EXERCISES
A. Scan the following:—
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
—Wordsworth.
Into the sunshine,
Full of light,
Leaping and flashing
From morn to night!
—Lowell.
B. Name each verse in the following stanza:—
Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight—
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
—Poe.
+117. Kinds of Poetry.+-There are three general classes of poetry: narrative, lyric, and dramatic.
A. Narrative poetry, as may be inferred from its name, relates events which may be either real or imaginary. Its chief varieties are the epic, the metrical romance or lesser epic, the tale, and the ballad.
An epic poem is an extended narrative of an elevated character that deals with heroic exploits which are frequently under supernatural control. This kind of poetry is characterized by the intricacy of plot, by the delineation of noble types of character, by its descriptive effects, by its elevated language, and by its seriousness of tone. The epic is considered as the highest effort of man's poetic genius. It is so difficult to produce an epic that but few literatures contain more than one. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the German Nibelungenlied, the Spanish Cid, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Milton's Paradise Lost are important epics found in different literatures.
A metrical romance or lesser epic is a narrative poem, shorter and less dignified than the epic. Longfellow's Evangeline and Scott's Marmion and Lady of the Lake are examples of this kind of poetry.
A metrical tale is a narrative poem somewhat simpler and shorter than the metrical romance, but more complex than the ballad. Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, Tennyson's Enoch Arden, and Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal are examples of the tale.
A ballad is the shortest and most simple of all narrative poems. It relates but a single incident and has a very simple structure. In this kind of poetry the interest centers upon the incident rather than upon any beauty or elegance of language. Many of the Robin Hood Ballads are well known. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome and Longfellow's Wreck of the Hesperus are other examples of the ballad. It may be well to note here that it is not always possible to draw definite lines between two different kinds of narrative poetry. In fact, there will sometimes be a difference of opinion as regards the classification.
B. Lyric poetry was the name originally applied to poetry that was to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre, but now the name is often applied to poems that are not intended to be sung at all. Lyric poetry deals primarily with the feelings and emotions. Love, hate, jealousy, grief, hope, and praise are emotions that may be expressed in lyric poetry. Its chief varieties are the song, the ode, the elegy, and the sonnet.
A song is a short poem intended to be sung. Songs may be divided into sacred and secular. Jerusalem, the Golden, and Lead, Kindly Light, are examples of sacred songs. Secular songs may be patriotic, convivial, or sentimental.
An ode expresses exalted emotion and is more complex in structure than the song. Some of the best odes in our language are Dryden's Ode to St. Cecilia, Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn, Shelley's Ode to a Skylark, and Lowell's Commemoration Ode.
An elegy is a lyric pervaded by the feeling of grief or melancholy.
Milton's Lycidas, Tennyson's In Memoriam, and Gray's Elegy in a
Country Churchyard are all noted elegies.
A sonnet is a lyric poem of fourteen lines which deals with a single idea or sentiment. It is not a stanza taken from a poem, but is a complete poem itself. In the Italian sonnet and those modeled after it, the emotional feeling rises through the first two quatrains, reaching its climax at or near the end of the eighth line, and then subsides through the two tercets which make up the remaining six lines. If the sentiment expressed does not adjust itself to this ebb and flow, it is not suitable for a sonnet. Milton's sonnet on his blindness is one of the best. Notice the emotional transition in the middle of the eighth line. This sonnet will also illustrate the fixed rhyme scheme:—
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he, returning, chide;
Doth God exact day labor, light denied?
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need,
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
There is a form of sonnet called the Shakespearean which differs in its arrangement from the Italian sonnet.
C. Dramatic poetry relates the occurrence of human events, and is designed to be spoken on the stage. If the drama has an unhappy ending, it is a tragedy. As is becoming in such a theme, the language is dignified and impressive, and the whole appeals to our deeper emotions. If the drama has a happy conclusion, it is a comedy. Here the movement is quicker, the language less dignified, and the effort is to make the whole light and amusing.