Poetry

Question 1

Victorian Poetry

• main themes in context

Answer 1

• many themes resemble romance period
• but had a sense of conflicting sentiments…
• • nostalgia versus progress
• • religion versus science
• • private versus public spaces
• subjectivity
• gender, women as poets

Question 2

What types of Poetry are there?

What genres?

Answer 2

• lyric poetry
  (rather short, non-narrative, single speaker presents a state of mind or emotional state, retains some elements of song accompanied by the lyre)
  -> subcategories: elegy, ode, sonnet, dramatic monologue
• narrative poetry
  (verbal representation, in verse, of a sequence of connected events, propels characters through a plot, told by narrator)
  -> epics, mock-epic, ballad
• descriptive and didactic poetry
  (both lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed description (descriptive poetry) or scenes in direct speech (dramatic poetry)
  (didactic poetry primarily meant to teach something, can also be meant as instructive in general way - till 20th c. all literature was expected to have a didactic purpose)

Question 3

What are prosodic features in poetry?

Answer 3

Metre and rhythm

Metre:
- measured arrangement of accents and syllables in poetry

Metrical patters:

• accentuate metre (each line same no. of stresses but varies in syllables)
• syllabic metre (same no. syllables, stresses vary)
• accentuated-syllabic metre (stresses and syllables fixed-most common in engl. verse)
• free verse (irregular patterns)

_____

Rhythm:

• a more general phenomenon, relating mainly to the variations of speed in which a poem is likely to be read. Particularly influenced by:
• • pauses
• • elisions and expansions
• • vowel length
• • consonant clusters
• • modulation

Question 4

Metre, detailed

Answer 4

.

Question 5

Rhythm, detailed

Answer 5

.

Question 6

Why even interpret the form of a poem?

How does poetic form create or influence meaning?

Answer 6

The question for interpretation is not primarily what is this stanza form called but what does this stanza form do, how does it contribute to the meaning of the poem.

e.g. a sonnet:

The rhyme pattern separates the poem. Octet and sestet

Question 7

What is a poem?

Answer 7

• literary form, typically short, but not always,
• uses rhythm
• use of figurative lg
• specialized lg, imagery, ambiguous words to describe
• dense lg
• aestheticized and stylized expressions
• expresses ideas, emotions, ideals
• semantic and phonetic symbolism
• symbolism even on form level
• -> concrete poetry
• certain musical qualities