IMPERSONAL FORMS OF POETRY

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 INTRODUCTION

This article will provide you with a comprehensive study of the major forms or types of poetry, with a special emphasis on their distinguishing features. It is essential to be aware of the specific type of poem you are addressing at any given time.

 OBJECTIVES

By the end of this article, you should be able to:

1. Recognize and explain various forms of poetry;

2. Describe in detail each type of poetry;

3. Differentiate between the various forms of poetry based on their individual characteristics;

4. Determine and justify the type of poem you may need to appreciate in a professional manner.

MAIN CONTENT

In contemporary times, it has become customary to discuss various types of poetry. It is essential to note that these types evolved during different periods in the extensive history of written English poetry. The earliest forms, primarily communal, such as the epic and the ballad, have been supplemented by other forms. While these new forms may have roots traceable to the earlier ones, they predominantly belong to the lyrical stock, focusing on expressing the intense personal emotions or feelings of the poet on a specific subject. These major forms are also known as "fixed forms" in poetry because they adhere to traditional patterns or structures of rhymes and line lengths that govern the entire poem. Among these traditional patterns, the sonnet is considered the most significant.

The major forms or types we will explore in this article include the epic, the ballad, the ode, the sonnet, the elegy, and the lyric.

The Epic

The epic is a poem composed on a grand scale, typically in many separate books or volumes, focusing on the exploits of a great national, historical, or legendary character or hero. In essence, an epic celebrates, in the form of a continuous narrative, the feats of one or more heroic characters from history or tradition. Generally, the epic addresses a theme of lofty nature, and consequently, its characters are usually of high social standing or possess significant power. As expected, the narrative of an epic is presented in a way that the actions of the subject intimate and comment on the values and destiny of a particular people or race, despite its episodic nature.

There are two major types of the epic, namely: the primary (folk) and the secondary (art) epics. A primary epic is the type that mainly draws from the oral tradition of a people, hence the label 'folk,' while the secondary epic is a modified and reorganized version by identifiable or known authors. This latter type, due to its basis and nature, is written with much literary sophistication by poets who imitate the primary epic in both subject and manner.

Characteristics of an Epic

Whether folk or art, epics share a set of common general characteristics and conventions:

1. The poet begins the narration by stating the theme and invokes the Muse to inspire and instruct him in his task.

2. The story starts "in medias res," in the middle of things, and proceeds to recount the great deeds of the heroes with objectivity.

3. The action involving supernatural forces is singular and entire.

4. The story is of considerable length and scope, with the action taking place over an extended period and spanning several nations, the world of the poet's day, or the imagined universe.

5. The hero, a person of great stature and legendary or historical significance, performs superhuman actions and is a primary concern for the audience or reader, symbolizing the aspirations and destiny of his/her nation or race.

6. The narrative style is grand, alternating between the sublime or sustained elevation and grand simplicity.

7. The story includes elaborate formal speeches by the main characters.

8. The constituent episodes of the narrative easily arise from the main story, and as a result, there are no parts that could be detached without loss to the whole.

9. Epic poetry incorporates a long list of warriors, armies, and war machines, necessitating the use of the fitting vehicle of the epic simile or extended comparison.

(NB: The list, which is now considered normative, primarily relies on sources like Holman, Abrams, and others.)

Well-known examples of the epic in English literature include:

- Traditional/Folk/Primary: Homer's Iliad, Odyssey; Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; the Indian Mahabharata; the French Chanson de Roland; and the Spanish El Cid.

- Art/Literary/Secondary: Virgil's Aeneid; Milton's Paradise Lost.

The term 'epic' has also been loosely applied to other works, both poetry and prose, written on a grand scale and attempting or aspiring to capture the spirit of the epic in matter/subject and manner/style. These include Dante's Divine Comedy, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Ezra Pound's Cantos, and Niane's Sundiata.

Ballad

The ballad, among the earliest forms of poetry, is a song that narrates a story or, conversely, a story conveyed through song. Essentially, a ballad is a short narrative poem, crafted for singing, with a simple plot and a metrical structure. It is divided into stanzas of four lines (quatrains) rhyming alternately and characterized by complete impersonality concerning the author or singer.

Similar to the epic, there are two main types of the ballad: the folk ballad (also known as the popular or traditional ballad) and the art or literary ballad. These terms convey the origins and nature of this poetry, akin to the distinctions seen in the epic genre. A folk ballad is anonymous, yet we can infer that there must have been a poet, as most poems are 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 composed individually or as a group, the personal emotions of the composer or poet do not manifest in their work. There is no first-person singular (I), but if it appears, it is within the context of the speech by identifiable characters in the poem to whom it refers. Studying the folk ballad involves exploring the poetry of traditional people, distinct from the poetry of art, as in the art ballad, whose writer, though using folk materials, is known. Thus, oral transmission is the medium for spreading the song of the folk ballad.

Sub-Categories of the Ballad:

There are several sub-categories of the ballad, including ballads of history, love, humor, domestic tragedy, domestic border, and ballads derived from epic materials.

Features of the Ballad:

Common characteristic features of the ballad as a form of poetry should be noted to help you identify, describe, and critique when required:

1. Impersonality and lack of sentimentality.

2. Anonymity of authorship and consequent lack of authorial comments.

3. Simple repetition.

4. Incremental repetition meant to slow down action, adding suspense and emphasizing points in a dialogue.

5. Focus on a single episode.

6. Use of dialogue to make the action of the story dramatic, compressing and removing unnecessary descriptions and points.

7. Absence or minimal utilization of figures of speech.

8. Use of refrains, aiding musicality and performing the functions of repetition noted above (#4).

9. Stereotype or stock epithets and concrete diction.

10. Quatrain stanzas.

Rhyming Pattern in Ballads:

As a general rule, the ballad employs a common measure of a four-line stanza rhyming abab, abcb, or xaxa. 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.

Notable Examples of Ballads:

Here are notable examples of the folk ballad and the art ballad that you should read in any good anthology of English poetry:

Folk/Popular/Traditional Ballad:

- 'Sir Patrick Spens'

- 'The Wife at Usher‘s Well'

- 'The Daemon Lover'

- 'Edward'

- 'The Three Ravens'

- 'Lord Randal'

- 'The Twa Corbies'

Extract from 'Edward':

"Why does your brand sae drop wi‘ blude,

Edward, Edward?

Why does your brand sae drop wi‘ blude,

And why sae sad gang ye, O?" -

"O I hae kill‘d my hawk sae gude,

Mither, Mither;

O I hae kill‘d my hawk sae gude,

And I had nae mair but he, O" (Reeves 4-6).

(2) Sir Patrick Spens:

The king sits in Dunfermline town

Drinking the blude-red wine,

"O whare will I get a skeely skipper

To sail this new ship o‘ mine?"

O up and spak an eldern knight,

Sat at the king‘s right knee;

"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor

That ever sailed the sea."

(Reeves 7-10)

Art/Literary Ballad:

- Scott‘s 'Proud Maisie'

- John Keats‘s 'La Belle Dame sans Merci'

- Samuel T. Coleridge‘s 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'

- Robert Burns‘s 'A Red, Red Rose' and 'Anna'

- Gerard M. Hopkins‘s 'Felix Randal'

(1) 

A Red, Red Rose:

O my love is like a red, red rose

That‘s newly sprung in June:

O my love is like the melody,

That‘s sweetly played in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I;

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a‘ the seas gang dry.

(Reeves 60)

(2) 

Belle Dame sans Merci:

"What can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel‘s granary is full,

And the harvest‘s done

(Reeves 212-214)

CONCLUSION:

In this article, we explored two specific types of poetry: the Epic and the Ballad. We delved into the distinctive features and characteristics that define each, providing specific examples to deepen our comprehension.

5.0 SUMMARY:

In summary, the epic is characterized by grandiosity and length, while the ballad is shorter and more ordinary, making it a familiar poem for the average person. Each type of poem possesses its unique strength and beauty.

REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Holman, Hugh, ed. (1972). A Handbook of Literature. Indianapolis:

Bobbs-Merrill.

Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry. London: Heinemann.