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Literary and Cultural Studies (Subject) / Poetry (Lesson)
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- Attempts to define poetry among the oldest genres of literary history going back to antiquity up to the 18th century no uniform definition of "lyric" (in contrast to epic and dramatic) poetry was not theorized as a third genre etymology: "lyric", greek lyrikos, musical instrument (lyre), close connection to music; in ancient times, poems were sung; "Poetry" goes back to the greek word poiein - to make
- Jürgen Link: Poems as hyperstructured texts Phonological level (e.g. sound, meter, rhythms, rhyme) Morphological level (e.g. word formation, repetition) Syntactical level (e.g. parallel structuring, inversion) Semantic level (e.g. metaphors)
- Müller-Zettelmann: Mehrkomponentenmodell Poetic texts show tendences towards: relative brevity reduction/condensation heightened subjectivity musicality phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic hyperstructuring heightened aesthetic self referentiality Dieter Burdorf: Every poem is an oral or written speech in verse, that is, its line breaks and pauses distinguish it from everyday language and poems are not geared towards scenic performance
- Subgenres of Poetry Narrative Poetry: Poetry that tells a story and is primarily characterized by linear, chronological description (ballad, epos, romance) Lyrics Poetry: originally a poem meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre. Now a lyric poem is the most common verse form: any fairly short poem in the voice of a single speaker, usually expressing personal concerns Dramatic Poetry: poetry written in the voice of one or more characters assumed by the poet (Geoffry Chaucer's Canterbury Tales)
- Communication Model for poetic texts [External communication of the poem] [Internal Communication of the Poem] Author → speaker/voice → explicit/implicit addresse → reader Explicit speaker/persona/implicit voice ("lyrical I") must not be identified with the author Speaker/persona/voice represents his/her feelings, observations and reflections to an implicit or explicit listener or fictive addresse, whom we must not confuse with the reader
- Rhetorical and Poetic Form 1.Rhetorical Form literal vs. figurative language Forms of figurative: Tropes/figures of speech 2. Poetic Form Rhythm vs. Meter Rhythm does not solely depend on meter but also on: the lenght of syllables; the repetition of phonetic and syntactic elements, the meaning of a word or sentence → Rhythm = meter+linguistic and stylistic realization of verse
- Issues concerning Meter the word accent the maintenance of a harmonic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; iambic (X/); trochee (/X); spondee (//); dactyl (/XX); anapest (XX/) emphasis on specific words according to their relevance for the statemant; usually we emphasize adjectives, verbs and nouns but not articles, prepositions and conjunctions; stress can make a difference: "You did that to him?" the relationship between syntax and verse: "The rhythmic dynamics of a poem is determined by the tension between the line of verse and syntactical order" (Bode) →end-stopped →run on line/enjambement →caesura (metrical break: division of a verse)
- Meter Number of feet monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter etc. iambic pentameter (if unrhymed: blank verse) Alexandrine (iambic hexameter)
- Free Verse a poetic language liberated from the retsrictions of rhyme meter traditional stanza ⇒Walt Whitman
- Types of Rhymes end-rhyme: grave-wave internal rhyme: And a clatter and a chatter from within eye rhyme: far-war, man-ocean masculine rhyme (one syllable, final syllable stressed) feminine rhyme (two or more syllables, final unstressed) triple rhyme (three syllables) identical rhyme (same word) half rhyme (similiar sound, but no rhyme)
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- Rhyme Schemes couplet: aa bb cc cross rhyme/alternate rhyme: abab cdcd enclosing/embracing rhyme: abba cddc chain rhyme/interlocking rhyme: aba bcb cdc tail rhyme: aab ccd
- Types of Stanzas couplet [heroic couplet: in iambic pentameter] tercet quartain sestet octave
- Types of Poems Ballad Sonnet Ode Elegy
- American Transcendeantalism provided the intellectual framework for America's cultural independence inspired by Neo-Platonism and European Romanticism movement attracted writer and philosophers from the Boston/Condord area who were loosely bound together by an idealistiv system of thought and their belief in de innate goodness of man celebration of non-conformity and self-reliance transcendentalists participated in social reform movements (abolitionism, feminism) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margeret Fuller etc.
- Platonism vs. Neo-Platonism Platonism: "Poets are liars" ⇒copy of a copy (twiced removed from the Real) Neo-Platonism: "Poets speak the truth" ⇒contemplation of beauty, unification with the One
- Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Poet" (1844) everyone has the potential to be a poet, but poetry requires sensitivity to the impressions of nature poets pay little attention to craft, style and technique content is more important than form poets are alert to the spiritual meaning of all experience American Poets must focus on the facts, experiences of the nation (democratic ideals of liberty and equality) Emerson about "Leaves of Grass": "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed"
- Walt Whitman "Song of Myself" (1855) - Central Concept analogous form unity, liberty and equality poet of democracy poet of the body normadic expanding ego
- Walt Whitman "Song of Myself" (1855) - Form free verse catalogs syntactic parallelism repetition of key words/phrases vernacular and sland