PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE
THROUGH POETRY
SONNET
• a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of
formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having
ten syllables per line.
• narrative development.
• Deals with love or nature
CONTENT OF A SONNET
• A change from one rhyme group to another
signifies a change in subject matter. This change
occurs at the beginning of Line 9 in the Italian
sonnet and is called the volta, or "turn"; the turn is an
essential element of the sonnet form,
perhaps the essential element.
ELIZABETHAN SONNET
• There are three stanzas and one couplet.
• Each stanza is four lines and called a quatrain.
• The last two lines are called a couplet.
• Rhyme Scheme:
• abab
cdcd
efef
gg
EXAMPLE
• "Sonnet XXIX"
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, A
I all alone beweep my outcast state, B
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, A
And look upon myself and curse my fate, B
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, C
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, D
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, C
With what I most enjoy contented least, D
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, E
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, F
(Like to the lark at break of day arising E
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate, F
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, G
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. G
PASTORAL POETRY
• “Pastoral” (from pastor, Latin for “shepherd”) refers
to a literary work dealing with shepherds and rustic
life.
• Pastoral poetry is highly conventionalized; it
presents an idealized rather than realistic view of
rustic life.
• An eclogue is a type of pastoral poetry which uses
"singing matches" between two or more shepherds
• There are no set stanza limits, or any particular
rhyme scheme for the pastoral poetry form
COMMON TOPICS
Love and seduction
The value of poetry
Death and mourning
The corruption of the city or court vs the “purity” of
idealized country life
• Politics (shepherds critique society or easily
identifiable political figures)
• Eclogues (a dialogue between two shepherds)
•
•
•
•
VOCABULARY
• Apostrophe – addressing an imaginary character or object.
• “Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
• Enjambment- continuation of a sentence or clause over a
line-break
• “And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.”
• Hyperbole- exaggeration
• With buckles of the purest gold
• A thousand fragrant poises
ROMANTICISM
• The French Revolution – 1789 - 1799
• End with the Parliamentary Reforms
• Reaction to the literature and, especially, the thinking and
practice of the 18th century.
KEY ASPECTS OF ROMANTIC POETRY
1) Romanticism turned away from 18 century emphasis on
reason. Embraced imagination and nature.
2) Lyrical style viewed as the best form to express feelings,
self-revelations, and the imagination.
3) Many turned to a past world that they saw as picturesque.
4) Thought of nature as transformative; fascinated by the
ways nature and the human mind “mirrored” one another.
THE ODE
• Odes were originally a form of Greek lyrical poetry
composed to honor important people, places and
events and were accompanied by music.
• Generally, odes can be thought of as a “formal
address to an event, a person, or a thing not
present.”
• Narrative
• 4 line stanzas
• Meter: Common Meter
THE BALLAD
• iambic tetrameter alternating with
• iambic trimeter
• Rhyme
• abab or
• abcb
• Refrains: exact or incremental repetition
• Traditional motifs:
•
•
•
•
Lost love
Death
Supernatural seducers
Political protest
MODERNISM
1) Twentieth century (1900s) – Britain at height of its power.
2) Great change:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Class conflict
Two world wars
Global economic depression
Colonies demanding independence.
3) Writers modified and broke away from forms and
traditions of British literature.
4) Literature and modern art mirrored each other.