoral poem in the form of a

dialogue or a soliloquy.

Edmund Spenser’s The Shepherd’s Calendar or Louis

MacNeice’s (1917-1963) An Eclogue for Christmas are

excellent examples of the eclogue.

Pastoral Elegies in English

They were the prototypes of such English pastoralelegies as Milton's Lycidas and Shelley’s Adonais.

Edmund Spenser was one of the earliest English poets to use for elegy what are known as thepastoral conventions; in Astrophil he lamented thedeath of his fellow poet Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586).

Pastoral

Pastoral is a mode of literature in which theauthor employs imitates rural life, usually thelife of shepherds. Very often these shepherd lamentthe loss of the Golden Age. Traditionally, pastoralrefers to the lives of herdsmen in a romanticized,exaggerated, highly unrealistic, but representative way.

Pastoral

Pastoral as a mode occurs in all three kinds of

literature (poetry, drama, fiction) as well as genres

(most notably the pastoral elegy).

Pastoral may refer to any rural subject and aspects of

life in the countryside among shepherds, cowherds or

even farm workers that are often romanticized.

Thomas Gray(1716-1771)

Portrait by John Giles Eccart

Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in Country Churchyard is

a pastoral completed in 1750 and first published in

1751. It was partly inspired by Gray’s thoughts

following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742.

The poem was completed when Gray was living near

the Stoke Poges churchyard. The poem, however, is

not addressed to the memory Richard West, but is a

meditation on the fate of man and good and bad

remembrance.

Thomas Gray’sMonument and Memorial at Stoke Poges

Thomas Gray

The first stanza of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea

The plowman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Gray’s Elegy ends with the poet’s Epitaph

Here rests his head upon the lap of EarthA youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,(There they alike in trembling hope repose)The bosom of his Father and his God.

Anti-Pastoral

When pastoral setting is used ironically, mockingly, orpastoral setting is played out against the brutal realityof rural life, we may talk about anti-pastoralism.

George Crabbe’s (1754-1832) poem The Village can beinterpreted as an anti-pastoral reply to OliverGoldsmith’s (1730-1774) sentimentalization of rurallife in his The Deserted Village.

Oliver Goldsmith George CrabbePortrait by Joshua Reynolds Engraving by E. Findon from the portrait by Thomas Phillips

Oliver GoldsmithThe Deserted Village

(excerpt)

SWEET Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,

Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain,

Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,

And parting summer's lingering blooms delay'd:

Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,

Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,

How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green,

Where humble happiness endear'd each scene!

George CrabbeThe Village

(excerpt)

The Village Life, and every care that reignsO'er youthful peasants and declining swains;What labour yields, and what, that labour past,Age, in its hour of languor, finds at last;What form the real picture of the poor,Demand a song--the Muse can give no more.

Fled are those times, when, in harmonious strains,The rustic poet praised his native plains:No shepherds now, in smooth alternate verse,Their country's beauty or their nymphs' rehearse.

Anti-Pastoral

A recent example of an

anti-pastoral poem is v.

(1985) by Tony Harrison

(1937). His poem is set in

Leeds cemetery

vandalised by skinhead

football hooligans. He

even provides his bitterly

ironical epitaph at the end

of the poem.

Cover image of Tony Harrison’s v. and Beeston Cemetery vandalised

The epitaph at the end of v.

Harrison uses Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

as a hypertext, a source which he exploits. The epitaph

at the end of v. alludes to Gray’s epitaph:

Beneath your feet's a poet, then a pit.

Poetry supporter, if you're here to find

How poems can grow from (beat you to it!) SHIT

find the beef, the beer, the bread, then look behind.

Epitaph(Source: Cuddon)

An epitaph (Greek 'writing on a tomb‘, inscription on

a grave) is a kind of valediction which may be solemn,

complimentary, witty or even flippant.

This is the epitaph of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) composed by himself in Latin and engraved in his

tombstone in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin

Swift’s Epitaph

Hic depositum est CorpusIONATHAN SWIFT S.T.D.Hujus Ecclesiæ CathedralisDecani,Ubi sæva IndignatioUlteriusCor lacerare nequit,Abi ViatorEt imitare, si poteris,Strenuum pro viriliLibertatis Vindicatorem.Obiit 19º Die Mensis

OctobrisA.D. 1745 Anno Ætatis 78º.

The literal translation is:

Here is laid the Body ofJonathan Swift, Doctor ofSacred Theology, Dean of thisCathedral Church, where fierceIndignation can no longerinjure the Heart. Go forth,Voyager, and copy, if you can,this vigorous (to the best of hisability) Champion of Liberty. Hedied on the 19th Day of theMonth of October, A.D. 1745, inthe 78th Year of his Age.

This is a poetic translation from 1933by William Butler Yeats

Swift’s Epitaph

SWIFT has sailed into his rest;

Savage indignation there

Cannot lacerate his breast.

Imitate him if you dare,

World-besotted traveller; he

Served human liberty.

And this is Yeats’s own epitaph carved on his tombstone in Sligo

Ben Bulben is a rock formation in County Sligo, Ireland

Yeats’s epitaph is in Part VI of his poem Under Ben Bulben

Under bare Ben Bulben's head

In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid,

An ancestor was rector there

Long years ago, a church stands near,

By the road an ancient Cross.

No marble, no conventional phrase,

On limestone quarried near the spot

By his command these words are cut:

Cast a cold eye

On life, on death.

Horseman, pass by!

Epigram(Source: Cuddon)

An epitaph is usually very brief. It has an epigrammaticquality.

An epigram (Greek ‘inscription’) is as a rule a short,witty statement in verse or prose which may becomplimentary, satiric or aphoristic. Originally aninscription on a monument or statue, the epigramdeveloped into a literary genre. The form was muchcultivated in the 17th c. in England by Ben Jonson,John Donne, John Dryden, and in the 18th c. byAlexander Pope, Matthew Prior, Robert Burns.

Epigram

Here is an epigram by Matthew Prior (1664-1721)

Sir, I admit your general rule,

That every poet is a fool.

But you yourself may serve to show it,

Every fool is not a poet.

Epigrammatic quality

Epigrams are individual poems. As a genre it is rather

rare, however, we can talk about the epigrammatic

quality or brevity or density of parts of works.

Alexander Pope’s couplets have more than often an

epigrammatic quality, as in these lines:

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,

Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

From Essay on Criticism

Another portrait of Alexander Popefrom 1722 by Sir Godfrey Knelle

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