TYPES AND FORMS POETRY

WORLD LITERATURE
 Types and Forms of Poetry

1. LYRIC POETRY- refers to the kind of poetry meant to

be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre.
2. NARRATIVE POETRY- this form describes important
events I life either real or imaginary.
3. DRAMATIC POETRY -has elements that are closely
related to drama. Its emphasis is more on character
rather than the narrative.
 KINDS OF LYRIC POETRY
1. Sonnets- this lyric poem has 14 lines with formal rhyme scheme or
pattern.
2. Elegy- This is a lyric poem which expresses lament and mourning
for the dead, feeling of grief and melancholy.
3. Ode- This is a poem of noble feeling, expressed with dignity,
and praises for some persons, objects, events or ideas. It is
exalted in tone and formal in structure and content.
4. Songs- This is a poem with or without definite number of syllables
and stanza is always accompanied by musical instrument.
5. Psalms-this is a song praising God containing Philosophy in life.
6. Simple Lyric- includes a variety of poems with varying theme
and characterized by subjectivity.
 KINDS OF NARRATIVE POETRY

1. Epic- This is an extended narrative about

heroic exploits often under supernatural
control or divine intervention. ( heroes and
gods)
a. Popular or ancient epic poetry is usually
without definite author and is slow in the
development.
b. Modern epic poetry-has a definite author
 KINDS OF NARRATIVE POETRY
2. Metrical Tale- This is a narrative which is written in verse which
deals with the adventures of the knights wooing highborn ladies
during the age of chivalry.
3. Ballad (in narrative poems) is a song like poem, that tells story,
often dealing with adventure and romance. Most ballads are
written in four-six stanzas and has a regular scheme and rhythms.
4. Fabliau- a comical and often grotesque verse tale with plot
often hinge on the comical treatment of bodily functions-sex,
flatulence, diarrhea. It was written by the unknown writers of the
thirteenth and fourteenth century.
5. Social poem- This form is either purely comic or tragic and it
pictures the life today. It may aim to bring about changes in the
social conditions today.
 KINDS OF DRAMATIC POETRY
1. Dramatic monologue-is a combination of drama and poetry. It
presents some lines or speech of a single character in particular
but complicated situation and sometimes dilemma.
2. Soliloquy- is like the monologue. The speaker in the poem or
the character in a play delivers a passage. His thoughts and
emotions are heard by him and by the audience.
3. Character sketch- is a poem in which the writer is concerned
less with the elements of the story. He presents his observations
and comments to a particular individual.
4. Oration- is formal address elevated in tone and usually
delivered on some notable occasion.
 Special types of poetry
1. Concrete poetry-is poetry that is meant to be seen on page, as
well as heard. Words are arrange into shape, often one that
looks like the subject.
2. Haiku-traditional poem of Japan. Consisting 5-7-5 syllables. It
depicts nature and scenery. KIGO-seasoned words
3. Limerick- has short lines, a swift, catchy and heavily stressed
rhymes. There are three beats in the first, second, and fifth lines,
which rhyme, and two beats in the third and fourth lines, which
also rhyme. (aabba)
4. Epigram- a short rhyming poem with some sort of satirical
content.
 Haikus By Paul McCann
Rain
Fog
Tip-tap goes the rain.
On the mountain top
As it hits the window
The fog fell down thick and
pane
fast
I can hear the rain.
It was like pea soup.
Hail

They fell in showers.

Like diamonds upon the ground
Big hailstones were found.

The theme of these three poems is

weather in late autumn or early
winter.
The simplicity of the limerick quite possibly accounts for its
extreme longevity. It consists of five lines with the rhyme
scheme a a b b a. The first, second, and fifth lines are
trimeter, a verse with three measures, while the third and
fourth lines are dimeter, a verse with two measures. Often
the third and fourth lines are printed as a single line with
internal rhyme.

Old Man with a Beard

Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a beard, A
Who said, 'It is just as I feared! A
B
Two Owls and a Hen,
B
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!' A
Introduction to Epics
Epics

• A long story in form of poetry.

• An epic has a hero.
• The epic is the story of the hero’stravels and his fights with
monsters
What is an Epic?

 Epics were originally sung, often to a harp.

 Epics contain information about the culture that
created them: religion, dress, homes, weapons and war,
roles of men and women, values and moral standards.
 Epics contain clues to what the people who created
them feared or did not understand natural disasters,
death, heavens, storms etc
Stages of a Hero’s Journey

Stage 1: Departure:.
Stage 2: Initiation:
Stage 3: The Road of Trials:
Stage 4: The Innermost Cave:
Stage 5: Return and Reintegration with Society:
 Characteristics of the Hero’s Journey

• The hero is naïve and inexperienced

• The hero meets monsters or monstrous men
• The hero has a strange, wise being as a mentor
• The hero yearns for the beautiful lady who is
sometimes his guide or inspiration
 Characteristics of the Hero’s Journey
 The hero must go on a journey, learn a lesson, change in
some way, and return home
 The hero often crosses a body of water or travels on a
bridge.
 The hero is born and raised in a rural setting away from
cities
 The origin of the hero is mysterious or the hero losses his/her
parents at a young age, being raised by animals or a wise
guardian
 The hero returns to the land of his/her birth in disguise or as
an unknown
 Characteristics of the Hero’s Journey
 The hero is special, one of a kind. He/she might represent a
whole nation or culture
 The hero struggles for something valuable and important
 The hero has help from divine or supernatural forces
 The hero has a guide or guides
 The hero goes through a rite of passage or initiation, an event
that marks a change from an immature to a more mature
understanding of the world
 The hero undergoes some type of ritual or ceremony after
his/her initiation
 Characteristics of the Hero’s Journey

 The hero has a loyal band of companions

 The hero makes a stirring speech to his/her companions
 The hero engages in tests or contests of strength (physical
and/or mental) and shows pride in his/her excellence
 The hero suffers an unhealable wound, sometimes an
emotional or spiritual wound from which the hero never
completely recovers.
 PRELIM: Class Readings / Assigned
Readings
 The Epic of Gilgamesh
 The Odyssey (A Goddess intervenes)  Selected Sonnets of Shakespeare
 The Iliad (The Quarrel of Achilleus and  On his Blindness
Agamemnon)  Because I could not stop for Death
 The Rubaiyat  Mending Walls
 Creation Hymn
 The United fruit Co
 The River- Merchant’s wife: a letter  Africa
 Selected haikus  Telephone Conversation
 Aeneid
 Selected Poems from Gitanjali
 The Song of Roland
 FINALS: Novel/Play - Report/ Presentation

1. Siddhartha
2. The Fugitive
3. Tuesdays with Morrie
4. Like Water for Chocolate
5. Metamorphosis
6. Beloved
7. The Bluest Eye
8. Macbeth
9. Hamlet
10. Six Characters in Search for an Author