Experimental Texts in Poetry

Concrete or Visual Poetry

the poet’s intent is conveyed by graphic patterns of letters, words, or symbols rather than by the meaning of words in conventional arrangement.

Prose Poetry a work in prose that has some of the technical or literary qualities of a poem (such as regular rhythm, definitely patterned structure, or emotional or imaginative heightening) but that is set on a page as prose. Morning by Conchitina Cruz

Erasure Poem Erasing lines in a poem in order to produce another poem of your own. Jen Bervin’s erasure poem from William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 134

Found Poems poems consisting of words found in a nonpoetic context (such as a product label) and usually broken into lines that convey a verse rhythm. Poetry out of your laundry list and electric bill statement; poetry from an old book

Types and Forms of Poetry Edward Hirsch (2003) gives us the common classification of poetry into three types:

1. Narrative The narrator speaks in first person, then lets the characters speak for themselves.

Epic a long narrative poem in which a heroic protagonist engages in an action of great mythic or historical significance. (Poetry Foundation, n.d.) used by peoples all over the world to transmit their traditions from one generation to another, without the aid of writing. (Yoshida, 2019) Examples: Iliad and Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Epic of Gilgamesh, Mahabharata and Ramayana, Biag ni Lam-Ang, Hinilawod, Darangan, Ibalon, Indarapatra and Sulayman Ballads popular narrative songs passed down orally. shorter than epics and set to music, “folk (or traditional) ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event.” usually follows an abcb rhyme scheme with alternating lines in trimeter and tetrameter. “In contemporary literature and music, the ballad is primarily defined by its commitment to nostalgia, community histories, and romantic love.” (Friedman, 2016) Barbara Allen by an anonymous writer

Medieval Romances verses about medieval courtly culture and secret love The Wife of Bath’s Tale (Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales)

2. Lyric

It is uttered through the first person and emphasizes the musical quality of poems.

It was named so because in ancient times it was supposed to be a verse sung to the accompaniment of a lyre.

Ode a “formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea.” (Poetry Foundation) “on an occasion of public or private dignity in which personal emotion and general meditation are united.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019) Examples: Eric Nelson (“Apostrophe to the Apostrophe”), Percy Bysshe Shelley (“Ode to the West Wind”) and John Keats (“Ode on a Grecian Urn”)

Elegy a lamentation usually deals with the death of a public personage or a loved one, but in a broader sense, it could be any reflective lyric on the theme of human mortality. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019) begins as laments but end in consolation.

Sonnet a 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme. meaning “little song” in Italian, the sonnet “traditionally reflects upon a single sentiment, with a clarification or ‘turn’ of thought in its concluding lines.” “the sonnet is unique among poetic forms in Western literature in that it has retained its appeal for major poets for five centuries.”

Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet

• ABBAABBA octave and a turn of thought called a volta followed by a CDCDCD or CDECDE sestet.

Shakespearean (English) sonnet

• ABABCDCDEFEFGG for the three quatrains and the volta followed by a final couplet

• Shakespeare’s 150 sonnets

Villanelle coming from the Italian villano meaning “peasant”, must be a 19-line poem, with five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain. Example: Do not go gentle into that good night

Haiku a Japanese verse form of three unrhymed lines of 5-7-5 syllables for each line often uses a season word or kigo which gives us a clue as to the specific nature imagery it gives. the haiku was appreciated by the Imagist poets such as H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and Ezra Pound for its linguistic and sensory economy. although at first glance, the haiku may be all about nature, it also expresses much and suggests more in the fewest possible words (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2020)

Elegies and Odes do not strictly use meter and rhyme.

Sonnet, Villanelle, and Haiku follow certain rhyme schemes, number of lines, and even syllables per line. examples of closed forms in poetry.

Closed forms are rigid in that the line count, rhyme schemes, and other characteristics of the form must be followed.

3. Dramatic

The characters do all the talking.

Dramatic poetry may suggest a story but there is more emphasis on character rather than on the narrative.

Comedy and Tragedy – ancient forms of Drama

“Tragedy imitates men who are better than the average and comedy, men who are worse” (Hoy, 2014).

Comedy the chief object of modern comedy, according to Hoy (2014), is to amuse. it should “hold a mirror up to society to reflect its follies and vices, in the hope that they will, as a result, be mended” (Hoy, 2014) characters are deemed worse than average because “the failure is often mirrored in a character’s efforts to live up to an ideal of self that may be perfectly worthy but the wrong ideal for that particular character” (Hoy, 2014). they live in some sort of delusion or fantasy. always a happy ending William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing published in 1600.

Tragedy said to be a descendant of epics in that in the Greek conception, at its center is a heroic individual. revolves around the terrible events that befall the heroes – often due to one fatal flaw (hamartia) it “probes with high seriousness questions concerning the role of man in the universe” (Sewall, 2019). Doctor Faustus (by Christopher Marlowe in 1592)

• Doctor Faustus carries the distinction of being the first Christian tragedy because of its treatment of the inner conflict, the battle for the soul.

soliloquy

Dramatic Monologue