Analysing the various

forms of poetry
* Lyrical poems
* Ballads

Lyrical poems ( definition

wikipedia)
Lyric

poetry a form of poetry with

rhyming schemes that express
personal and emotional feelings. In
the ancient world, lyric poems
were meant to be played to the
lyre. Lyric poems do not have to
rhyme, and today do not need to
be set to music or a beat.

Lyrical poems ( continued)

Aristotle,

in Poetics 1447a, mentions lyric

poetry (kitharistike played to the cithara)
along with drama, epic poetry, dancing,
painting and other forms of mimesis. The
lyric poem, dating from the Romantic era,
does have some thematic antecedents in
ancient Greek and Roman verse, but the
ancient definition was based on metrical
criteria, and in archaic and classical Greek
culture presupposed live performance
accompanied by a stringed instrument.

Another Definition of Lyric Poetry

Lyric

Poetry consists of a poem,

such as a sonnet or an ode, that
expresses the thoughts and
feelings of the poet. The term lyric
is now commonly referred to as the
words to a song. Lyric poetry does
not tell a story which portrays
characters and actions. The lyric
poet addresses the reader directly,
portraying his or her own feeling,
state of mind, and perceptions.

Example of Lyric Poetry

Dying

(aka I heard a fly buzz

when I died)
by Emily Dickinson (Excerpt)

I heard a fly buzz when I died;

The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

Ballad poems Definition - wikipedia

A

ballad is a form of verse, often a

narrative set to music. Ballads were
particularly characteristic of British
and Irish popular poetry and song
from the later medieval period until
the 19th century and used
extensively across Europe and later
the America, Australia and North
Africa.
Many ballads were written and sold
as single sheet broadsides.

.continued
The

form was often used by poets

and composers from the 18th
century onwards to produce lyrical
ballads.
In the later 19th
century it took on the meaning of a
slow form of popular love song and
the term is now often used as
synonymous with any love song,
particularly the pop or rock power
ballad.

Ballad poems another definition

Ballad

Poems are poems that tells a

story similar to a folk tale or legend
and often has a repeated refrain.
A ballad is often about love
and often sung. A ballad is a story
in poetic form.
A collection of 305 ballads from
England and Scotland, and their
American variants, were collected
by Francis James Child in the late
19th century .

Example of Ballad Poems - Excerpt

The

Mermaid
author

Oh

by Unknown

the ocean waves may roll,

And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping
aloft
And the land lubbers lay down
below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down
below.

Meters - Much lyric poetry depends on

regular meter based either on number
of syllables or on stress. The most
common meters are as follows:
Iambic

- two syllables, with the short or

unstressed syllable followed by the long
or stressed syllable.
Trochaic - two syllables, with the long or
stressed syllable followed by the short or
unstressed syllable. In English, this metre
is found almost entirely in lyric poetry.

Pyrrhic - Two unstressed syllables

Anapestic - three syllables, with the
first two short or unstressed and the
last long or stressed.
Dactylic - three syllables, with the first
one long or stressed and the other two
short or unstressed.
Spondaic - two syllables, with two
successive long or stressed syllables.
Some forms have a combination of
meters, often using a different meter
for the refrain.

On the Departure Platform

by Thomas Hardy

The Writer - Thomas Hardy

Born 2 June1840
Stinsford, Dorset,
England
Died 11 Jan 1928(aged
87)
Dorset, England
Occupation Novelist, Poet,
and Short Story writer
Spouse(s)
Emma Lavinia Gifford
(18741912)
Florence Dugdale
(191428)

On the Departure
WePlatform
kissed at the barrier; and passing
through
She left me, and moment by moment got
Smaller and smaller, until to my view
She was but a spot;
A wee white spot of muslin fluff
That down the diminishing platform bore
Through hustling crowds of gentle and rough
To the carriage door.
Under the lamplight's fitful glowers,
Behind dark groups from far and near,
Whose interests were apart from ours,

On the Departure Platform

(continued)
Then
show again, till I ceased to see
That flexible form, that nebulous white;
And she who was more than my life to me
Had vanished quite . . .
We have penned new plans since that fair
fond day,
And in season she will appear again Perhaps in the same soft white array But never as then!
- "And why, young man, must eternally fly
A joy you'll repeat, if you love her well?"
--O friend, nought happens twice thus; why,

About the poem

The

poem is quite straightforward.

The first four stanzas describe a couple
bidding each other farewell at a train station.
The man watches the woman walk away
from him until she disappears in the crowd.
The last two stanzas muse on the man's
sense that the two lovers will never again
experience a moment quite like that.

About the poem ( continued)

The

next to last stanza makes it

clear that the two of them expect to
be together again, and the last
stanza introduces an imaginary
speaker, a voice in the man's head,
asking why he believes that the
feelings embodied in that moment
will never quite repeat themselves.
He doesn't know why, he replies,
but he's sure that's the case.

Paraphrasing the last stanza

(eg.)
--"And

why, young
man, must eternally
fly
A joy you'll repeat, if
you lover her well?"
--O friend, nought
happens twice thus;
why,
I cannot tell!

PARAPHRASE:
Why do I regret very much
that this time together is
over? You are in love, you
will be together again.
Friend, nothing happens
the exactly the same way
twice, I can't explain it!
We'll be together again,
and it will be nice, but it
won't be the same. I can't
explain it.

For Tutorial 1 & 2

Discuss the poems based on
following

*Features

*Structure
*Rhythm &
rhyme
*Language use
*Themes

Tutorial 1
Compare and analyze the features of

Lyrical

poems
*On the Departure Platform (Thomas
Hardy)
*Walking Alone (Elma Mitchell)
*Other

suitable poems may be used.

Tutorial 2
Compare and analyze the features of

Ballads
*Chemical

Workers Song (Anon.)

*Clancy of the Overflow AB Banjo
Paterson
*Other

suitable poems may be used.