Epic Poems
The Canto
Mock Epics
The Palinode
Prose Poetry
Concrete Poetry
The Epistle
Occasional Poetry
Sijo Poems
Didactic Poetry
Slam Poetry
Epic
Long, narrative poem.
Hero protagonist acts in mythic or historical ways.
Famous epic poems:
Beowulf (about kings and monsters)
The Faerie Queene (about 12 of King Arthur’s knights)
Paradise Lost (tells of Satan’s fall & the Garden of Eden)
Beowulf’s author is unknown, Edmund Spenser wrote The
Fairie Queene, and Paradise Lost is John Milton’s work. Other
examples are The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri and
Homer’s The Odyssey and The Iliad.
Canto
A major portion or section of an epic poem
Canto is the term used for dividing an epic poem into parts
A stanza in a moderately sized poem is much like a canto in an
epic poem.
Or, you may think of it like a chapter of the epic narrative.
Since epics were originally sung, the word “canto” comes
from the Italian for song or singing.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972) wrote The Cantos which includes
over 100 cantos.
Mock Epic
Plays with the style, form & length of the epic poem
Satirical
Parodies
Examples:
“Mac Flecknoe” by John Dryden – an epic poem used
to insult his literary rival
“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope – a petty
scoundrel is portrayed as a mythological hero
Palinode
An ode or song
Retracts or recants a previous poem by the same poet
Usually done in a spirited and humorous manner
For example:
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” ends with a
retraction. Chaucer apologizes for the tales’ sinful content.
By Gelett Burgess
I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
Confession: and a Portrait, Too,
Upon a Background that I Rue!
Oh, yes, I wrote 'The Purple Cow,'
I'm sorry now I wrote it!
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'll kill you if you quote it.
Prose Poems
Prose is written or spoken language in its
ordinary form, without metrical structure.
A Prose Poem is not broken into verses, but it
has so many symbols, metaphors, figures of
speech and elements common to poetry, that it
feels & seems more like a poem than a
paragraph.
An example: “Bath” by Amy Lowell on next
slide
The day is fresh-washed and fair, and there is a smell of tulips
and narcissus in the air.
The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and
bores through the water in the bath-tub in lathes and planes
of greenish-white. It cleaves the water into flaws like a jewel,
and cracks it to bright light.
Little spots of sunshine lie on the surface of the water and
dance, dance, and their reflections wobble deliciously over
the ceiling; a stir of my finger sets them whirring, reeling. I
move a foot and the planes of light in the water jar. I lie back
and laugh, and let the green-white water, the sun-flawed
beryl water, flow over me. The day is almost too bright to
bear, the green water covers me from the too bright day. I will
lie here awhile and play with the water and the sun spots. The
sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is
a whiff of tulips and narcissus in the air.
“Metals Metals” by Russell Edson
Out of the golden West, out of the leaden East, into the iron South, and to the silver
North . . . Oh metals metals everywhere, forks and knives, belt buckles and hooks . . .
When you are beaten you sing. You do not give anyone a chance . . .
You come out of the earth and fly with men. You lodge in men. You hurt them
terribly. You tear them. You do not care for anyone.
Oh metals metals, why are you always hanging about? Is it not enough that you
hold men’s wrists? Is it not enough that we let you in our mouths?
Why is it you will not do anything for yourself? Why is it you always wait for men to
show you what to be?
And men love you. Perhaps it is because you soften so often.
You did, it is true, pour into anything men asked you to. It has always proved you to
be somewhat softer than you really are.
Oh metals metals, why are you always filling my house?
You are like family, you do not care for anyone.
“Information” by David Ignatow
This tree has two million and seventy-five thousand leaves.
Perhaps I missed a leaf or two but I do feel triumphant at
having persisted in counting by hand branch by branch and
marked down on paper with pencil each total. Adding them
up was a pleasure I could understand; I did something on my
own that was not dependent on others, and to count leaves is
not less meaningful than to count the stars, as astronomers
are always doing. They want the facts to be sure they have
them all. It would help them to know whether the world is
finite. I discovered one tree that is finite. I must try counting
the hairs on my head, and you too. We could swap
information.
[Kills bugs dead.] by Harryette Mullen
Kills bugs dead. Redundancy is syntactical overkill. A
pin-prick of peace at the end of the tunnel of a
nightmare night in a roach motel. Their noise infects
the dream. In black kitchens they foul the food, walk
on our bodies as we sleep over oceans of pirate flags.
Skull and crossbones, they crunch like candy. When
we die they will eat us, unless we kill them first. Invest
in better mousetraps. Take no prisoners on board
ship, to rock the boat, to violate our beds with
pestilence. We dream the dream of extirpation. Wipe
out a species, with God at our side. Annihilate the
insects. Sterilize the filthy vermin.
Concrete Poetry
Emphasis is on nonlinguistic elements
Focus might be on the typeface or font used
Poem creates a visual image on the page
Nonlinguistic elements tie in to the topic of the poem
Examples:
George Herbert “Easter Wings” & “The Altar”
George Starbuck “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas
Tree”
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did beginne
And still with sicknesses and shame.
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel thy victorie:
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
Made of a heart and cemented with tears;
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name.
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.
O
furybedecked!
O glitter-torn!
Let the wild wind erect
bonbonbonanzas; junipers affect
frostyfreeze turbans; iciclestuff adorn
all cuckolded creation in a madcap crown of horn!
It’s a new day; no scapegrace of a sect
tidying up the ashtrays playing Daughter-in-Law Elect;
bells! bibelots! popsicle cigars! shatter the glassware! a son
born
now
now
while ox and ass and infant lie
together as poor creatures will
and tears of her exertion still
cling in the spent girl’s eye
and a great firework in the sky
drifts to the western hill.
Epistle
A letter in poetic verse
Addressed often to a person close to the poet
Themes vary – moral, philosophical, personal, sentimental
Usually fairly long poems
Alexander Pope:
“Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot”
Charles Bernstein:
“Dear Mr. Fanelli”
On the web
Go to
web
Hayden Carruth:
“The Afterlife: Letter to Sam Hamill”
Go to website
Occasional Poems
A poem written for a special occasion or to commemorate an
event. An elegy can be an occasional poem when written for
a funeral or memorial. Odes can be occasional poems, too.
Poems written for weddings, ceremonies, holidays,
graduations and anniversaries are occasional poems.
Occasional poems are often meant to be read publicly.
“Of Late” by George Starbuck is about the suicide of a
listen
Vietnam War protester.
“Praise Song for the Day” was written for President Obama’s
Web link
inauguration by Elizabeth Alexander
Sijo
Korean verse
Related to haiku & tanka
Each sijo has three lines
Each line is 14, 15 or 16 syllables long
Total of 44, 45 or 46 syllables in the poem
Each line has a pause near the middle (caesura-like)
1st half of line is 6-9 syllables; 2nd half is no fewer than 5
Originally intended as songs
1st line introduces an idea or story
2nd line supplies a “turn”
3rd line provides closure
(Sometimes printed in six lines when translated)
“I Will Write a Poem Too” by Yi Unsang
Up above the shimmering sea, two or three seagulls are hovering.
Rolling, wheeling, they write a poem. I do not know the alphabet they use.
On the broad expanse of sky, I will write a poem too.
아득한 바다 위에 갈매기 두엇 날아 돈다.
너훌너훌 시를 쓴다. 모르는 나라 글자다.
널따란 하늘 복판에 나도 같이 시를 쓴다.
“Early Spring” by Jung Wanyung
While I wash the window, blowing my breath on it,
A bird flies and wipes the sky clean.
Tomorrow, the magnolia will be out and clean the colors from the clouds.
내가 입김을 불어 유리창을 닦아내면
새 한 마리 날아가며 하늘을 닦아낸다
내일은 목련꽃 찾아와 구름 빛도 닦으리
Didactic
Intended for instruction
To teach lessons & knowledge
To give advice
Critics say that didactic poetry can be too instructive and
burden the reader with too much information
Slam
Poetry written for Competitive Performance
Audience members keep score
Winners determined by total points
Combines poetry, theatre, performance & story-telling
Started in early 1980’s in Chicago
1st National Poetry Slam was in 1990 – now annual event
Three Slam Poets: