Assignment

Title: Poetry

Outline

 Introduction to Poetry
 History of Poetry
 Genres
Narrative Poetry
Lyrical Poetry
Dramatic Poetry
 Meaning of Poetry
Connotative and Denotative
 Importance
 Conclusion
The term Poetry is derived from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis meaning "making". It is
a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language such
as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism and meter to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place
of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Poetry is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to,
or instead of, its notional and semantic content. It consists largely of oral or literary works in
which language is used in a manner that is felt by its user and audience to differ from
ordinary prose.
It may use condensed or compressed form to convey emotion or ideas to the readers or
listener's mind or ear; it may also use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve
musical or incantatory effects. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word
association, and the musical qualities of the language used. The interactive layering of all
these effects to generate meaning is what marks poetry.

Because of its nature of emphasizing linguistic form rather than using language purely for its
content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another: a possible
exception to this might be the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance
of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the "baggage"
that words carry (the weight of words) that are most important. These shades and nuances of
meaning can be difficult to interpret and can cause different readers to hear a particular piece
of poetry differently. While there are reasonable interpretations, there can never be a
definitive interpretation.

Poetry as an art form predates literacy. In preliterate societies, poetry was frequently
employed as a means of recording oral history, storytelling (epic poetry), genealogy, law and
other forms of expression or knowledge that modern societies might expect to be handled in
prose. The Ramayana, a Sanskrit epic which includes poetry, was probably written in the 3rd
century BCE in a language described by William Jones as "more perfect than Latin, more
copious than Greek and more exquisitely refined than either." Poetry is also often closely
identified with liturgy in these societies, as the formal nature of poetry makes it easier to
remember priestly incantations or prophecies. The greater part of the world's sacred scriptures
are made up of poetry rather than prose.
The use of verse to transmit cultural information continues today. Many English speaking–
Americans know that "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". An alphabet song teaches
the names and order of the letters of the alphabet; another jingle states the lengths and names
of the months in the Gregorian calendar. Preliterate societies, lacking the means to write
down important cultural information, use similar methods to preserve it.
Some writers believe that poetry has its origins in song. Most of the characteristics that
distinguish it from other forms of utterance—rhythm, rhyme, compression, intensity of
feeling, the use of refrains—appear to have come about from efforts to fit words to musical
forms. However, in the European tradition the earliest surviving poems, the Homeric and
Hasidic epics, identify themselves as poems to be recited or chanted to a musical
accompaniment rather than as pure song. Another interpretation, developed from 20th-
century studies of living Montenegrin epic reciters by Milman Parry and others, is that
rhythm, refrains, and kennings are essentially paratactic devices that enable the reciter to
reconstruct the poem from memory.
In preliterate societies, all these forms of poetry were composed for, and sometimes during,
performance. As such, there was a certain degree of fluidity to the exact wording of poems,
given this could change from one performance or performer to another. The introduction of
writing tended to fix the content of a poem to the version that happened to be written down
and survive. Written composition also meant that poets began to compose not for an audience
that was sitting in front of them but for an absent reader. Later, the invention of printing
tended to accelerate these trends. Poets were now writing more for the eye than for the ear.

Poetry comes in many sub-genre. Every poet has its own style, subject and matter. Poetry is
further classified in three main branches. Narrative poetry, dramatic poetry and lyrical poetry.
Narrative poetry is the genre of poetry that tells a story, it may or may not be a rhyme. It has
a beginning, middle and end. There is a strong sense of narration characters and
plot. Narrative poetry have several characters like a story. It often describes the conflicts
going to and fro and the remedies to solve the conflicts. It is often more vast and detailed then
other poetries. “The highwayman” by Alfred Noyes, “The Eve of St Agnes” by John
Keats, “The Ring and the Book” by Robert Brown and “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey
Chaucer are the best possible examples of narrative poetry. Common types of Narrative
poetry is Ballad, Idyll and Epic. Talking about dramatic poetry, poetry is incomplete without
drama. It has elements that closely relate it to drama. Either because it is written in dramatic
form or has a dramatic expression. There is an emphasis on the character. “Out-Out” by
Robert Frost and “A Dream” by William Blake can clearly define the expression of dramatic
poetry. Christopher Marlowe is best known as the father of English dramatic poetry.Dramatic
monologue, soliloquy and character sketch are the forms of dramatic poetry. Last but not the
least lyrical poetry is a short poem which has minimum two stanzas that expresses a
speaker’s personal thoughts and emotions, which flows in a musical manner. In contrast to
narrative poetry lyrical poetry is not meant to tell a story, rather it is meant to express
emotions. There is only one speaker in a lyric poem and lyric poetry has same characteristics
as songs, in-fact lyrical poetry grew out of the musical tradition. Lyric poetry further
classifies into Epigram, Elegy, Ode, Aubade, Sonnet, Sestina and Villanelle. Lyrical poetry is
always accomplished by music, and is brief and intensely passionate. “My Last Duchess” by
Robert Browning and William Wordsworth’s “I wandered as lonely as a cloud” is the best
given examples of lyrical poetry.
The most common short poetic genres, which include some of the best poetry written in
English, are the Song, the Lyric, the Ballad, the Sonnet and the Elegy.

Poetry is not always about hidden or indirect meanings (sometimes called meaning play).
Nevertheless, if often is a major part of poetry. In general, poetry deals with particular things
in concrete language, since our emotions most readily respond to these things. From the
poem's particular situation, the reader may then generalize; the generalities arise by
implication from the particular. In other words, a poem is most often concrete and particular;
the "message," if there is any, is general and abstract; it's implied by the images.
Images, in turn, suggest meanings beyond the mere identity of the specific object. Poetry
plays with meaning when it identifies resemblances or makes comparisons between things;
common examples of this "figurative" comparison include, “ticking of clock” meaning
mortality, “Hardness of steel” meaning determination and “white” meaning peace or purity.
Such terms as connotation, simile, metaphor, allegory, and symbol are aspects of this
comparison. Such expressions are generally called figurative or metaphorical language. Word
meanings are not only restricted to dictionary meanings. The full meaning of a word includes
both the dictionary definition and the special meanings and associations a word takes in a
given phrase or expression. For example, a tiger is a carnivorous animal of the cat family.
This is the literal or denotative meaning. But we have certain associations with the word:
sinuous movement, jungle violence, and aggression. These are the suggestive, figurative or
connotative meanings.

Poetry is one of the most powerful forms of writing because it takes any language that we
believe we know, and transforms it. Suddenly the words do not sound the same or mean the
same. The pattern of the sentences sound new and melodious. It is truly another language
exclusively for the writer and the reader. Poetry is perhaps a more effective stress relief than
working out or meditating because it forces you to express your feelings through words,
which helps you not only understand your feelings but also communicate them more
effectively. Furthermore, it is a skill that will remain in use for your entire life no matter what
you end up doing professionally.

To conclude it poetry is not simply few words uttered from mouth, poetry is the flow of
thoughts and emotions. It isn’t about being long and short, Poetry is meant to seek pleasure. It
is the work of literature and Art that is meant to deliver emotions. There is no restriction of
the use of words. Back when poetry started generating it had no form now poetry is
universally opted and is renowned. Poetry has given Art and literature a new form. In Anglo
Saxon age Poetry was only composed on certain events like to grief someone’s death. A
wife’s letter to his husband. Poetry was simple and it was with the concept of stress and
unstressed with parallelism. As world progressed poetry also changed its form and in Anglo
Norman age poetry was given a whole new form. Talking about Victorian age. Poetry was
made official among the officials. It was the age which gave birth to Father of Dramatic
poetry ‘Christopher Marlowe’. Anyone can be a poet. There are no rules applied in a poetry,
poetry is all the expression of one’s emotion, Poetry is a flow of melodies that can be
composed according to the mood anywhere anytime. Poetry works more with eyes as what
the poet sees he scratches his pen until he is satisfied with what he crafted.