Analysis of Texts
Sam MacDuff
POETRY TERMINOLOGY
Narrative poetry
Epic
Mock-epic
Ballad
Verse novel
Lyric poetry
Elegy
Ode
Hymn
Aubade
Epithalamion
Dramatic
Monologue
Sonnet
Villanelle
Narrative poetry is the class of poems (including ballads, epics, and
verse romances) that tell stories, as distinct from dramatic and lyric
poetry.
A long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more
legendary heroes, in a grand ceremonious style. Epic cpnventions
include the invocation of a muse, the use of epithets , the listing of
heroes and combatants, and the beginning in medias res.
A poem employing the lofty style of epic poetry to describe a trivial
or undignified series of events, while parodying the elaborate
conventions of epic poetry.
A folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and
dramatic manner some popular story usually derived from a tragic
incident in local history or legend. The story is told simply,
impersonally, and often with vivid dialogue.
A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length
narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose, often
incorporating multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and
action in a novelistic manner.
In the modern sense, any fairly short poem expressing the personal
mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker. Originally, a lyric
was a song for accompaniment on the lyre, and the modern sense
often suggests a song-like quality in the poems to which it refers.
An elaborately formal lyric poem lamenting the death of a friend or
public figure, or reflecting seriously on a solemn subject. Originally,
the term referred to alternating hexametric and pentametric couplets.
An elaborately formal lyric poem, often in the form of a lengthy
ceremonious address to a person or abstract entity, always serious and
elevated in tone.
A song (or lyric poem set to music) in praise of a divine or venerated
being. The title is sometimes given to a poem on an elevated subject,
or praising a historical hero,
An aubade is a song or lyric poem lamenting the arrival of dawn to
separate two lovers.
An epithalamion is a song or poem celebrating a wedding, and
traditionally intended to be sung outside the bridal chamber on the
wedding night.
A type of poem in which a single fictional or historical character other
than the poet speaks to a silent ‘audience’ of one or more persons.
Such poems reveal not the poet's own thoughts but the mind of the
impersonated character, whose personality is revealed unwittingly.
The English sonnet is a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of
iambic pentameter, usually 3 quatrains followed by a turn and final
couplet (e.g., ABABCDCDEFEFGG). (See Baldick and sonnets.org)
A villanelle is nineteen line lyric, consisting of five tercets and one
concluding quatrain. Its rhyme scheme is A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1
abA2 abA1A2 where A1 and A2 indicate repeated refrains.
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Analysis of Texts
Iamb, iambic
Sam MacDuff
An iamb is a foot (or unit) of poetry in which the first syllable is
unstressed (=u) and the second is stressed (/): about, unite, insist.
Trochee, trochaic
Pyrrhic, pyrrhic
Spondee, spondaic
Anapaest,
anapaestic
Dactyl, dactaic
Bacchius
Antibacchius
Tribrach
Molossus
Monometer
Dimeter
Trimeter
.
Tetrameter
Pentamater
Hexameter
Catalectic
Lacking the final syllable or syllables expected in the regular pattern
of a metrical verse line.
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Analysis of Texts
Sam MacDuff
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