Eng 172.intro To Poetry.
Eng 172.intro To Poetry.
Eng 172.intro To Poetry.
COURSE
GUIDE
ENG 172
INTRODUCTION TO POETRY
Course Team:
Abuja Annex
5 Dar es Salam Street
Off Aminu Kano Crescent
Wuse 2
Abuja
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.nou.edu.ng
First Printed
ISBN:
Printed by
For National Open University of Nigeria
TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Course Aim---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Course Objectives---------------------------------------------------------------4
Working through the course--------------------------------------------------- 5
Course Materials---------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Study Units-----------------------------------------------------------------------5
Set books and references------------------------------------------------------- 6
Assessment File------------------------------------------------------------------6
Tutor-marked Assignments-----------------------------------------------------6
Final Examination and Grading------------------------------------------------6
Course Marking Scheme
Presentation Schedule
Course Overview and Presentation
How to get the best from this course-------------------------------------------7
Tutors and Tutorials -------------------------------------------------------------7
Summary---------------------------------------------------------------------------7
INTRODUCTION
You are expected to go through this course guide carefully to know what the
course is all about, the course materials you need, the tutor-marked assignments
and some other necessary information. Please attend your tutorial classes for
practical discussion of some of the various aspects of the genre of poetry. By the
time you are through with the course, you would be confident enough to
appreciate poetry having acquired the necessary knowledge of what poetry is and
how to recognise good and effective poetry from the poor and ineffective. Thus
you should also be able to analyse or criticise a poem by focusing attention on its
form (manner/style) and content (matter/subject), etc. Going through this course
will equip you specially for this purpose. Let me assure you that this course is a
very interesting one and it would prepare you for your future encounters with
poetry as a field of study. Welcome on board.
Course Aim
This course is designed to expose you to the nature, uses, elements, techniques
and devices of poetry. Its aim is to:
literature
- introduce you to the functions of poetry in society
- enable you to understand the elements, techniques/devices, and forms of
poetry
- impart to you the requisite knowledge that would enable you distinguish
between effective and ineffective poetry
- encourage you (through tutor-marked assignments) to criticise set poems.
Course Objectives
The objectives of a course are the things you are expected to be able to do at the
end of the course. These objectives will guide you when going through the study
and they will also help you in self assessment and where you need to improve on
your learning and study habits. By the end of this course, you should be able to:
turn in at the appropriate time. You are also expected to write a final
examination at the end of the course. The time for the examination will be
communicated to you.
Course Materials
The major components of the course are:
1. The Course guide
2. The Study units
3. The Textbooks
4. The Assignment files
5. The Presentation schedule
Study units
There are three modules which are divided into fourteen units in this course.
Each study unit constitutes a weeks work and this is preceded by the objectives
which you are expected to study before going through the unit. The objectives
spell out what you are expected to be able to do at the end of the unit. In each
study unit, you also have the reading materials and the self assessment exercises.
The tutor-marked assignments; the study units, the tutorials, all put together, will
help you to achieve the stated objectives for this course.
In addition to the above, unlike other courses where you just read and take notes,
ENG 172 requires much involvement of your imaginative faculty since the study
of poetry is essentially a study of what bodies forth from the writers intense
imagination. You are also expected to do a lot of writing. However, this does not
mean that the theoretical foundation, which this course is meant to impart to you
is not important; it is very important if you are to master the various
manifestations of poetry.
Unit one
Unit two
Unit three
Unit four
Unit five
Module 2
Unit one
Unit two
Unit three
Unit four
Unit five
Duration/quantity
Module 3
Analysis of Poetry
Unit one
Unit two
Unit three
Unit four
Unit five
Assessment File
You will be assessed in two ways in this course: (a) the tutor-marked
Tutor-marked assignment
ENG 172 is a course that involves a sizeable number of practical works, and this
translates to a lot of tutor-marked assignments at the end of every unit which you
are expected to do. You are also expected to master as many critical/literary
terms that have particular relevance to the study of poetry and possibly discuss
them in class/study groups or with your tutorial facilitator. You will be assessed
on the aspects and activities of this course material but only four of them will be
selected for continuous assessment. Send the completed assignments (when due)
together with the tutor-marked assignment form to your tutorial facilitator. Make
sure you send in your assignment before the stated deadline. However, if you
have a genuine reason to submit late, seek the permission of your tutorial
facilitator.
Marks
Assignments
Final Examination
70%
Total
100%
Presentation Schedule
The dates for the submission of all assignments will be communicated to you.
You will also be informed of the date of completion of the study units and the
dates of the examinations.
Course Overview
Unit
Title of Work
Course Guide
Weeks
Assessment
Activity
(End of Unit)
What is literature
Assignment 1
Assignment 2
Elements of poetry
Assignment 3
Assignment 4
Assignment 5
forms
5
Poetry
1
Assignment 6
Assignment 7
Assignment 8
Assignment 9
Duration/quantity
10
Assignment 10
11
Assignment 11
12
Assignment 12
13
Assignment 13
14
Assignment 14
meaning
4
15
Examination
16
Total
17
you an in-class exercise, your study units provide exercises for you to do at
appropriate points. Each of the study units follows a common format. The first
item is an introduction to the subject matter of the unit and how a particular unit
is integrated with the other units and the course as a whole. Next is a set of
learning objectives. If you make a habit of doing this, you will significantly
improve your chances of passing the course. The main body of the unit guides
you through the required reading from other sources. This will usually be either
from your set books or from your course guides. The following is a practical
strategy for working through the course. If you run into trouble, telephone your
tutor. Remember that your tutors job is to help you. When you need assistance,
do not hesitate to call and ask your tutor to provide it. Follow the following
advice carefully:
1.
2.
3.
Once you have created your own study schedule, do everything you can to
stick to it. The major reason that students fail is that they get behind with
their course work. If you get into difficulties with your schedule, please let
your tutor know before it is too late for help.
4.
Turn to Unit 1 and read the Introduction and the Objectives for the Unit
5.
Assemble the study materials. Information about what you need for a unit
is given in the overview at the beginning of each unit. You will almost
always need both the study unit you are working on and one of your set
books on your desk at the same time.
6.
Work through the unit. The content of the unit itself has been arranged to
provide a sequence for you to follow. As you work through the unit you
will be instructed to read sections from your set books or other articles. Use
the unit to guide your reading.
7.
Review the objectives for each unit to inform that you have achieved them.
If you feel unsure about any of the objectives, review the study material or
consult your tutor.
8.
When you are confident that you have achieved a units objectives, you can
then start on the next unit. Proceed unit by unit through the course and try
to pace your study so that you keep yourself on schedule
9.
When you have submitted an assignment to your tutor for marking, do not
wait for its return before starting on the next unit. Keep to your schedule.
Consult your tutor as soon as possible if you have any questions or
problems.
10. After completing the last unit, review the course and prepare yourself for
the final examination. Check that you have achieved the unit objectives
(listed at the beginning of each unit) and the Course Objectives (listed in
the Course Guide)
11. Keep in touch with your study centre. Up to date course information will be
continuously available there.
As you relate with your tutorial facilitator, he/she will mark and correct your
assignments and also keep a close watch on your performance in the tutormarked assignments and attendance at tutorials. Feel free to contact your tutorial
facilitator by phone or e-mail if you have any problem with the contents of any
of the study units.
Summary
ENG 172 is designed to introduce you to the nature, uses, different types of
poetry as well as how to appreciate poetry based on your understanding of what
a given poem is and what makes it effective or ineffective. On completion, you
should be well equipped with all the necessary skills needed to criticise any type
of poem.
I wish you the best as you go through this course.
COURSE
GUIDE
ENG 172
INTRODUCTION TO POETRY
Course Team:
Abuja Annex
5 Dar es Salam Street
Off Aminu Kano Crescent
Wuse 2
Abuja
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.nou.edu.ng
First Printed
ISBN:
Printed by
For National Open University of Nigeria
CONTENTS
Module 1
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Module 2
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Duration/Quantity
Module 3
Analysis of Poetry
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
PAGE
What is literature
Unit two
Unit three
Elements of Poetry
Unit four
Unit five
MODULE 1
UNIT 1: THE NATURE OF POETRY AS LITRATURE
CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main content
3.1 What is Literature
3.1.1 Imagination
3.1.2 Creativity
3.1.3 Suggestion/Indirection
3.2 Forms or Genres of literature
3.2.1 Poetry
3.2.2 Drama
3.2.3 Novel/Prose Fiction
3.3 Functions or Uses of Literature
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked assignments
7.0 References and Further Reading
1.0
INTRODUCTION
Literature is the art which imitates life in words with the twin objectives of
entertaining and edifying. There has always been the yet unresolved argument as
to whether literature inheres in the matter, subject or object that it concerns itself
with or in its manner or style of expressing this matter of focus. While these
arguments are valid in locating literature in a particular space in the array of
other written forms produced by man, it is the major characteristics of the art that
defines it most precisely. In this regard, literature is best seen as the body of
work (written or oral) in which mans record of his experiences is given artistic
form. Accordingly, literature embodies the most basic issues of life which the
American poet, Ezra Pound, has seen as the news that remains news because
of its perennial currency. It is in this vision that lies the quality of universality of
the art. Besides, the literary cosmos is best marked by its qualities of
imagination, creativity and suggestiveness. These qualities are most explicitly
discernible in Poetry, our focus in this course, which is the oldest of the major
forms or genres of literature.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
- define and identify the essentials of literature
- understand be able to identify the formal markers of literature
- identify the differences between literature and other forms of writing
- discuss the features of literature that lend it its universality
the study of poetry, the major forms or genres of literature. The study of works
of literature broadens our horizon, refines our sensibilities as well as deepens our
understanding of man and human nature generally.
The polarity of opinion regarding the exact nature of literature captures the ageold debate on whether literature or literariness should be judged merely by the
subject or content of a work or by the style of its expression. We shall leave this
question for now because you will have to form your own opinion as you get to
understand the workings of literature and be able to defend it with facts or
illustrations.
However, some of the foremost things that a reader needs to know about
literature are its constitutive elements or characteristics, viz: imagination,
creativity, suggestion or indirection.
3.1.1 Imagination
Literature thrives essentially on imaginative constructs which means that it is a
form of composition that relies heavily on the composers or writers mental
journeys that take him beyond the realms of the given to a world of fantasy or of
the mind. Hence, the literary artist is not always bound by the ordinary daily
experiences of man. For example, a raconteur or story teller almost always takes
his audience to improbable and indeterminable lands and times which are
products of his imagination. Writers have led their readers through lands of
giants, one-eyed monsters, flying humans, speaking animal and forests; all these
are emanations from their imagination. Some have presented environments that
could best be described as replicas of heaven or hell in a bid to show the readers
or audience the two poles of bliss/desire and repugnance/suffering and pain.
Franz Kafka in his story Metamorphosis has given to written literature the
unforgettable image of a young insurance executive who woke up in the morning
to find that he had metamorphosed into a cockroach. All the extraordinary events
and characters are products of literary invention or imagination. Imagination also
comes into play in the literary artists use of events and experiences in his social
environment but imbuing them with imagined aspects or qualities which raise
them above the ordinary.
The imagination of the literary artist is also clearly visible in his use of language
to express his experiences, be they real or imagined. A good artist always find or
imagines a fresh way of expressing ordinary experiences thereby raising them to
a level that appears to be out of the ordinary. For example in the simple but
extraordinary expression He watches from his mountain walls/And like a
thunderbolt he falls, the Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, establishes a
similarity between the speed of a thunderbolt and that of an eagle descending
from a height to catch its prey. The poet has used his imagination to create this
scene and the readers imagination is similarly excited. It is this collaboration
that James Reeves so aptly describes in the statement/ that most good poetry
demands study and interpretation; it costs its maker much effort of thought,
imagination and feeling, and it is worthy of corresponding efforts by its readers
(The Poets World xxi).
3.1.2 Creativity
There is a very thin line that separates creativity that constitutes the bedrock of
literature from imagination that we have discussed above. For one, they are both
essential qualities and products of the artist; it is the competent artist that
imagines the best forms that his matter and manner would take. Similarly, it is
the artist who creates a fictive world in which his imagination plays among
symbols to produce his work. So, in essence, the two qualities overlap to give us
a rounded or full understanding of the true nature of literature. The literary artist
at the moment of creation is, in the words of Andrew Lang (Blakeney xv qtd by
Brooke), a born visionary and mystic, beholding things unapparent, believing in
experiences that were never actual. For example, British poets like William
Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William B Yeats who believed/claimed that
some of their major works were handed to them by some supernatural mediums
or agencies are of this mould. Some of their poems at times had their origins in
historical and legendary materials which were then imbued with the
extraordinary poetic touch. It is this faculty that gave to English literature,
among many others, such great poems of the extraordinary and supernatural as
Blakes Jerusalem and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; Coleridges The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan; and Yeats poems that
incorporated the occult and mythology of Irish folklore.
1.3 Suggestion/Indirection
There is no other quality of literature that distinguishes it more succinctly from
other forms of writing than this quality of suggestiveness. While other forms of
writing could claim to be both imaginative and creative in their own ways, they
are definitely not marked by the quality of indirection or suggestiveness which is
the exclusive domain of literary language. In fact, most factual writings such as
works on the sciences, history, geography, etc cannot afford to be purely
suggestive in the manner that literature, especially poetry, is. Acclaimed literary
critics, such as William Empson, have recommended a certain degree of
ambiguity for a work of literature worth the label. Empson, in his discussion of
what he identified as the seven types of ambiguity, has stated the virtue of
indirection in literary language. The French Symbolist poet, Mallarme, also
averred that the essence of an object is destroyed by direct naming when he said
that poetry lies in the contemplation of things in the image emanating from the
reveries which things arouse in us.... To name an object is largely to destroy
poetic enjoyment, which comes from gradual divination. The ideal is to suggest
the object (Adams 168). The effect of suggestion is achieved through figurative
language in poetry and generally through language that is plurisignative or has
multiple meanings. In the view of I. A. Richards and Cleanth Brooks, indirection
or suggestiveness is best achieved through the use of irony and paradox. The
latter critic has commented in his The Well-Wrought Urn that paradox is the
language that is appropriate and inevitable to poetry. It is the scientist whose
truth requires a language purged of every trace of paradox; apparently the truth
which the poet utters can be approached only in terms of paradox (3). In its
commonest / barest extreme, suggestiveness or indirection could be achieved by
a writer by deliberately restraining himself from calling an object by its name
while using words and expressions that suggest the object. The following is a
very good example of a poets description of an object (a .....) by indirection:
not defined or based on thematic focus, since all three types often share common
themes as literature. They are categorised strictly by their stylistic features. Thus
the best approach to the study or understanding of these major forms is by noting
their elements or defining characteristics which are as follows:
3.2.1 Poetry
This is the oldest of the three major forms of literature with roots deep in the
rituals and religious observances of antiquity. Thus it was mainly oral,
performance-driven and public as it was, more often than not, a tool for
supplication, communal tribal celebration and celebration of the supernatural as
well as appreciation of the gifts of nature. From these early beginnings
developed the personal and impersonal forms of poetry represented by the lyric
on the one hand and the traditional epic and ballad on the other. Since we shall
dwell on this form (poetry) in more detail in subsequent sections of this course
material, we shall now move on to briefly enumerate the defining characteristics,
namely: imagery, sound, rhythm and diction.
Imagery is the sensory language used in poetry. By sensory we imply that
the language appeals to or affects the senses of the reader or audience.
Sound is the auditory aspect or quality inherent in poetry. The importance
of this characteristic lies in the fact that poetry is meant to be heard and in
its original form it was a song and most short lyrics today still retain this
character.
Rhythm is the wave-like movement discernible in poetry. It accounts,
along with sound, for the musical quality in poetry.
Diction refers to the special choice or selection of words utilised by the
poet in his work.
3.2.2 Drama
Drama was to second to evolve of the three major genres of literature and like
poetry it had its origins in ritual, song and dance. Hence a comprehensive
definition of drama takes into account these defining strands as you will notice
in the definition that follows: Drama is a story told through action by actors who
impersonate the characters of the story. It is a work of literature designed to be
presented on a stage in a theatre by persons who impersonate or imitate the
characters of other persons, speak and perform prescribed dialogues and actions.
For drama to exist there must be characters who imitate or impersonate the
speeches and actions of other persons on a stage in a theatre; hence the defining
characteristics or elements of this form are: action, plot, dialogue, character
(isation) and setting.
3.2.3
Novel/Prose Fiction
The novel is an extended fictitious prose writing or narrative with human beings
or humanised nonhumans engaged in actions over a period of time, and
displaying varieties of human characters engaged in human relationships in
situations that simulate life. In other words, the novel is a make-believe account
of the sequence of the lives of human beings. As a literary genre, it attained
recognition as a widely practised form of literature at a later time than the other
two major literary genres although its antecedents were already present in the
oral modes and poetic narratives of past eras.
Despite its relative newness in relation to poetry and drama, the novel has
developed by leaps and bounds to be the most popular and widely read of the
three and has successfully embraced/accommodated such subcategories as
science fiction, fantasy, utopia, biography and autobiography within its fold.
And the unifying factors they share are the following elements or defining
features: story, plot, setting and characterisation.
2.
For each of these forms, give two examples each and give adequate reason
for your choice of the texts
While the above views of what literature is and is capable of doing in society
may be debatable, depending on where one stands in what PC Snow referred to
as the Two Cultures, there is no doubt that literature entertains and edifies
through the creation of beauty, expression of thought and expression of
emotions.
4.0 CONCLUSION
We have been able to go through some of the basic concepts of literature as an
art form in this unit. This knowledge will serve you as a good reference point as
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit you have learnt about the following:
1. the concept of literature as an imaginative and creative construct that
communicates its thoughts through suggestion/ indirection.
2. the major forms or genres of literature and thei stylistic markers such as
imagery, sound, rhythm and diction (poetry); action, dialogue, plot and
character(isation) and setting (drama); story, plot, setting and characterisation
(novel).
3. The main functions of literature in society, viz: pleasure and instruction.
REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Abrams, M.H. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston.
Adams, Hazard (1961). The Contexts of Poetry. New York: Harcourt.
Aristotle. On the Art of Poetry. Classical Literary Criticism. Edited T.S.
Dorsch. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Blakeney, E.H., ed. (1926). Selections from Shelley. English Literature Series.
No. 92. London: Macmillan.
Brooke, Stopford (1926). Introduction. E.H. Blakeney. Selection from Shelley.
Brooks, Cleanth (1975). The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of
Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Heese, Marie and Robin Lawton (1988). The New Owl Critic: An Introduction to
Literary Criticism. Cape Town: Nasou.
CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main content
3.1 What is Poetry?
3.1.1
Definitions
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignments
7.0 References and Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit you will learn the basic considerations in the study of poetry. Poetry,
as we have indicated in the foregoing Unit, is considered the most ancient of the
three major genres of literature. Accordingly, we have to begin by seeing it as a
form of literary expression with all the defining qualities of literature such as 1)
imagination 2) creativity 3) suggestiveness or indirection 4) as a mirror
reflecting the individuals perception of life experiences. Generally speaking,
these qualities apply to both oral and written forms of poetry but the medium of
expression and transmission are markedly different. Nonetheless, both
manifestations of poetry share identical content, form and effect. This is to say
that irrespective of the obvious difference between these forms of poetry their
sources and end-purpose are the emotions and imagination of the writer on the
one hand and the reader or audience on the other; they convey significant truths
about the human condition and they employ a language that is deliberately
adorned by the use of figurative expressions. This will become clearer to you by
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
1. Identify poetry as a form of literature
2. Define poetry
3. Explain some of the operative/recurrent words or terms in a good definition
of poetry
Musical: The impulse or instinct for tune, music and rhythm as means of
expressing and thus giving vent to emotions.
These motivations by and large would apply in the consideration of other literary
and even plastic art forms but they assume greater significance in the study of
poetry, the type we are undertaking in this course.
contained in the lullabies to which your mother or elder siblings treated you.
While you definitely could not have understood a word of the sing songs, the
occasional incorporation or introduction of common sounds of birds and other
animals as well as appropriately paced repetition of words and sounds must
equally have had some calming effect on you. As you grew up you must have
applied this same method to achieve the same ends in your relation with your
younger ones; the imitative content and their pleasing effects on both you and
your younger ones as you grew are rudiments of the poetic instinct that we carry
along with us into adulthood.
In the lullabies, you have inherent imitation, music and beauty/emotions. The
lullabies and such other utilitarian songs and practices show that poetry has been
and is always with us as human beings.
Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and
happiest minds.
Finally, we may attempt a definition that strives to distil the various elements of
the explanations we have made so far as follows: Poetry is a form of
composition in verse form especially one expressing deep feelings or noble
thought in a rhythmic and generally beautiful or embellished language written
with the aim of communicating an experience. This definition contains the grains
of the essential elements of the genre of poetry (imagery, rhythm, sound and
diction) to which we will turn our attention in the next unit of this course
material.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Poetry is the oldest of the major literary genres that has been part of the
traditions of man through the ages; it has manifested in most human ritual
activities as well as served as a ready means of entertainment in traditional
festivals. Yet, in spite of its long history and perennial occurrence and
employment in important human activities, it has defied common definition
because it seems to strike different people differently.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit you have learnt several definitions and explanations of poetry as a
literary genre. While a common definition has not been found and this is
exemplified by the multiplicity of samples of definitions examined, we have
provided a definition that has incorporated the major strands of the various
explanations common to different traditions and periods of literary history.
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poets World. An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Imagery
3.2 Rhythm
3.3 Sound
3.4 Diction
3.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment
7.0 References and Further Reading
1.0
INTRODUCTION
As we have established in the foregoing units, poetry is one of the major genres
of literature and in order for us have a proper understanding of its nature, it is
necessary for us to possess an adequate knowledge of the elements or salient
features that differentiate/distinguish it from the other two literary genres the
novel/prose fiction and drama. These elements which constitute the tools by
which poets convey the thoughts and experiences they wish to communicate
include: imagery; rhythm; sound; diction. They are the very essence of poetic
study or criticism and a full comprehension of their meaning and functions in the
realisation of the total experience of any poem is of paramount importance.
2.0
OBJECTIVES
1.
2.
3.
4.
3.0
3.1
MAIN CONTENT
Imagery
Due to this power of imagery in poetry, poets utilise it to achieve the following
important effects in their works:
Arouse specific emotions in the reader or audience of their poems
Create beauty which is an important quality of poetry
Communicate thoughts
Achieve concretion of life experiences and ideas that are otherwise
abstract
Accordingly, it is through imagery that the sense impressions and experiences
evoked in a poem acquire necessary vividness and clarity.
The following are the main types of imagery that you would always find used
either individually or in combination by poets in their works:
Auditory
This is the type of imagery, words or cluster of words that evoke the sense of
hearing or a specific sound. Quite often, the auditory image manifests through
the figure of sound known as onomatopoeia, that is a combination of words
whose sound seems to resemble or echo the sound it denotes: hum, murmur,
bang, crack, hiss, screech hoot. Examples of the use of auditory
imagery are the following excerpts from JP Clarks Night Rain and Niyi
Osundares Raindrum:
A sensitive reading of the first two excerpts above by you would definitely make
you hear the drumming, droning, sizzling and talkative drops of the rain that
sound like kettledrums on the thatch roof of the personaes abodes as well as on
the dessicated earth licked clean by the fiery tongue of drought. In the third
excerpt, the sound of the machine guns (instruments of slaughter) is mimicked
or conveyed through the onomatopoeic word stutter. The sound of the drum
beat is common to both poets realisation of the experience conveyed in their
poems. You will agree that the sense of hearing they express is what you are
conversant with and would easily appreciate.
Olfactory
Images of this type evoke our sense of smell whether sweet, pungent, fragrant,
etc. An example of this is:
2.
ARE YOU
LIGHT
OR VERY DARK? Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Tactile
This refers to the images that appeal to ones sense of touch. A good example of
this is the memorable line from James Shirleys poem The Glories of our Blood
and State:
A similar poetic process takes place in these lines from Okinba Launkos poem
titled Separation, where the coldness and aloneness of separation of people,
probably former lovers, are given a concrete approximation in the
comparison/simile in the two last lines of the following quotation:
So welcome again,
The old loneliness. I hear you spring awake and hiss,
Cold as the touch of steel
In a harmattan night; (p.
The combination of cold and harmattan nights in the above lines, no doubt,
sends a familiar feeling through your mind and body; the harmattan season is
associated with the cold draught of the wind that blows from the Sahara Desert
and most of us have felt it.
Gustatory
2.
My husbands tongue
is bitter like the roots of the
Lyono lily
........ ........ .........
It is ferocious
like the poison of a barren
Woman
And corrosive like the juice of
the gourd
( pBitek Song of Lawino
Visual
Quite often our sense of sight or vision is evoked by merely reading lines of
poetry where a poet has effectively utilised words or language that effectively
create appropriate pictures in the readers mind. Such resultant images are
referred to as visual images or imagery; for example:
.... ....
children
On reading these lines, one cannot help but visualise in his mind a picture of
emaciated children the sad relics of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of the nineteen
sixties; the children are mere ghosts of their former selves: their erstwhile robust
bodies have now turned skeletal and their bottoms are shrivelled and all these
physical changes accentuate the blown empty bellies, symptomatic of
kwashiorkor.
Kinaesthetic
Kinaesthetic imagery refers to those images that call forth in the mind of the
reader the perception of movement. In other words, these are images that appeal
to the readers sense of movement or motion. Examples of this type of imagery
are:
1.
2.
The lines, phrases and words I have highlighted above convey the impression of
movement, which a reader of the poems from which they have been excerpted
cannot fail to realise in their minds eyes.
In all the examples we have used in the above section on the well-known types
of imagery, we have to realise by now that the ability of the reader to perceive
and share fully in the pictures and sensations the poet has captured in his verse
comes or is achieved through the apt use of figures of speech and figures of
2.
3.
Give an example each of four of these figures and then analyse them.
3.2
Rhythm
Rhythm is derived from the Greek word which translates in English into flow.
As one of the elements of poetry, it is considered as the most important of a
poets technical resources. In practical terms, it is the alternation of periods of
effort with periods of relaxation. According to RN Egudu,
You should take note of the words beat, pulse, recurrence and repetition in
the above definitions of rhythm; they underscore the fact that rhythm obeys or
follows a basic movement of the pendulum of the metronome, which marks the
underlying approximate equivalent time intervals between specific sounds in
music. It is equally important to note that the repetition that characterises rhythm
in poetry, as in music, is variable and alternates between stressed and unstressed
syllables. This variation removes monotony and accounts for the variable
combinations of sound patterns to which we attribute the music in poetry. Have
you ever imagined a song or a poem that maintains the same rhythm throughout
without variations in low and high tones or between light and heavy syllables?
Definitely, it would be a very boring song or poem. The American poet and
critic, Ezra Pound, has in his characteristic suave manner commented on this
flaw by saying that the writer of bad verse is a bore because he does not
perceive time and time relations, and cannot therefore delimit them in an
interesting manner, by means of longer and shorter, heavier and lighter syllables,
and the varying qualities of sound inseparable from the words of his speech
(ABC, 199).
abrupt and disjointed or jerky. Thus rhythm is intricately connected with the
form and the meaning expressed by the poet as well as provide both emotional
and intellectual pleasure for the reader or audience. For example, the following
excerpts illustrate the deployment of effective rhythmic patterns to achieve these
different emotional effects:
From our discussion so far, it is clear that the wave-like recurrence of sound and
motion that constitutes poetic rhythm has its foundation or basis in the pattern of
stresses and the length of lines of poetry. This aspect of the nature of rhythm
necessitates a knowledge of the metrical schemes, be they regular (basic metre)
or irregular (deviation from the basic metre). Metre has been defined as a
repetitive and symmetrical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables on which
Name of metre
Sound
Example
Iamb
Iambic
a Dum
Return
Trochee
Trochaic
Dum a
turning, running
anapaest
Anapaestic
a a Dum
resurrect, jubilate
Dactyl
Dactylic
Dum a a
3.3 Sound
Sound is one of the most pleasing features in a poem. Along with rhythm, it
constitutes the foundation of the musical quality that is associated with poetry as
a form of literature. Accordingly, its functions in a poem are similar to those of
rhythm which we have discussed in the preceding section on rhythm. The nature
or significance of sound in a poem can be better appreciated when the poem is
read aloud. This, however, does not mean that the aural qualities are not realised
when a poem is read silently: for the experienced reader, these qualities remain
and are realised as inherent parts of the total poem; instead of the vocalised
realisation that marks reading aloud, these qualities are achieved through a
process of sub-vocal enunciation. When effectively deployed in a poem, sound
effects enable the reader to achieve a state of mind in which he can more readily
appreciate the emotions and meanings conveyed in the poem by the writer. In the
words of Heese and Lawton, much of the delight to be derived from the reading
Generally, sound effects in poetry not only give aural/auditory pleasure to the
reader, they equally give added significance to the words used by the poet. In
other words, sound in poetry is used to convey meaning, emotions and pleasure.
For example, the poet employs such literary devices as alliteration, assonance,
consonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia, repetition, refrain, etc., to place desired
emphasis on particular words as well as achieve specific emotions or sensations
in his work. It is important that the sound be appropriate to the experience or
action presented in a line, stanza or on work in its entirety. The effects produced
by sound in a poem could be good or bad depending on how skilful the poet is.
The following examples would illustrate some of the sound effects, such as
alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, and rhyme, commonly used
by poets and their effects when skilfully applied:
You should take your time to appreciate these stanzas from the poets
memorable art/literary ballad The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Indeed, you
should find a suitable anthology of English poetry and read this poem in its
entirety because it is a sort of compendium from which one could draw
illustrations of most of the devices and elements studied in this course. In terms
of music, there is much sense in Pounds assertion that the way to learn the
music of verse is to listen to it (ABC 56). Listening does not just imply listening
to someone else read aloud lines of poetry; you can equally listen to yourself as
you read just the way you listen to yourself as you sing a song.
3.3
Diction
Diction in very simple terms means the use of words in oral or written discourse;
the peculiar choice of words used by the poet or his vocabulary considered for
their meaning and association rather than for their aural qualities. More
expansively, Abrams has defined the term as the selection of words in a work of
literature. A writers diction can be analysed under such categories as the degree
to which his vocabulary is abstract or concrete, Latinate or Anglo-Saxon in
origin, colloquial or formal, technical or common, literal or figurative (131).
Accordingly, nothing is a clearer indication of the interests, habit of mind and
the period of a poet than his diction the words he uses in his poems. Different
periods in English literature have chosen and popularised various forms of poetic
diction. In addition to the categories mentioned in Abrams definition above, a
poets diction can also be described as plain or ornate, homely or exotic,
contemporary or archaic, familiar or cryptic, etc., and each kind has its
attractions as well as its limitations. You should be able to analyse any given
poem to determine the dominant pattern of the diction or selection of words
employed by a poet in his work.
Compare the following excerpts in terms of the diction used by the poets. You
will discover on reading the lines that there is a world of difference between the
poets peculiar choice of words in their works, as represented in these lines; you
should also be able to categorise the diction as well as explain the reasons behind
your categories.
1. It comes so quickly
The bird of death
From evil forests of Soviet technology
2. In the greyness
and drizzle of one despondent
dawn unstirred by harbingers
of sunbreak a vulture
perching high on broken
bone of a dead tree
nestled close to his
mate (Achebe Vultures, BSB 39)
4.0 CONCLUSION
Poetry has been variously defined by different poets and critics over the ages
while some would prefer to see it as the subject or content that is written about
by the poet, others emphasise that it is the manner of expressing this contents
that should determine the essential nature of poetry. Nonetheless, irrespective of
the positions of these schools of thought, there is consensus on the major
elements that, by and large, distinguish poetry from other forms of writing, viz:
imagery; rhythm; sound; diction.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have focused attention on the elements of poetry that differentiate
it from the other major genres of literature, drama and the novel. With some
suitable examples, we have been able to indicate as well as demonstrate the
nature of these elements and their contribution to the effectiveness or quality of a
poem. We have learnt that the elements imagery, rhythm, sound and diction
are the vehicles that the poet utilises to convey his thoughts and emotions as well
as delight his readers.
CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Epic
3.2 Ballad
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0
INTRODUCTION
This unit will equip you with a detailed study of the major forms or types of
poetry with special emphasis on their distinguishing features; it is necessary that
you be able to know the type of poem that you are dealing with at any point in
time.
2.0
OBJECTIVES
2.
3.
4.
Determine and rationalise the type of poem you may have to appreciate in
a professional manner.
3.0
MAIN CONTENT
Nowadays it has become the norm to speak of the various types of poetry and it
is therefore pertinent for us to note that these types developed at different periods
in the long history of written English poetry. To the earliest and mostly
communal types such as the epic and the ballad have been added other forms,
whose roots may be traceable to these earlier forms, but are mainly of the lyrical
stock that are concerned with the expression of the intense personal emotions or
feelings of the poet on a specific subject. These major forms are also referred to
as the fixed forms in poetry due to the fact that they are made up of traditional
patterns or structures of rhymes and line lengths which control the entire poem.
Of all these traditional patterns that of the sonnet is considered as the most
important.
The major forms or types we shall study in this unit are: the epic; the ballad; the
ode; the sonnet; the elegy; and the lyric.
There are two major types of the epic, namely: the primary (folk) and the
secondary (art) epics. A primary epic is the type that draws its sustenance mainly
from the oral tradition of a people hence the label folk, while the secondary
epic is a modification and reorganised version by identifiable or known authors.
This latter type is, as a result of its very basis and nature, written with much
literary sophistication by poets who imitate the primary epic in both subject and
manner.
9. Epic poet incorporates a long list of warriors, armies, war machines which
necessitate employment of the fitting vehicle of the epic simile or extended
comparison.
(NB: List which is by now normative relies mostly on Holman, Abrams, etc.)
Well known examples of the epic in English literature include the following:
Beowulf; the Indian Mahabharata, the French Chanson de Roland and the
Spanish El Cid.
The term epic has also been loosely applied to other works, both poetry and
prose, written on a grand scale and attempt or aspire to the spirit of the epic in
matter/subject and manner/style. These include Dantes Divine Comedy,
Spensers Faerie Queene, Herman Melvilles Moby Dick, Leo Tolstoys War
and Peace, Ezra Pounds Cantos and Nianes Sundiata.
3.2
Ballad
The ballad, one of the earliest form of poetry, is a song that tells a story or
conversely a story told through song. Thus a ballad is a short narrative poem,
adapted for singing, simple in plot and metrical in structure, divided into stanzas
of four lines (quatrains) rhyming alternately and characterised by complete
impersonality as far as the author or singer is concerned.
As in the epic, there are two main types of the ballad, namely: the folk ballad
(also referred to as the popular or traditional ballad) and the art or literary
ballad. These terms equally intimate the origins and nature of this type of poetry
similar to the distinctions we have seen in the epic genre. Accordingly, a folk
ballad is anonymous but we can safely infer that there must have been a poet
since all poems are mostly composed by individual poets. According to Hugh
Holman debate still rages as to whether the ballad originates with an individual
composer or as a group or communal activity (52). Whether as individual or
group composition, the personal emotions of the composer or poet do not
manifest in his work. There is no first person singular (I), but where it strays in,
it is always found in the context of the speech by identifiable characters in the
poem to whom it refers. In studying the folk ballad, we are studying the poetry
of the traditional people as different from the poetry of art as in the art ballad
whose writer, who may modify and use folk materials, is known. Thus, oral
transmission is the medium of spreading the song of the folk ballad.
There are different sub-categories of the ballad which include the ballads of
history, of love, of humour and of domestic tragedy. Others include ballads of
the domestic border and ballads derived from epic materials.
2.
3.
Simple repetition.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Use of refrains which aids musicality in the poem as well as perform the
functions of repetition noted above (in #4).
9.
As a general rule, the ballad uses a common measure of a four line stanza
rhyming abab ; abcb or xaxa.
You should note that in this rhyming pattern the first and third lines could rhyme
(represented as a in abab), while the second and fourth lines (represented as
b) must rhyme. In some ballads, however, the first and third lines may not
rhyme (as in abcb and xaxa, where x represents no rhyme and this deviation
does not disqualify such lines as ballad stanzas.
The following are notable examples of the folk ballad and the art ballad which
you should read in any good anthology of English poetry:
Edward
(2)
(1)
4.0 CONCLUSION
5.0 SUMMARY
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poets World: An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1
Sonnet
3.2
Elegy
3.3
Ode
3.4
Lyric
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0
INTRODUCTION
This unit will equip you with a detailed study of the major forms or types of
poetry with special emphasis on their distinguishing features; it is necessary
that you be able to know the type of poem that you are dealing with at any
point in time.
2.0
OBJECTIVES
2.
3.
4.
In its earliest Greek form established by the poet Pindar, it was choral or sung by
a group of people who constituted the personas who moved in a dance rhythm in
the dramatic poetry that was the main matrix for the ode/form. More explicitly,
Holman tells us that the term ode connotes certain qualities both of manner and
form. In manner, the ode is an elaborate lyric, expressed in language dignified,
sincere, and imaginative and intellectual in tone. In form the ode is more
complicated than most of the lyric types. Perhaps the essential distinction of
form is the division into strophes: the strophe, antistrophe, and epode (363).
The dance movements of the chorus are as follows:
The great period of the ode in English poetry began with Abraham Cowley who
in the seventeenth century popularised the Pindaric ode in English. There are
three main types of odes in English poetry, namely: the Pindaric (regular) the
Horatian and the Irregular. The Pindaric ode is a complex poem of some length
on a subject of public interest or on an abstract quality, written in rhyming or
irregular pattern. On the other hand, the Horatian type modelled on the odes of
the Roman poet Horace, is less complex, calm, meditative and restrained and
contain only one strophe (homostrophic). Famous examples are Miltons Ode
on the Morning of Christs Nativity, To the Lord General Cromwell, May
1652; Grays The Progress of Poesy; the romantic odes including
Wordsworths Ode: Intimations of Immortality, Keatss Ode to the
Nightingale, Ode to Autumn, and Ode on a Grecian Urn and Shelleys
Ode to the West Wind.
Excerpts
(1)
(2)
Ode to Autumn
(3)
3.2
Elegy
An elegy is a sustained and formal poem setting forth the poets meditations
upon death or another solemn theme (Holman 183). The meditation is often
occasioned by the death of a particular person, a painful loss or a general
calamity that touches not just the poet as an individual but a wider spectrum of
persons in his community or man generally. Thus the poem may also be a
generalised observation or the expression of a solemn mood. Other poetic types
that are akin to the elegy and whose labels are often misused in reference to the
elegy are (1) the dirge, a short, less formal and usually in the form of a text to be
sung, with sub-types such as threnody which is mainly an equivalent to the
dirge and monody which is an elegy presented as an utterance by one person.
The following are popular examples of the elegy in English literature: John
Miltons Lycidas; Alfred Tennysons
In Memoriam; WH Audens In
An ancient category of the elegy is the pastoral elegy in which the poet or
mourner and the dead or the one mourned, who is also a poet, are characterised
as shepherds. The name pastoral is derived from the Greek word pastor, which
means shepherd. MH Abrams, using one of the notable examples of the pastoral
elegy, has identified seven fundamental conventions that have marked this poetic
form from its earliest Greek form through the Renaissance as follows:
1.
The invocation of the muses and frequent references to other figures from
classical mythology.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The poet raises questions about the justice of divine providence and goes
on to comments on the decadence of his contemporary society in seeming
digressions which are often integral to the development of the mourners
line of thought as in Lycidas.
6.
7.
Bearing in mind the above general thematic and stylistic characteristics of the
elegy as a poetic form, we will now take a look at a local example to illustrate
the universal application of these features in the following Igbo (Nigeria) piece:
Sonnet
There are three main types of the sonnet; these are the Petrarchan or Italian; the
Miltonic; the Shakespearean or Elizabethan. We should note that although the
sonnet was originally an Italian poetic form, hence the name of the prototypic
form - Petrarchan/Italian, it had a very large following in the English poetic
tradition beginning from the sixteenth century. The earliest English or
Elizabethan sonneteers are Isaac Wyatt, Phillip Sidney (Astrophel and Stella
sequence), Edmund Spenser (Amoretti sequence) and they set the tone by
deploying their poems as vehicles for impassioned amorous, religious, and
friendly adulation.
3.3.1 Petrarchan/Italian: This type consists of two parts or systems as they are
called a major part known as the octave made up of the first eight lines; a
minor part called the sestet made up of the last six lines. There is usually a pause
or turn in idea or thought at the end of the octave. This turn or break in sense is
known technically as the volta. This structure conventionally goes hand in
hand with the thematic content of the poem in that a statement of a problem, a
situation or an incident in the octave is followed by a resolution in the sestet. The
rhyme scheme of the octave is: abba, abba and this is fixed or invariable. On the
other hand, the rhyme scheme of the sestet varies, but it may consist of any
arrangement of two or three rhymes as long as the last two lines do not form a
couplet that is, they do not rhyme. Thus, the usual arrangement in the sestet is:
cdcdcd or cdecde. An example of this type in English poetry is William
Wordsworths The World is too much with us.
[Poem]
3.3.2
but the only difference is that the Miltonic does not observe the pause or turn at
the end of the octave; rather the poet lets the octave to run-on into the sestet.
Suitable examples of this type are: John Miltons On His Blindness; On the
late massacre at Piedmont and Sonnet XXIII Methought I saw my late
espoused saint.
[Poem]
3.3.3
both the Petrarchan and Miltonic forms. It consists of three quatrains and a final
rhyming couplet and its rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. At times the
division of material found in the Petrarchan sonnet is also present here or there is
repetition with variation of the statement in the three quatrains with the final
couplet presenting a neat and laconic encapsulation of the central thought in the
poem. The volta sometimes occurs between the twelfth and thirteenth lines.
The following are examples of this type: Shall I compare thee to a summer
day?; Let me not to the marriage of true minds; William Shakespeares
Since Brass nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
3.4
Lyric
In its original form, the lyric was a poem sung to the accompaniment of a lyre
a classical stringed musical instrument. In the Greek classical period, it was sung
by a single singer and was thus differentiated from the choric, which was
performed by a group of singers. The term is now applied to describe any poem
that is light in tone, could be adapted into song and reflects the personal mood or
feeling of the singer or poet rather than narrate a story. This quality or
characteristic constitutes the main difference between it as a poetic type and the
ballad and the epic which concentrate on extra-personal subjects or themes. The
lyric does not follow any rigid metrical law (unlike the sonnet) by which it is
identified and it is for this reason that it is often regarded as a mode of writing
rather than as a form.
The subjects of the lyric poet are as varied as his moods; thus he is at one time
writing about love and at other times he is expressing his feelings towards nature
or merely giving vent to his personal observations on life generally. However,
the idea of unity of mood, of thought, of feeling, and of style is essential to the
lyric.
Since the true quality of the lyric is the personal element, that is, as a vehicle of
the poets mood, a means of expressing his individual sensibility, the ode, the
sonnet as well as the elegy are lyrics. As such all the examples of these latter
form cited in the preceding sections of this unit can rightly be studied as lyrics.
4.0
CONCLUSION
5.0
SUMMARY
6.0
TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
7.0
REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Irony
3.2 Paradox
3.3 Metaphor
3.4 Simile
3.5 Personification
3.6 Metonymy
3.7 Synecdoche
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0
INTRODUCTION
2.0
OBJECTIVES
3.0
MAIN CONTENT
3.1
Irony
Irony is one of the most typical figures of speech in poetry. Hugh Holman has
defined it as a broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from
the masking reality. Put more simply, it is a figure of speech in which the
denotative, literal or ordinary meaning of a word or expression is more or less
the direct opposite of the sense intended by the speaker or, in this case, the poet.
You should be able to identify this poetic device by paying close attention to the
contexts in which the ironic words or expressions are used in a poem.
For example, irony could manifest in a context in which a patently ugly and
unpleasant
event
or
object
is
described
as
beautiful/attractive
and
To begin with, the title of the poem is ironic because it runs contrary to the moral
quality expected of whoever would lay claim to being a cleaner. The irony is
further strengthened by the fact that the crew referred to is depicted as a group
of persons who pretend to be morally above board as opposed to the those who
were responsible for the disastrous race that instigates their reaction; and their
professed intention is to wash clean the proverbial political Augean stable
when they themselves are not better than those they have ousted.
You as close readers should be able to identify and enjoy this form of verbal
duplicity which is the stock in trade of the ironist because its contradiction is
apparent.
However, there is the more complex type of irony which best reveals the
characteristic feature of irony as a dominant structural ingredient in an ironic
poem; where the persona or speaker in a poem assumes the position of a wellmeaning or disinterested neutral person to express ideas that appear to be earnest
but which essentially are not to be taken literally. A good example of this form
of irony is A Modest Proposal by the Irish poet, Jonathan Swift, in which the
persona acts as a caring professional economist who proffers economic solutions
to end the poverty in his impoverished society by suggesting outrageously
impossible steps to be taken by the authority. It is highly recommended that you
read this poem in a good anthology of English poetry.
Other forms of irony are the situational, cosmic and dramatic which are more
frequently used in dramatic works.
3.2.
Paradox
Similarly, the paradox that runs through John Donnes sonnet titled Death Be
not Proud can only be fully appreciated against an understanding and
acceptance of the religious concept that death is not a terrible end-all of mans
ontology; that death is a needful interlude between mans existence in this world
and his transition to the next world:
.....
......
.....
In this essentially Romantic poem, the poet gives lasting expression to the
philosophy that a childs potentials are a presage of what he would become at
maturity. But by the way it is expressed, it conveys, on the surface, the
ridiculous and contradictory impression that the child is actually the father of
man. It is only on close scrutiny against the Romantic philosophy of the
evolution of the child with all its positive and negative implications that its
embedded truth is realised.
JP Clark also offers us a fitting example of the use of paradox to reinforce poetic
meaning in Letter from Kampala, a piece that conveys the familial sentiments
of the persona who is engaged on a journey away from home as follows:
Taken literally, the two last lines would contradict the home sickness of a person
who is actually missing his wife and children, because he deliberately goes
farther away from them/home instead of moving in a reversed direction towards
home. However, the truth in this seemingly absurd progression is that, in order to
complete his journey and return to his family, the traveller has to reach the
farthest limit of his journey. He will not achieve this if he stays at the beginning
of the journey.
3.3 Metonymy
This involves the use of an object or idea to stand for or signify some other thing
with which it is closely associated, but which is not necessarily an integral part
of it. In this type of figure/trope, we commonly speak of the king as the
crown, an object closely associated with kingship but not an organic part of the
person of the king or royalty. Similarly, the scythe and the spade are made to
stand for the peasantry that is closely associated with two objects as in the
following examples:
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things,
There is no armour against fate,
Death lays his icy hand on kings;
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
James Shirley The Glories of Our Blood and State
(Reeves 104)
Other examples are:
1. After much strife on the streets, the green berets were called in handle the
situation (i.e. the soldiers).
2. The man who lives across the street goes after any skirt in the neighbourhood
(any female).
3.4 Synecdoche
This is a figure of speech in which a person, place or thing/object is made to
stand for the whole or conversely the whole is made to stand for a part. You
should note that, as in the metonymy, this figure works on the basis of
association or relationship; but unlike the metonymy, however, the part is an
integral part of the whole as the whole is often a whole because it subsumes the
part. In addition, for the synecdoche to be effective and clear, it must be based
on an important or a main part of the whole and should be manifestly associated
with the topic being discussed or in focus as in these examples:
1. More hands are needed to execute the task (i.e. workmen).
2. The worker finds it difficult to cater for more mouths in his family (i.e.
persons).
3. I gave commands; / And all smiles stopped together (i.e.
3.5 Simile
A simile is a figure of speech/trope in which two things or actions are directly
compared because of some inherent qualities they share in common, although
they may be totally different in other respects. The term hints at the similarities
or similitude that underlies the natures of the two objects or actions being
compared and which are normally linked by the operative word like or as. As
in a metaphor, the ability of a poet or writer to see and effectively establish
similitude in a simile in two patently dissimilar things is considered as a mark of
genius as long as the comparison remains fresh and striking. Consider the
following examples and try your hands on as many fresh and striking examples
as possible:
3.7 Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which inanimate objects, animals or
abstract ideas are endowed with human form, character, or sensibilities. Thus to
personify an object or thing is to attribute to it human life or feelings. Heese and
Lawton described it as another kind of image where the something concrete
relates to human beings, while the something else is not human (83).
Examples:
1.
2.
...
3.
4.0
CONCLUSION
5.0
SUMMARY
6.0
TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
7.0
REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
PBitek, Okot (19 ). Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol. London: Heinemann.
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poets World: An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
UNIT 2:
CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Contrast
3.2 Antithesis
3.3 Apostrophe
3.4 Hyperbole
3.5 Onomatopoeia
3.6 Oxymoron
8.0 Conclusion
9.0 Summary
10.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
We should recall at this point the emphasis we placed on the figurative or
connotative nature of the language of poetry in our consideration of several
definitions of the genre in Unit I of Module I. Among other points, we stressed
that poetry communicates experiences in language deliberately selected and
arranged by the poet to create specific emotional as well as intellectual responses
through meaning, sound and rhythm. Another related point we made was that
poetry, in line with the general nature of literature, communicates experiences
through indirection. This deliberately contrived and indirect/suggestive language
of poetry is achieved, mainly, through some figurative usages among which are
irony, paradox, metaphor, simile, apostrophe, personification, metonymy,
synecdoche, etc, which we shall discuss in this unit.
2.0
OBJECTIVES
order depicted in nature imagery (in the first ten lines) and a ravished and
militarised order represented in images of machines and corruption (in the last
ten lines). By juxtaposing these two contrasting orders, the socio-political
existence in a typical pre-colonial African setting and that in a colonial regime
become very clear and heightened.
The sun used to laugh in my hut
And my women were lovely and lissom
Like palms in the evening breeze.
My children would glide over the mighty river
Of deadly depths
And my canoes would battle with crocodiles.
The motherly moon accompanied our dances
The heavy frantic rhythm of the tom-tom,
Tom-tom of joy, tom-tom of carefree life.
Amid the fires of liberty.
Then one day, Silence...
It seemed the rays of the sun went out
In my hut empty of meaning.
My women crushed their painted mouths
On the thin hard lips of steel-eyed conquerors
And my children left their peaceful nakedness
For the uniform of iron and blood.
Your voice went out too
The irons of slavery tore my heart to pieces
Tom-tom of my nights, tom-toms of my fathers.
Hammer Blows
Another example of the use of contrast is available in the poem Virtue by the
English metaphysical poet, George Herbert as follows:
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
3.2 Apostrophe
As we have seen so far in our examination of the devices and examples of their
uses in the sections above, poets are consistently seeking and utilizing different
techniques to concretise, emphasise, and heighten meaning in their works. We
have seen how this is achieved through irony, paradox, contrast. We shall now
turn our attention to apostrophe which is a direct and straight forward address
either to an absent person or to an abstract or inanimate entity (Abrams 149).
Poets use the apostrophe to the give the impression or sense of immediacy as
well as the emotional involvement/outpouring in their works; that is, it enables
both the poet and the reader to have a feeling of nearness and a sense of presence
of the person or entity addressed in a poem. You will agree with me that this
usage equally aids the readers imaginative realisation of meaning in a poem. Let
us consider the following examples to illustrate these qualities and functions of
this rhetorical figure of speech:
O dawn
What language do you use
To instruct the birds to sing
Their early songs
And insects to sound
The rhythm of an African heartbeat?
Susan Lwanga Daybreak
3. Before you, mother Idoto,
naked I stand,
before your watery presence,
a prodigal
leaning on an oilbean,
lost in your legend...
Christopher Okigbo Idoto
In these three excerpts, the poets address abstract and inanimate objects or
entities as if they were living and sensate. As we have mentioned above, the
device is a ready tool for the poets emotional expression and this is evident in
the direct addresses in the forms of eulogy and adulation directed to the village
of Auburn that is no more (in excerpt 1), the evanescent dawn (as in excerpt 2)
and a revered female godhead, Idoto (in excerpt 3).
3.3
Antithesis
Other examples of antithesis that obey the above structure and are likely to be
familiar to you:
1. To err is human, to forgive divine
2. For many are called, but few are chosen
3. Once bitten, twice shy
3.4 Hyperbole
This is the use of deliberate exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis or to
achieve a humorous effect, without any intention to deceive the reader or
audience. It is the opposite of litotes. (Look this up in a dictionary of glossary of
literary terms). As in common usage amongst you and your friends, you should
be in a position to appreciate the deployment and effect of exaggeration in
communication. Take, for example, when you walk into your friends room after
a long day of back-to-back lectures and say: I want to eat a basin of eba.
Certainly, you know that you are not capable of eating that quantity of food; but
you have made the statement to emphasise how hungry you are as well as to
achieve humour. The following excerpts from Robert Burns poem, A Red, Red
Rose, will equally illustrate the nature and effect of hyperbole:
3.5 Onomatopoeia
This rhetorical figure, according to Abrams, is applied to a word, or a
combination of words, whose sound seems to resemble the sound it denotes:
hiss, buzz, rattle, bang (118). In other words, this figure involves the use
of words whose pronunciation echo or suggest their meaning. For example, the
highlighted words in the following lines excerpted from Coleridges The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner intimate their meaning through an artful matching of
sound to sense:
1. The ice was all around:
It crackd, growld, and roar,d
3.
3.6
Oxymoron
4.0
CONCLUSION
5.0
SUMMARY
6.0
TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
7.0
REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Abrams, MH. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart,
Winston.
Diop, David. (1973). Hammer Blows, Poems. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.
Egudu, RN. (1977). The Study of Poetry. Ibadan: University Press.
Gardner, Helen, ed, (1972). The Metaphysical Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Goldsmith, Oliver
Holman, Hugh (1972). A Handbook to Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Okigbo, Christopher
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poets World: An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Blank verse
3.2 Heroic verse
3.4 Free verse
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
As we have already stressed in the earlier units in module I, the best way to read
and enjoy poetry is to read it aloud. Although some poems could be enjoyed as
a visual experience through the appreciation of their structures on the page, they
are ultimately meant to be heard and seen. This is why special attention to the
sound and rhythmic patterns in a poem is a key to the full appreciation of a
poem; hence the importance of an understanding of the skilful deployment of
stressed and unstressed syllables in verse forms to convey speech rhythm and
emotions.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit you will be able to:
1. identify the three verse forms discussed
2. distinguish between the types of verse
3. discuss the effect of rhymed and unrhymed meters in lines of poertry/verse
Blank Verse
3.2
Heroic Verse
This is iambic pentameter lines rhyming in twos, aa bb cc, etc. It is called heroic
because it was the medium or form used for heroic/epic poetry and plays in
English. However, it evolved from the 14th century when it was the medium
utilised by Geoffrey Chaucer and was usually written in the ten syllable
(decasyllabic) lines. It became use became widespread and popular in the 17th
and 18th centuries at which time it became known as heroic couplet.
It is the smallest unit of verse forms and as such it is quite restrictive as can be
demonstrated in the following examples drawn from the works of two great
poets of Augustan or 18th century English poetry:
1.
2.
There are two distinct types of the heroic couplet namely, the closed and the
open. The closed couplet is that in which the end of the two lines of the couplet
coincides with the end of either a sentence, a complete thought or a selfcontained unit of syntax, with a pause at the end of the first line and a
termination of that unit of thought at the end of the second line. Consider the two
examples above. Thus, this type constitutes a stanza but it is not separated from
the lines that precede or follow it. On the other hand, in the open couplet, the
syntax is not symmetrical, the lines run-on, and rhyme is a mere ornament rather
than marking the end of the verse as in the vibrant and rhythmical opening lines
of Chaucers prologue to The Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
The drogte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in Swich locour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heet
The tendre croppes....
3.3
Free Verse
In the words of Heese and Lawton, free verse may be defined as rhythmical
lines varying in length, adhering to no fixed metrical pattern, and usually
unrhymed (48). These characteristics were meant to free poetry from the
You should take note of the varied/irregular line lengths, the absence of a
consciously contrived rhyme scheme and the vague rhythm that approximates
the rhythm of natural speech.
4.0 CONCLUSION
5.0 SUMMARY
7.0
REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Syllable
3.2 Foot
3.5 Metre and types
7.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 OBJECTIVES
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1
3.2
3.3
4.0 CONCLUSION
5.0 SUMMARY
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING