Lyric Poetry

Definition Poetry that focuses on emotions or thoughts rather than telling a story The name “lyric” comes from the Greeks- songs accompanied by a lyre Lyric poems tend to be melodious- created by use of rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.

Types Sonnet - Shakespearean - Italian Ode Elegy

Shakespearean Sonnet A fourteen line poem that consists of three quatrains and one couplet - Couplet-a pair of lines that rhyme; concludes a sonnet - Quatrain-a four line stanza Written in iambic pentameter-meter of a sonnet; five pairs of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable- ten syllables per line   Rhyme scheme: ababcdcdefefgg

Shakespearean Sonnet Contains a conceit-an image or metaphor likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) Turn- The sonnet can be thematically divided into two sections: the first presents the theme, raises an issue or doubt, and the second part answers the question, resolves the problem, or drives home the poem's point. This change in the poem is called the turn and helps move forward the emotional action of the poem. The turn often occurs in the ninth line of the fourteen line sonnet.

Shakespearean Sonnet SONNET 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds A Admit impediments. Love is not love B Which alters when it alteration finds, A Or bends with the remover to remove. B 1st quatrain O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark C That looks on tempests and is never shaken; D It is the star to every wandering bark, C Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. D 2nd quatrain Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks E Within his bending sickle’s compass come; F Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, E But bears it out even to the edge of doom. F 3rd quatrain If this be error, and upon me proved, G I never writ, nor no man ever loved. G Couplet

Examples of Shakespearean Sonnet “The Hourglass”

Italian Sonnet 14 lines Consists of one octave, one sestet - Octave- eight line stanza - Sestet- six line stanza Rhyme scheme: abbaabbacdecde Also written in iambic pentameter

Italian Sonnet The Sound of the Sea Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep. A And round the pebbly beaches far and wide B I heard the first wave of the rising tide B Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep; A A voice out of the silence of the deep, A A sound mysteriously multiplied B As of a cataract from the mountain’s side, B Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep. A Octave So comes to us at times, from the unknown C And inaccessible solitudes of being, D The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul; E And inspirations, that we deem our own, C Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing D Of things beyond our reason or control. E Sestet

Ode Uses heightened, impassioned language Addresses some object Uses apostrophe- speaker directly addresses an absent/dead person, abstract quality, or something nonhuman as if it were present and capable of responding Consists of five sonnets Rhyme scheme: terza rima- each sonnet ends with a couplet; each group of three lines picks up the rhyme of the second line of the preceding three lines

Terza Rima O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being a Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead b Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, a   Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, b Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou c Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed b The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low, c Each like a corpse within its grave, until d Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow c Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill d (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) e With living hues and odours plain and hill; d Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; e Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear! e

Examples of Ode “Ode to the West Wind” “Ode to the Caribbean Sea” “Ode to Rusty”

Elegy Mourns the death of a person or laments something lost Can lament the passing of life and beauty, or mediations on nature and death Formal in language & structure Solemn or melancholy in tone

Examples of Elegy “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” “To My Grammy”

Other Poetry Terms Define the following poetry terms.