Definition of Poetry Poetry is one of the three branches of literature. Dr. Johnson, the great scholar and literary critic of 18th century, defined poetry as, “Metrical Composition", and added that it is “the art of uniting pleasure with truth by calling imagination to the help of reason". Shelley says: poetry is the expression of the imagination. According to Mathew Arnold, it is " simply the most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human race can reach", it is a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. Mr Walts-Dunton, says it is, “the concrete and artistic expression of human mind in emotional and rhythmical language".
Nature of Poetry: Its Characteristics
1- Its Emotional and Imaginative Contents
Poetry is imaginative and emotional interpretation of life. Poetry deals
with facts, experiences, and problems of life, but first, it relates them to our emotions, and secondly, it transfigures and transforms them by the exercise of imagination. It treats reality imaginatively, colors it with emotions, but it doesn't falsify or distort it. Imagination and emotion predominate in poetry. They are the essential qualities of poetry.
2- Meter : Essential to poetry
It implies that poetry is a particular kind of art, that it arises when the poetic qualities of imagination and feeling are embodied in certain kind of expression. That form is regularly rhythmical language or meter. In other words, poetry has both form and content. The true content of poetry must be imaginative and emotional. And this imaginative and emotional interpretation of life must be clothed in a systematically rhythmical language, which is called meter. 3- The Diction of Poetry:
Diction means both the choice and arrangement of words, both vocabulary and syntax. In almost all ages, poets have used a language different from the language both of prose and everyday use. So the language of the poet must be noble, exalted, and dignified, different from common language. Thus it was considered necessary for a poet to avoid low, common, and vulgar words, especially in epic-poetry where the diction used should be lofty and sublime.
Poets in every age have used a specialized diction for their poetry particularly in the age of Pope and Dryden. The critical theory of the period laid great stress on the need of 'decorum'. 'Decorum' implied that the diction of poetry should be noble and exalted, that it should suit the genre and the characters or personages in a piece of poetry, that low and vulgar should be avoided as their use is below the dignity of the poet as well as that of his readers, and lastly that there must be absolute economy in the use of words. The poet must say what he had to say in the fewest and the best possible words. The best were the words which enabled the poet to convey his meanings with absolute clarity and with this end in view, the use of the archaic, the obsolete, the foreign and the technical words was to be avoided. The older poets like Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare were guilty of such faults.
Various devices were used to achieve a noble, pure and exalted diction, a diction proper for poetry meant for refined and cultured audiences. First, Periphrasis or Circumlocution or a roundabout way of saying things was widely used. In this way, efforts were made to avoid the vulgar, the archaic, and the technical. Thus Pope uses " finny creatures" for 'fish", "velvet plain" for "a green table", " two-handed engine" for " a pair of scissors" and so on. Secondly, Latin words and Latin constructions were abundantly used to impart dignity and elevation. Thus Pope uses" sol" in place of the "sun". Thirdly, Figures of Speech, more particularly Personifications and Hyperbole, were abundantly used to decorate the language and to impart to it force, dignity and effectiveness. The poet must avoid the use of words with harsh, unpleasant sounds, and selects words which are sweet and pleasant. He must avoid monotony, not only must the words he chooses convey his meaning exactly and precisely, they must also be musical. The syntax of a poet is conditioned not by the ordinary rules of grammar but by the requirement of meter. Often inverted construction become unavoidable. Ex: " He lived the woods among". That is what Coleridge meant when he said that poetry is " right words in the right place".
4- Figures of Speech : A figure of speech is a poetic device which consists in the use of words and phrases in such a manner as to make the meaning pointed and clear and the language more graphic and vivid. Figure of speeches are also called images for in them one thing is represented in the image of others. According to Bain it is " a form of expression that intentionally deviates from the ordinary mode of speech for the sake of more powerful, pleasing or distinctive effect; it is a pictorial or poetic language
Figures of speech are not merely decorative, they are essential to the emotional and imaginative appeal of poetry. In moments of intense emotional excitement, man has always tended to express himself in a figurative language. Simile, Metaphor, Personification, pathetic fallacy, hyperbole...etc. These figures of speech are used by prose-writers as well but a poet's use of them is more frequent and more imaginative and more emotional . He has always colored the external world with his emotion, or has compared himself and his life with the objects and phenomena of nature. Figures have been used by the poets to decorate their language and to make it more vivid and pictorial, to increase its force and effectiveness, and to communicate their meaning more lucidly and clearly. By increasing the beauty of the language, the use of figures provides great aesthetic satisfaction to the readers
1. Simile:
The word “Simile” comes from the Latin ‘similis’ – “like” and means “likeness”. A Simile is an expression of likeness between different objects and events. It consists of placing two different things side by side and comparing them with regard to some quality common to them. In other words there are two essential elements in a simile. First, the two objects or events compared must be different in kind. Secondly, the point of resemblance between the different objects or events must be clearly brought out. Such word of comparison as, like, as, so, etc., are always used. For example:
a. Errors like straws upon the surface flow.
b. The younger brother is as good as gold.
2. Metaphor:
A metaphor is implied Simile. The word “Metaphor” comes from the Greek, ‘Meta – over; ‘phero – carry. It means, literally, “ a carrying over”; and by this figure of speech a word is transferred , or carried over from the object to which it belongs to another in such a manner that a comparison is implied, though not clearly stated. Thus a metaphor is a compressed, or implied simile – without a word as, or like. For Example: a. The camel is the ship of the desert. b. He is the pillar of the state.
3. Personification:
Personification is really a special kind of metaphor. It is a figure of speech,
in which inanimate objects and abstract ideas or qualities are spoken of, as if they were persons or human beings.
Examples:
a. Opportunity knocks at the door but once.
b. Death lays his icy hands on kings. c. “Peace hath her victories. No less renowned than war”.
4. Pathetic Fallacy:
Pathetic Fallacy is a figure of speech in which human emotions are given
to lifeless objects and abstract ideas. It is a special kind of personification in which the inanimate, the lifeless, and the abstract, are made to partake of human emotions.
Examples: a. All Nature wept at his death, and the flowers were filled with tears.
5. Apostrophe:
It is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas or inanimate objects are
addressed if they were alive. The word literary means a “ turning aside”, for in this figure a writer ‘turns aside’ to address a person absent or dead, or inanimate object, or an abstract idea.
Example:
a. “O wild west wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being”.
b. “O Solitude, where are the charms That sages seen in thy face”.
6. Hyperbole:
The word “hyperbole” (“Hyper – beyond; “ballo – throw)
Literally, “ a throwing beyond”, means exaggeration. This figure of speech consists in representing things as much greater or smaller than they really are, with the intention of producing a more striking effect than a plain statement can.
Examples:
a. “Here is the smell of blood still; all perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!”.
7. Metonymy:
The word “Metonymy”, is Greek, ‘meta – after, ‘onoma’ – a name,
means literally, “substitution of name”, and the figure consists in “substituting the thing named for the thing meant”; for example, grey hair may be used for old age, throne for monarchy.
Some other examples:
a. The pen (author) is mightier than the sword (the soldier).
8. Antithesis:
An antithesis, ‘anti’ – against; ‘thesis’- placing, is a figure of speech in
which one word or idea is set against another or with the object of heightening the effect of what is said by contrast.
Example:
a. “God made the country but man made the town”.
b. “United we stand divided we fall”. c. “Speech is silvery, silence is golden”.
9. Irony:
It is the figure of speech in which the real meaning is just the opposite of that which is literally conveyed by the language used.
Example:
a. Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,
( for Brutus is an honorable man ) I come to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
Here the use of the word, “honorable” is ironical.
10 Pun:
When we use the same word in two or more senses in order to make the people laugh, we employ the figure of speech called Pun.
An ambassador is a gentleman who lies abroad for the good of his country.
Here there is a pun in the word “lies”.
10. Alliteration:
Alliteration consists in the repetition of the letters or syllable, or the same
sound at the beginning of two or more words in a line. In this way language becomes musical. Examples:
a. How high His Honor holds his haughty head.
b. “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free”.
The Function of Poetry :
The primary aim of all art is to provide aesthetic pleasure; and each art has its own peculiar aesthetic pleasure. The primary function of poetry also is to give aesthetic pleasure, and the aesthetic pleasure peculiar to poetry is not possible without the use of meter or regularly rhythmical language.
It is meter which enables poetry to perform the function proper to it, its use is essential if poetry is to provide its own particular pleasure. Without imagination and emotion any subject treated in meter will remain a mere verse. Conceived as a distinct kind of literary art poetry has imaginative and emotional substance, and a metrical form. Meter as Coleridge puts it, " medicates the whole atmosphere and makes the diction of poetry different from the language of prose".
Prosody : Rules of Versification( the theory and study of Meter)
Meter and Rhythm:
Meter may be defined as that ordered rhythm which results from a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed, or long or short syllables in a line of poetry, or is the rhythm of poetry determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed, or long and short, syllables in each line of a poem Just as Yard, used for measuring clothes, consists of a number of feet, and each foot consists of a number of inches, so also meter, by which we determine the rhythm of poetry, is subdivided into a number of feet and each foot into a number of syllables. It is the number of syllables in a feet and the position of the stressed and unstressed syllables which determines the nature of meter or measure of English poetry.
There are five chief measures or meters used by English poets:
1- The Iambic: (2 syllables) unstressed syllable followed by stressed
syllable. In this meter each foot has two syllables of which the first is unaccented and the second is accented.
P.S: (/) a symbol which indicates a strong syllable.
(u) = = = a week syllable.
Iambic may consist of a number of feet as following :
Ex. The winds / that will / be howl- / ing at / all hours (spondee) P.S : Spondee is a metrical foot of two stressed syllables(//) Pyrrhic: = = = = unstressed = (uu)
Ex.: The cur- / few tolls / the knell / of par- / tin day. (Gray,' Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard')
Such variation makes the iamb suitable for both serious or light verse and therefore, help poets focus attention on idea and emotion and avoid monotony. The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry because it most nearly reflects natural speech while also elevating speech to poetry. Most lines of iambic pentameter, however, are not absolutely regular in their pattern of stresses:
Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day
2- The Trochaic : (2syllables)
Each foot in a line consists of two syllables, but the position of stresses in each foot is reversed: so the stress syllable comes first followed by unstressed one. the number of feet or syllables in a line varies from 2-8 or 4-16 syllables as in the case of iambic. It is not frequently used. sometimes it is used or introduced in iambic line to produce a particular effect by the poet. The sudden change in the regular alternation of accented and unaccented syllables gives pleasure, avoid monotony, and capture attention. Rhythmically, most English words are trochaic : water / snowfall / author / willow / morning / early / follow / singing / presence / something/, unless they have prefix : sublime / because / E.X: Comrades / leave me / here a / little while / as yet / it is / early morn /
There they / are, my / fif – ty / men and / wo – men / .
3- The Anapestic foot: Three syllables foot
The first two are unaccented and the third is accented. E.X:
And the sheen / of their spears / was like stars / on the sea /
The As – syr- / ian came down / like a wolf / on the fold / ( Browning, " One Word More ")
4- The Dactylic Foot : Three Syllables Foot ( uu/ )
The first is accented and the second two syllables are unaccented
E.X: Take her up / ten de rly / Green as our / hope in it, / white as our / faith in it /
Eve, with her / bas- ket, was /
Deep in the / bells and grass / ( Raph Hodgson," Eve" )
5- The Amphibrachic: Three syllables foot
The middle is accented and the first and third ones unaccented. It is uncommon meter.
Ah feed me / and fill me / with pleas- ure /
O hush thee / my ba- be / thy Sire was / a knight /
Amphibrachic tetrameter: it should be noted the last foot of this line is
short by one syllable. At other times, a line may have one extra syllable. Such variation are introduced to impart variety. In this way, there is a change in the regular rhythm, and such unaccepted change startles the readers and at once captures attention.
Blank Verse : is a poetry written in iambic pentameter that do not
rhyme. A lot of Shakespeare's dramatic verse is blank verse, as is Milton's Paradise Lost.
Free Verse: is a poetry without a regular meter or rhyme. Much
twentieth century poetry is written in free verse, for example T.S.Eliot's The Waste Land. Lyric Poetry : is usually fairly short and expresses thoughts and feelings. E.X: Wordsworth's Daffodils. A Couplet: is a pair of lines of poetry with the same meter, especially ones that rhyme. E.X: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and Her Romeo.
