Sunday, July 20, 2014

ASILI YA RIWAYA YA KISWAHILI

ASILI   YA    RIWAYA    YA   KISWAHILI

Katika mjadala huu, tutajikita zaidi kwa kutoa maana ya riwaya kutoka kwa wataalamu mbalimbali, maana ya riwaya ya Kiswahili, maana ya chimbuko, Kisha mjadala huu utaelekea zaidi katika kuelezea chimbuko la riwaya ya Kiswahili kutokana na wataalamu mbalimbali waliopata kueleza asili ya riwaya hiyo ya Kiswahili, na hicho ndio kitakachokuwa kiini cha mjadala wetu. Mwisho kabisa hitimisho la mjadala. 
Kwa kuanza na maana ya riwaya imejadiliwa kama ifuatavyo:
Wamitila (2003:178), anasema riwaya ni kazi ya kinathari au kibunilizi ambayo huwa na urefu wa kutosha, msuko uliojengeka vizuri, wahusika wengi walioendelezwa kwa kina, yenye kuchukua muda mwingi katika maandalizi na kuhusisha mandhari maalumu.
Muhando na Balisidya (1976:62), wanasema riwaya ni kazi ya kubuni, ni hadithi ambayo hutungwa kufuatana na uwezo wa fanani kuibusha mambo kutokana na mazoea au mazingira yake. Wanaendelea kusema kuwa riwaya yaweza kuanzia maneno 35,000 hivi na kuendelea.
Nkwera (1978:109), anasema riwaya ni hadithi iliyo ndefu kuweza kutosha kufanya kitabu kimoja au zaidi. Ni hadithi ya kubuniwa iliyojengwa juu ya tukio la kihistoria na kuandikwa kwa mtindo wa ushairi iendayo mfululizo kwa kinaganaga katika kuelezea maisha ya mtu au watu na hata taifa. Anaendelea kusema kuwa riwaya ina mhusika mkuu mmoja au hata wawili.
Senkoro, anasema riwaya ni kisa ambacho urefu wake unakiruhusu kitambe na kutambaa vizingiti vingi vya maisha kama apendavyo mwandishi wake. Anaendelea kusema kuwa ni hadithi ndefu ya kubuni, yenye visa vingi, wahusika zaidi ya mmoja na yenye mazungumzo na maelezo yanayozingatiwa kwa undani na upana wa maisha ya jamii.
Hivyo inaonyesha kuwa ili kujua maana ya riwaya ni vyema kuzingatia mambo kadhaa ambayo ndiyo ya msingi, na mambo hayo ni; lazima riwaya iwe na lugha ya kinathari, isawiri maisha ya jamii, iwe na masimulizi ya kubuni na visa virefu, wahusika zaidi ya mmoja, iwe na mpangilio na msuko wa matukio, lazima na maneno kuanzia elfu thelathini na tano na kuendelea, na mwisho riwaya ni lazima ifungamane na wakati yaani visa na matukio ni lazima viendane na matukio.
Baada ya kuangalia maana ya riwaya kutokana na wataalamu mbalimbali sasa ni vyema kutoa maana ya riwaya ya Kiswahili kabla ya kujadili chimbuko la riwaya.
Riwaya ya Kiswahili ni ile ambayo inafungamana na utamaduni wa jamii ya waswahili katika lugha ya kiswahili ambao hupatikanakatika nchi ya Afrika mashariki. Pia ni ile riwaya ambayo inawahusu waswahili wenyewe.
TUKI (2004:48) inasema chimbuko la maana yake ni mwanzo au asili.
Tanzu za asili zinaonyesha kuwa ndio zilichangia kwa kiasi kikubwa sana katika kuibua riwaya za Kiswahili. Na yafuatayo ni mawazo ya wataalamu mbalimbali juu ya chimbuko la riwaya ya Kiswahili.
Madumulla (2009), ameeleza kuwa riwaya ilitokana na nathari bunifu simulizi kama vile hadithi, hekaya, na ngano inayosimuliwa kwa mdomo. Anaendelea kusema kuwa fasihi ilitokana na maandiko ya fani ya ushairi hususan ni tendi za Kiswahili katika hati za kiarabu kwa sababu ndiyo maanadishi yaliyotamba katika pwani ya afrika mashariki. Wazungu na waarabu hawakubadilishana maarifa kwa urahisi na hivyo pakapelekea kuwa na majilio ya taratibu za maandiko ya kinathari. Mwanzoni riwaya zilitafsiriwa kwa Kiswahili toka katika lugha za ulaya na kufanya riwaya za Kiswahili kutokea.Mfano wa riwaya hizo ni kama vile; Habari za mlima iliyoandikwa na Sheikh Ali Bin Hemed (1980).
Senkoro (2011) anaeleza kuwa riwaya zilizuka kutokana na maendeleo na mageuzi ya kiutamaduni, uchangamano wa maisha ya kijamii, kisiasa, kiuchumi, na kiutamaduni yaliyopelekea haja ya kimaudhui zaidi ya ngano na hadithi fupi.Anaendelea kusema kuwa riwaya za kwanza zilitafsiriwa toka riwaya za kizungu mpaka za kiswahili. Anasema riwaya mojawapo ni ile ya James Mbotela ya Uhuru wa Watumwa. Ndiyo riwaya ya kwanza kutafsiriwa kwa Kiswahili.Pia  anaeleza kuwa  riwaya ni utanzu uliozuka kutokana na hali mahususi za kijamii.Riwaya kama ile ya kiingereza ya Robinson Crusoe iliyoandikwa na Daniel Defoe ni miongoni mwa riwaya za mwanzo. Anasema riwaya ilizuka kutokana na maendeleo na mageuzi ya kiutamaduni na viwanda.Suala la ukoloni na uvumbuzi pia liliumba hali ambazo zilihitaji kuelezwa kwa mawanda mapana zaidi ya yale ya ngano na hadithi fupi. Kupanuka kwa usomaji hasa wakati wa vipindi vya mapinduzi ya viwanda huko ulaya kilifanya waandishi waandike maandiko marefu kwani wakati huo ndipo walipoibuka wasomaji hasa wanawake waliobaki majumbani wakati waume zao walipokwenda viwandani kufanya kazi.
Mulokozi (1996) anaeleza kuwa chimbuko la riwaya ya Kiswahili lipo katika mambo makuu mawili ambayo; ni fani za kijadi za fasihi pamoja na mazingira ya kijamii.
Fani za kijadi za fasihi, Mulokozi anaeleza kuwa riwaya haikuzuka hivihivi tu bali ilitokana na fani za masimulizi yaani hadithi, na ndipo zikapatwa kuigwa na watunzi wa riwaya wa mwanzo.Fani hizo zilizopata kuchipuza riwaya za mwanzo ni kama vile; riwaya za kingano, tendi, hekaya, visakale, historia, sira, masimulizi ya wasafiri, insha na tafsiri.
Ngano, Mulokozi anasema, kuwa ni hadithi fupi simulizi pia huwa ni hadithi za kubuni na nyinga hasa zinawahusu wanyama wakali, pia zinahusu malaika, binadamu, mazimwi na majini. Anasema kuwa mara nyingi ngano huwa na msuko sahihi na wahisika wake ni bapa na wahisika hao ni mchanganyiko wa wanyama, mazimwi na binadamu. Anatolea mfano wa ngano zilizo chukua visa vya kingano kuwa ni kama vile riwaya ya Adili na Nduguze ya Shaban Robart (1952), Lila na Fila ya Kiimbila (1966), Kusadikika ya Sharban Robart (1951) na baadaye yakafuata machapisho mengine kama vile; Mfalme wa Nyoka ya  R.K. Watts. Dhamira za riwaya za kingano ni kama vile choyo, mgongano wa kimawazo na tama.
Hekaya, ni hadithi za kusisimua kuhusu masaibu na matukio ya ajabu yaani yasiyokuwa ya kawaida. Mara nyingi masaibu hayo hufungamanishwa na mapenzi. Pia hekaya ni ndefu kiasi yaani sio ndefu kiasi cha kama riwaya. Katika jamii ya waswahili hekaya zilikuwa zimeenea sana kipindi cha kabla ya ukoloni. Mifano ya hekaya ni kama vile; Hekaya za Abunuasi ya C.M.C.A. 1915, Sultan Darai (1884), Kibaraka ya (1896) na hekaya ya Jonson, F. na Brenn, E.W. katika hekaya ya Alfa-Lela-Ulela ya kuanzia 1929. Hizo ndizo baadhi ya hekaya za mwanzo lakini baadaye ziliathili riwaya za Kiswahili kama vile; Hekaya ya Adili na Nduguze ya Sharban Robart (1952), hekaya ya Ueberu Utashindwa ya Kiimbila (1971), na Hekaya ya A.J.Amiri, ya Nahodha Fikirini, (1972).
Tendi (utndi), ni hadithi ya kishairi kuhusu mashujaa wa kihistoria na wa kubuni, ambao waweza kuwa ni wa kijamii au kitaifa. Kwa kawaida baadhi ya tendi zina sifa za kiriwaya ila tu badala ya kuwa na umbo la kinathari zenyewe zina umbo la kishairi. kuna tendi za aina mbili ambazo ni tendi andishi na tendi simulizi. Riwaya pevu kama tendi husawiri mawanda mapana ya kijamii na kihistoria.Huwa na wahusika wababe yaani mashujaa wenye kuwakilisha pande zinazopingana.Mfano wa tendi ni kama vile; Utendi wa Vita vya Wadachi Kutamalaki Mlima ya Hemedi Abdallah, (1895), Utendi wa rasil ‘Ghuli, utenzi wa Fumo liyongo wa Mohamed Kijumwa K. (1913).Tendi katika riwaya za Kiswahili imetumia wahusika wawili tu ambao ni wahusika wa kubuni na wale wa kijadi wa kiafrika.
Visasili, hizi ni hadithi zinazohusu asili na hatima ya watu, vitu, viumbe, ulimwengu na mataifa, na pia huangalia uhusiano wa wanadamu na mizimwi pamoja na miungu. Hadithi za kivisasili zinapoonyeswa huaminika kuwa yakweli tupu hasa kwa kusimulia matukio mengi ya kiulumwengu.
Mfano wa visasili; Lila na Fila ya Kiimbila (1966) ambayo imekopa motifu ya asili ya ziwa ikimba huko Bukoba.Hadithi ya Mungu wa Kikuyu huko Kenya. Rosa Mistika ya Kezilahabi (1971), Nagona (1987) na Mzingile (1991), Siku ya Watenzi Wote ya Sharban Robart.
Visakale, ni hadithi ya kale kuhusu mashujaa wa taifa, kabila au dini.Mara nyingi visa kale huchanganya historia na masimulizi ya kubuni, na hadithi hizi hupatikana karibu katika kila kabila kila lugha.Baadhi ya visakale vya Kiswahili masimulizi huhusu chimbuko la miji ya pwani, mijikenda, mwinyi mkuu huko Zanzibar.Visa kama hivi ndivyo vinavyopelekea kuandikwa kwa riwaya za kiswahili. Mfano wake ni riwaya ya Abdalla Bin Hemed bin Ali Ajjemy (1972) katika kitabu cha Habari za Wakilindi, Kisima cha na Giningi ya M.S.Abdulla (1968) na ile Hadithi ya Myombekela na Bibi Bugonoka na Ntulanalwo na Buhliwali (1980) ya A. Kitereza.
Visasuli, hizi ni hadithi zozote ambazo huelezea chimbuko au asili ya kitu chochote, na maranyingi visasuli havina uzito wowote kulinganisha na visasili.mfano wake ni; kwanini paka anapenda kukaa jikoni (mekoni), Kwa nini mbuni hana mabawa yaani hapai angani, kwa nini kima anamuogopa mamba, kwanini mbwa kuishi na binadamu, kwa nini fisi hupenda kula mifupa. Katika hadithi hizi watu huwa hawaamini sana bali wanachukulia kuwa ni utani tu.
Masimulizi ya kihistoria, haya ni masimulizi ya matendo ya, mwanadamu katika muktadha wa wakati, na ni fani muhimu sana katika jamii yeyote ile.Masimulizi halisi ya kihistoria yaweza kuwa ni ya mdomo au hata maandishi na yote huwa ni chemichemi nzuri ya riwaya. Mfano wa riwya hizo ni; Habari za pate za Fumo Omari Nabhany (1913) ambayo yalikuwa ni maandishi ya masimulizi na uchambuzi.Riwaya zingine zilizoathiriwa na matukio ya kihistoria ni; Uhuru wa Watumwa ya J. Mbotela (1934), Kifo cha Ugenini ya O. Msewa (1977), Kwa Heri Iselamagazi ya B. Mapalala (1992) na Miradi Bubu ya Wazalendo ya G. Ruhumbika (1992).
Sira, ni masimulizi ya kweli kuhusu maisha ya mtu au watu. Sira huweza kuwa wasifu yaani zinazohusu habari za maisha ya mtu zikisimuliwa na mtu mwingine au zaweza kuwa tawasifu yaani habari za maisha ya mtu zikisimuliwa nayeye mwenyewe. Sira iliathiri kuchipuka kwa riwaya hasa kwa kuonyesha masilimulizi ya maisha ya mtu toka utotoni mpaka uzeeni. Masimuliza ya riwaya hizi yalikuwa katika masimulizi na hata katika maandishi pia kwa maana kabla ya ukoloni yalikuwepo maandishi yaliyohusu maisha ya mitume na masahaba. Mifano ya hadithi hizi ni; Kurwa na Doto ya M.S.Farsy (1960), Rosa Mistika ya Kezilahabi (1971),Kichwa Maji ya Kezilahabi (1974) pamoja na Dunia Uwanja wa Fujo (1975),Mzimu wa Baba wa Kale ya Nkwera (1967),na riwaya ya Maisha Yangu baada ya Miaka Hamsini ya Sharban Robart (1951).
Msimulizi ya wasafiri, hizi ni habari zinazosimulia masibu nya wasafiri katika nchi mbalimbali. Hekaya za riwaya chuku za kale zilisaidia kukuza riwaya. Mfano Alfa –Lela –Ulela na hadithi ya Robinson Kruso huko 1719 ilihusu safari ya baharini ya mhusika mkuu ambaye baadaye merikebu aliyokuwemo ilizama, ndipo akalazimika kuishi peke yake katika kisiwa kidogo. Na katika riwaya za Kiswahili kuna baadhi ya riwaya za masimulizi kama vile; Mwaka katika Minyororo ya Samweli Sehoza (1921), Tulivyoona na Tulivyofanya Uingereza (1932) ya Martin Kayamba. Na uhure wa Watumwa na Kwa Heri Eselamagazi.
Insha, ni maandiko ya kinathari yenye kuelezea, kuchambua au kuarifu kuhusu mada Fulani. Zipo insha nyingi kama vile, makala, hotuba, tasnifu, michapo, barua, sira maelezo n.k insha nyingi ni fupi mfano kuanzia maneno kama 500 na 10000 japo zingine zaweza kuwa ni ndefu kiasi cha kuwa tasnifu za kufikia kiwango cha kuwa kitabu. Mfano wa insha ni Siku ya Watenzi Wote ya Sharban Robert na Kichwa Mji ya Kezilahabi.
Shajara, ni kitabu cha kumbukumbu za matukio ya kila siku .Uandishi wa shajara ulianzia huko Asia na baadaye ndio ulipopata kuibuka ulimwenguni kote. Jadi hii ya kiasia iliathiri utunzi wa riwaya hasa zile za kisira. Mfano wa shajara ni ile iliyotungwa na Lu Shun iitwayo Shajara ya Mwendawazimu (1918).
Romansia (chuku) hii ni hadithi ya mapenzi na masaibu ya ajabu.Zikua maarufu sana huko Uingereza hasa karne ya 6 na 12 na Ufaransa pia zilikuwepo na pamoja na China ambapo hadithi zilizofanana na riwaya zilitungwa.mfano hadithi za Hsiao-shuo.Watunzi wa riwaya za kisasa zimekuwa na mafanikio makubwa sana kutokana na riwaya hizo za chuku hii ni kwa sababu watunzi wengi wlikuwa wamesoma kazi nyingi za riwaya za wakati ule.
Drama, maigizo mengi hasa ya tamthiliya yaliathiri sana riwaya hasa kwa upande wa usukaji wa matukio na uchanganyaji wa ubunifu na uhalisia. Mfano ni riwaya nyingi za Charles Dickens zina msuko uliosanifiwa kwa uangalifu kama msuko wa tamthiliya.
Baada ya kujadili fani za kijamii hatuna budi sasa ya kujadili mazingira ya kijamii kama yalivyopatwa kuelezwa na Mulokozi.Anaeleza kuwa, kufikia karne ya 16 fani za kijamii zilikuwa zimekwisha enea na kufahamika katika maeneo mengi, hivyo kulihitajika kuwe na msukumo wa kijamii, kiteknolojia na kiuchuni. Msukumo huo wa kundeleza fani za kijadi ulikuwa ni wa aina tatu ambao ni;
Ukuaji mkubwa wa shughuri za kiuchumi huko ulaya, ukuaji huo ulifungamana na biashara ya baharini ya mashariki ya mbali na kuvumbuliwa kwa mabara mawili ya amerika na ukuaji wa viwanda hasa vya nguo huko ulaya. Mabadiliko haya yalizua tabaka jipya la mabwanyenye waliomiliki viwanda na nyenzo nyingine za kichumi.Tabaka hilo lilihitaji fani mpya za fasihi, lilikuwa na wakati wa ziada wa kujisomea, uwezo wa kifedha wa kujinunulia vitabu na magazeti.Hivyo tangu mwanzo ilitawaliwa na ubinafsi uliojidhihirisha kiitikadi. Kwa mfano Robinson Kruso ni riwaya ilyosawili ulimbikizaji wa mwanzo wa kibepari. Ilimhusidhs muhusika asiye staarabika aitwaye Fraiday au Juma. Ubinafsi huu ulijitokeza pia katika utungaji wake, na haikusomwa hadharani bali kila mtu alijisomea mwenyewe chumbani mwake.
Mageuzi ya kijamii na kisiasa, mabadiliko haya yalifungamana na mabadiliko ya kiuchumi. Mataifa ya ulaya yalianza kujipambanua kiutamaduni na kisiasa yaliyojitenga na dola takatifu ya kirumi.Mabadiliko hayo yalianza kujenga utamaduni wa kitaifa na mifumo ya elimu iliyo hiyaji maandishi katika lugha zao wenyewe.Mfano wa mageuzi ya kijamii na kisiasa iliyofanyika ni kama vile; Misahafu ya Dini Kama Biblia ilanza kutafsiriwa kwa lugha za ulaya, Martin Lther alichapisha Biblia kwa lugha za kidachi miaka ya 1534. Hivyo basi inaonyesha kuwa kadiri elimu ilivyopanuka na nduvyo wasomaji wa vitabu walivyoongezeka na kufanya kuwe hadhira kubwa nzuri ya wasomaji na watunzi wa riwaya.
Ugunduzi wa teknolojia ya upigaji chapa vitabu, yaani kwa kutumia herufi iliyoshikamanishika.Ugunduzi huu uliofanywa na Johnnes Gutenberg huko ujerumani mwaka 1450 uliorahisisha kazi ya uchapaji vitabu katika nakala nyingi nakuondoa kabisa haja ya kunakili miswada kwa mikono. Bila ugunduzi huo kufanyika haingewezekana kuchapisha riwaya nyingi na kuzieneza kwa bei nafuu. Mifano ya riwaya hizo ni kama vile; Pamela ya Samwel Richardson (1740).
Kutokana na wataalamu mbalimbali kuelezea chimbuko la riwaya ya Kiswahili, inaonekana kuwa, riwaya ni utanzu wa fasihi ambao kuzuka kwake kulifungamana na fani za kijadi pamoja na mazingira ya kijamii. Fani za kijamii kama vile, ngano, visasili, visasuli, visakale, insha, na nyinginezo zizosimuliwa bila ya kuandikwa kabla ya karne ya 16, zilichochewa na kupewa mwendelezo baada ya kukua kwa sayansi na teknolojia huko ulaya, hasa baada ya ugunduzi wa mitambo ya kupiga chapa kazi za fasihi.   
MAREJEO
Madumulla, J.S. (2009), Riwaya ya Kiswahili, Historian a Misingi ya Uchambuzi. Nairobi: Sitima Printer and stations L.td.
Mulokozi, M.M. (1996), Utangulizi wa Fasihi ya Kiswahili. Dar es Salaam. TUKI.
Mhando, P. na Balisidya, (1976), Fasihi na Sanaa za Maonyesho. Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House.
Nkwera, F.V. (1978), Sarufi na Fasihi Sekondari na Vyuo. Dar es Salaam: Tanzani Publishing House.
TUKI, (2004), Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu. Nairobi.Kenya:Oxford University Press.
Senkoro, F.E.M.K. (2011), Fasihi Andishi.Dar es Salaam.Kauttu L.t.d.
Wamitila, K.W. (2003), Kamusi ya Fasihi, Istilahi na Nadharia. Nairobi: Focus Publication.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

WHAT DOES POETRY MEAN ?

Definition: Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.

MEANING OF POETRY

DEFINITION    OF  POETRY.

This article is about the art form. For other uses, see Poetry (disambiguation).
"Poem", "Poems", and "Poetic" redirect here. For other uses, see Poem (disambiguation), Poems (disambiguation), and Poetic (disambiguation).
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic[1][2][3] qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language.
Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy[4] create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as written in lines based on rhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other means to create rhythm and euphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition,[5] playing with and testing, among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm.[6][7] In today's increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.

History

Poetry as an art form may predate literacy.[8] Epic poetry, from the Indian Vedas (1700–1200 BC) and Zoroaster's Gathas to the Odyssey (800–675 BC), appears to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies.[9] Other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the ancient compilation Shijing, were initially lyrics, preceding later entries intended to be read.[10]
The oldest surviving epic poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh, from the 3rd millennium BC in Sumer (in Mesopotamia, now Iraq), which was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and, later, papyrus.[11] Other ancient epic poetry includes the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey, the Old Iranian books the Gathic Avesta and Yasna, the Roman national epic, Virgil's Aeneid, and the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in "poetics"—the study of the aesthetics of poetry.[12] Some ancient poetic traditions; such as, contextually, Classical Chinese poetry in the case of the Shijing (Classic of Poetry), which records the development of poetic canons with ritual and aesthetic importance.[13] More recently, thinkers have struggled to find a definition that could encompass formal differences as great as those between Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Matsuo Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi, as well as differences in context spanning Tanakh religious poetry, love poetry, and rap.[14]

Western traditions

Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Notably, the existing fragments of Aristotle's Poetics describe three genres of poetry—the epic, the comic, and the tragic—and develop rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry in each genre, based on the underlying purposes of the genre.[15] Later aestheticians identified three major genres: epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry.[16]
Aristotle's work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age,[17] as well as in Europe during the Renaissance.[18] Later poets and aestheticians often distinguished poetry from, and defined it in opposition to prose, which was generally understood as writing with a proclivity to logical explication and a linear narrative structure.[19]
This does not imply that poetry is illogical or lacks narration, but rather that poetry is an attempt to render the beautiful or sublime without the burden of engaging the logical or narrative thought process. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic "Negative Capability".[20] This "romantic" approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic. This approach remained influential into the 20th century.[21]
During this period, there was also substantially more interaction among the various poetic traditions, in part due to the spread of European colonialism and the attendant rise in global trade.[22] In addition to a boom in translation, during the Romantic period numerous ancient works were rediscovered.[23]

20th-century disputes

Some 20th-century literary theorists, relying less on the opposition of prose and poetry, focused on the poet as simply one who creates using language, and poetry as what the poet creates.[24] The underlying concept of the poet as creator is not uncommon, and some modernist poets essentially do not distinguish between the creation of a poem with words, and creative acts in other media. Yet other modernists challenge the very attempt to define poetry as misguided.[25]
The rejection of traditional forms and structures for poetry that began in the first half of the 20th century coincided with a questioning of the purpose and meaning of traditional definitions of poetry and of distinctions between poetry and prose, particularly given examples of poetic prose and prosaic poetry. Numerous modernist poets have written in non-traditional forms or in what traditionally would have been considered prose, although their writing was generally infused with poetic diction and often with rhythm and tone established by non-metrical means. While there was a substantial formalist reaction within the modernist schools to the breakdown of structure, this reaction focused as much on the development of new formal structures and syntheses as on the revival of older forms and structures.[26]
Recently, postmodernism has come to convey more completely prose and poetry as distinct entities, and also among genres of poetry, as having meaning only as cultural artifacts. Postmodernism goes beyond modernism's emphasis on the creative role of the poet, to emphasize the role of the reader of a text (Hermeneutics), and to highlight the complex cultural web within which a poem is read.[27] Today, throughout the world, poetry often incorporates poetic form and diction from other cultures and from the past, further confounding attempts at definition and classification that were once sensible within a tradition such as the Western canon.[28]

Elements

Prosody

Main article: Meter (poetry)
Prosody is the study of the meter, rhythm, and intonation of a poem. Rhythm and meter are different, although closely related.[29] Meter is the definitive pattern established for a verse (such as iambic pentameter), while rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry. Prosody also may be used more specifically to refer to the scanning of poetic lines to show meter.[30]

Rhythm

The methods for creating poetic rhythm vary across languages and between poetic traditions. Languages are often described as having timing set primarily by accents, syllables, or moras, depending on how rhythm is established, though a language can be influenced by multiple approaches. Japanese is a mora-timed language. Syllable-timed languages include Latin, Catalan, French, Leonese, Galician and Spanish. English, Russian and, generally, German are stress-timed languages.[31] Varying intonation also affects how rhythm is perceived. Languages can rely on either pitch, such as in Vedic Sanskrit or Ancient Greek, or tone. Tonal languages include Chinese, Vietnamese, Lithuanian, and most Subsaharan languages.[32]
Metrical rhythm generally involves precise arrangements of stresses or syllables into repeated patterns called feet within a line. In Modern English verse the pattern of stresses primarily differentiate feet, so rhythm based on meter in Modern English is most often founded on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (alone or elided).[33] In the classical languages, on the other hand, while the metrical units are similar, vowel length rather than stresses define the meter.[34] Old English poetry used a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number of strong stresses in each line.[35]
The chief device of ancient Hebrew Biblical poetry, including many of the psalms, was parallelism, a rhetorical structure in which successive lines reflected each other in grammatical structure, sound structure, notional content, or all three. Parallelism lent itself to antiphonal or call-and-response performance, which could also be reinforced by intonation. Thus, Biblical poetry relies much less on metrical feet to create rhythm, but instead creates rhythm based on much larger sound units of lines, phrases and sentences.[36] Some classical poetry forms, such as Venpa of the Tamil language, had rigid grammars (to the point that they could be expressed as a context-free grammar) which ensured a rhythm.[37] In Chinese poetry, tones as well as stresses create rhythm. Classical Chinese poetics identifies four tones: the level tone, rising tone, departing tone, and entering tone.[38]
The formal patterns of meter used in Modern English verse to create rhythm no longer dominate contemporary English poetry. In the case of free verse, rhythm is often organized based on looser units of cadence rather than a regular meter. Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, and William Carlos Williams are three notable poets who reject the idea that regular accentual meter is critical to English poetry.[39] Jeffers experimented with sprung rhythm as an alternative to accentual rhythm.[40]

Meter

Main article: Systems of scansion
In the Western poetic tradition, meters are customarily grouped according to a characteristic metrical foot and the number of feet per line.[41] The number of metrical feet in a line are described using Greek terminology: tetrameter for four feet and hexameter for six feet, for example.[42] Thus, "iambic pentameter" is a meter comprising five feet per line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the "iamb". This metric system originated in ancient Greek poetry, and was used by poets such as Pindar and Sappho, and by the great tragedians of Athens. Similarly, "dactylic hexameter", comprises six feet per line, of which the dominant kind of foot is the "dactyl". Dactylic hexameter was the traditional meter of Greek epic poetry, the earliest extant examples of which are the works of Homer and Hesiod.[43] Iambic pentameter and dactylic hexameter were later used by a number of poets, including William Shakespeare and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, respectively.[44] The most common metrical feet in English are:[45]
  • iamb – one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g. describe, Include, retract)
  • trochee – one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (e.g. picture, flower)
  • dactyl – one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (e.g.annotate an-no-tate)
  • anapest – two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (e.g. comprehend com-pre-hend)
  • spondee – two stressed syllables together (e.g. e-nough)
  • pyrrhic – two unstressed syllables together (rare, usually used to end dactylic hexameter)
There are a wide range of names for other types of feet, right up to a choriamb, a four syllable metric foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables and closing with a stressed syllable. The choriamb is derived from some ancient Greek and Latin poetry.[43] Languages which utilize vowel length or intonation rather than or in addition to syllabic accents in determining meter, such as Ottoman Turkish or Vedic, often have concepts similar to the iamb and dactyl to describe common combinations of long and short sounds.[46]
Each of these types of feet has a certain "feel," whether alone or in combination with other feet. The iamb, for example, is the most natural form of rhythm in the English language, and generally produces a subtle but stable verse.[47] Scanning meter can often show the basic or fundamental pattern underlying a verse, but does not show the varying degrees of stress, as well as the differing pitches and lengths of syllables.[48]
Illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark", which is written mainly in anapestic tetrameter.
There is debate over how useful a multiplicity of different "feet" is in describing meter. For example, Robert Pinsky has argued that while dactyls are important in classical verse, English dactylic verse uses dactyls very irregularly and can be better described based on patterns of iambs and anapests, feet which he considers natural to the language.[49] Actual rhythm is significantly more complex than the basic scanned meter described above, and many scholars have sought to develop systems that would scan such complexity. Vladimir Nabokov noted that overlaid on top of the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse was a separate pattern of accents resulting from the natural pitch of the spoken words, and suggested that the term "scud" be used to distinguish an unaccented stress from an accented stress.[50]

Metrical patterns

Main article: Meter (poetry)
Different traditions and genres of poetry tend to use different meters, ranging from the Shakespearean iambic pentameter and the Homeric dactylic hexameter to the anapestic tetrameter used in many nursery rhymes. However, a number of variations to the established meter are common, both to provide emphasis or attention to a given foot or line and to avoid boring repetition. For example, the stress in a foot may be inverted, a caesura (or pause) may be added (sometimes in place of a foot or stress), or the final foot in a line may be given a feminine ending to soften it or be replaced by a spondee to emphasize it and create a hard stop. Some patterns (such as iambic pentameter) tend to be fairly regular, while other patterns, such as dactylic hexameter, tend to be highly irregular.[51] Regularity can vary between language. In addition, different patterns often develop distinctively in different languages, so that, for example, iambic tetrameter in Russian will generally reflect a regularity in the use of accents to reinforce the meter, which does not occur, or occurs to a much lesser extent, in English.[52]
Some common metrical patterns, with notable examples of poets and poems who use them, include:

Rhyme, alliteration, assonance

Main articles: Rhyme, Alliterative verse and Assonance
Rhyme, alliteration, assonance and consonance are ways of creating repetitive patterns of sound. They may be used as an independent structural element in a poem, to reinforce rhythmic patterns, or as an ornamental element.[58] They can also carry a meaning separate from the repetitive sound patterns created. For example, Chaucer used heavy alliteration to mock Old English verse and to paint a character as archaic.[59]
Rhyme consists of identical ("hard-rhyme") or similar ("soft-rhyme") sounds placed at the ends of lines or at predictable locations within lines ("internal rhyme"). Languages vary in the richness of their rhyming structures; Italian, for example, has a rich rhyming structure permitting maintenance of a limited set of rhymes throughout a lengthy poem. The richness results from word endings that follow regular forms. English, with its irregular word endings adopted from other languages, is less rich in rhyme.[60] The degree of richness of a language's rhyming structures plays a substantial role in determining what poetic forms are commonly used in that language.[61]
Alliteration is the repetition of letters or letter-sounds at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; or the recurrence of the same letter in accented parts of words. Alliteration and assonance played a key role in structuring early Germanic, Norse and Old English forms of poetry. The alliterative patterns of early Germanic poetry interweave meter and alliteration as a key part of their structure, so that the metrical pattern determines when the listener expects instances of alliteration to occur. This can be compared to an ornamental use of alliteration in most Modern European poetry, where alliterative patterns are not formal or carried through full stanzas. Alliteration is particularly useful in languages with less rich rhyming structures. Assonance, where the use of similar vowel sounds within a word rather than similar sounds at the beginning or end of a word, was widely used in skaldic poetry, but goes back to the Homeric epic.[62] Because verbs carry much of the pitch in the English language, assonance can loosely evoke the tonal elements of Chinese poetry and so is useful in translating Chinese poetry.[63] Consonance occurs where a consonant sound is repeated throughout a sentence without putting the sound only at the front of a word. Consonance provokes a more subtle effect than alliteration and so is less useful as a structural element.[61]

Rhyming schemes

Dante and Beatrice see God as a point of light surrounded by angels. A Doré illustration to the Divine Comedy, Paradiso, Canto 28.
Main article: Rhyme scheme
In many languages, including modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such as ballads, sonnets and rhyming couplets. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes. Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not use rhyme.[64] Rhyme entered European poetry in the High Middle Ages, in part under the influence of the Arabic language in Al Andalus (modern Spain).[65] Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively from the first development of literary Arabic in the sixth century, as in their long, rhyming qasidas.[66] Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. Some forms of poetry carry a consistent and well-defined rhyming scheme, such as the chant royal or the rubaiyat, while other poetic forms have variable rhyme schemes.[67]
Most rhyme schemes are described using letters that correspond to sets of rhymes, so if the first, second and fourth lines of a quatrain rhyme with each other and the third line does not rhyme, the quatrain is said to have an "a-a-b-a" rhyme scheme. This rhyme scheme is the one used, for example, in the rubaiyat form.[68] Similarly, an "a-b-b-a" quatrain (what is known as "enclosed rhyme") is used in such forms as the Petrarchan sonnet.[69] Some types of more complicated rhyming schemes have developed names of their own, separate from the "a-b-c" convention, such as the ottava rima and terza rima.[70] The types and use of differing rhyming schemes is discussed further in the main article.

Form

Poetic form is more flexible in modernist and post-modernist poetry, and continues to be less structured than in previous literary eras. Many modern poets eschew recognisable structures or forms, and write in free verse. But poetry remains distinguished from prose by its form; some regard for basic formal structures of poetry will be found in even the best free verse, however much such structures may appear to have been ignored.[71] Similarly, in the best poetry written in classic styles there will be departures from strict form for emphasis or effect.[72]
Among major structural elements used in poetry are the line, the stanza or verse paragraph, and larger combinations of stanzas or lines such as cantos. Also sometimes used are broader visual presentations of words and calligraphy. These basic units of poetic form are often combined into larger structures, called poetic forms or poetic modes (see following section), as in the sonnet or haiku.

Lines and stanzas

Poetry is often separated into lines on a page. These lines may be based on the number of metrical feet, or may emphasize a rhyming pattern at the ends of lines. Lines may serve other functions, particularly where the poem is not written in a formal metrical pattern. Lines can separate, compare or contrast thoughts expressed in different units, or can highlight a change in tone.[73] See the article on line breaks for information about the division between lines.
Lines of poems are often organized into stanzas, which are denominated by the number of lines included. Thus a collection of two lines is a couplet (or distich), three lines a triplet (or tercet), four lines a quatrain, and so on. These lines may or may not relate to each other by rhyme or rhythm. For example, a couplet may be two lines with identical meters which rhyme or two lines held together by a common meter alone.[74]
Alexander Blok's poem, "Noch, ulitsa, fonar, apteka" ("Night, street, lamp, drugstore"), on a wall in Leiden
Other poems may be organized into verse paragraphs, in which regular rhymes with established rhythms are not used, but the poetic tone is instead established by a collection of rhythms, alliterations, and rhymes established in paragraph form.[75] Many medieval poems were written in verse paragraphs, even where regular rhymes and rhythms were used.[76]
In many forms of poetry, stanzas are interlocking, so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza determine those of succeeding stanzas. Examples of such interlocking stanzas include, for example, the ghazal and the villanelle, where a refrain (or, in the case of the villanelle, refrains) is established in the first stanza which then repeats in subsequent stanzas. Related to the use of interlocking stanzas is their use to separate thematic parts of a poem. For example, the strophe, antistrophe and epode of the ode form are often separated into one or more stanzas.[77]
In some cases, particularly lengthier formal poetry such as some forms of epic poetry, stanzas themselves are constructed according to strict rules and then combined. In skaldic poetry, the dróttkvætt stanza had eight lines, each having three "lifts" produced with alliteration or assonance. In addition to two or three alliterations, the odd numbered lines had partial rhyme of consonants with dissimilar vowels, not necessarily at the beginning of the word; the even lines contained internal rhyme in set syllables (not necessarily at the end of the word). Each half-line had exactly six syllables, and each line ended in a trochee. The arrangement of dróttkvætts followed far less rigid rules than the construction of the individual dróttkvætts.[78]

Visual presentation

Visual poetry
Main article: Visual poetry
Even before the advent of printing, the visual appearance of poetry often added meaning or depth. Acrostic poems conveyed meanings in the initial letters of lines or in letters at other specific places in a poem.[79] In Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese poetry, the visual presentation of finely calligraphed poems has played an important part in the overall effect of many poems.[80]
With the advent of printing, poets gained greater control over the mass-produced visual presentations of their work. Visual elements have become an important part of the poet's toolbox, and many poets have sought to use visual presentation for a wide range of purposes. Some Modernist poets have made the placement of individual lines or groups of lines on the page an integral part of the poem's composition. At times, this complements the poem's rhythm through visual caesuras of various lengths, or creates juxtapositions so as to accentuate meaning, ambiguity or irony, or simply to create an aesthetically pleasing form. In its most extreme form, this can lead to concrete poetry or asemic writing.[81][82]

Diction

Main article: Poetic diction
Poetic diction treats the manner in which language is used, and refers not only to the sound but also to the underlying meaning and its interaction with sound and form.[83] Many languages and poetic forms have very specific poetic dictions, to the point where distinct grammars and dialects are used specifically for poetry.[84][85] Registers in poetry can range from strict employment of ordinary speech patterns, as favoured in much late-20th-century prosody,[86] through to highly ornate uses of language, as in medieval and Renaissance poetry.[87]
Poetic diction can include rhetorical devices such as simile and metaphor, as well as tones of voice, such as irony. Aristotle wrote in the Poetics that "the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor."[88] Since the rise of Modernism, some poets have opted for a poetic diction that de-emphasizes rhetorical devices, attempting instead the direct presentation of things and experiences and the exploration of tone.[89] On the other hand, Surrealists have pushed rhetorical devices to their limits, making frequent use of catachresis.[90]
Allegorical stories are central to the poetic diction of many cultures, and were prominent in the West during classical times, the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Aesop's Fables, repeatedly rendered in both verse and prose since first being recorded about 500 B.C., are perhaps the richest single source of allegorical poetry through the ages.[91] Other notables examples include the Roman de la Rose, a 13th-century French poem, William Langland's Piers Ploughman in the 14th century, and Jean de la Fontaine's Fables (influenced by Aesop's) in the 17th century. Rather than being fully allegorical, however, a poem may contain symbols or allusions that deepen the meaning or effect of its words without constructing a full allegory.[92]
Another strong element of poetic diction can be the use of vivid imagery for effect. The juxtaposition of unexpected or impossible images is, for example, a particularly strong element in surrealist poetry and haiku.[93] Vivid images are often endowed with symbolism or metaphor. Many poetic dictions use repetitive phrases for effect, either a short phrase (such as Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn" or "the wine-dark sea") or a longer refrain. Such repetition can add a sombre tone to a poem, or can be laced with irony as the context of the words changes.[94]

Forms

Specific poetic forms have been developed by many cultures. In more developed, closed or "received" poetic forms, the rhyming scheme, meter and other elements of a poem are based on sets of rules, ranging from the relatively loose rules that govern the construction of an elegy to the highly formalized structure of the ghazal or villanelle.[95] Described below are some common forms of poetry widely used across a number of languages. Additional forms of poetry may be found in the discussions of poetry of particular cultures or periods and in the glossary.

Sonnet

Main article: Sonnet
Among the most common forms of poetry through the ages is the sonnet, which by the 13th century was a poem of fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. By the 14th century, the form further crystallized under the pen of Petrarch, whose sonnets were later translated in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who is credited with introducing the sonnet form into English literature.[96] A sonnet's first four lines typically introduce the topic, the second elaborates and the third posits a problem - the couplet usually, but not always, includes a twist, or an afterthought. A sonnet usually follows an a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-gg rhyme pattern. The sonnet's conventions have changed over its history, and so there are several different sonnet forms. Traditionally, in sonnets English poets use iambic pentameter, the Spenserian and Shakespearean sonnets being especially notable.[97] In the Romance languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely used meters, though the Petrarchan sonnet has been used in Italy since the 14th century.[98]
Sonnets are particularly associated with love poetry, and often use a poetic diction heavily based on vivid imagery, but the twists and turns associated with the move from octave to sestet and to final couplet make them a useful and dynamic form for many subjects.[99] Shakespeare's sonnets are among the most famous in English poetry, with 20 being included in the Oxford Book of English Verse.[100]

Shi

Main article: Shi (poetry)
Shi (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: shī; Wade–Giles: shih) Is the main type of Classical Chinese poetry.[101] Within this form of poetry the most important variations are "folk song" styled verse (yuefu), "old style" verse (gushi), "modern style" verse (jintishi). In all cases, rhyming is obligatory. The Yuefu is a folk ballad or a poem written in the folk ballad style, and the number of lines and the length of the lines could be irregular. For the other variations of shi poetry, generally either a four line (quatrain, or jueju) or else an eight line poem is normal; either way with the even numbered lines rhyming. The line length is scanned by according number of characters (according to the convention that one character equals one syllable), and are predominantly either five or seven characters long, with a caesura before the final three syllables. The lines are generally end-stopped, considered as a series of couplets, and exhibit verbal parallelism as a key poetic device.[102] The "old style" verse (gushi) is less formally strict than the jintishi, or regulated verse, which, despite the name "new style" verse actually had its theoretical basis laid as far back to Shen Yue, in the 5th or 6th century, although not considered to have reached its full development until the time of Chen Zi'ang (661-702)[103] A good example of a poet known for his gushi poems is Li Bai. Among its other rules, the jintishi rules regulate the tonal variations within a poem, including the use of set patterns of the four tones of Middle Chinese The basic form of jintishi (lushi) has eight lines in four couplets, with parallelism between the lines in the second and third couplets. The couplets with parallel lines contain contrasting content but an identical grammatical relationship between words. Jintishi often have a rich poetic diction, full of allusion, and can have a wide range of subject, including history and politics.[104][105] One of the masters of the form was Du Fu, who wrote during the Tang Dynasty (8th century).[106]

Villanelle

Main article: Villanelle
The villanelle is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a closing quatrain; the poem is characterized by having two refrains, initially used in the first and third lines of the first stanza, and then alternately used at the close of each subsequent stanza until the final quatrain, which is concluded by the two refrains. The remaining lines of the poem have an a-b alternating rhyme.[107] The villanelle has been used regularly in the English language since the late 19th century by such poets as Dylan Thomas,[108] W. H. Auden,[109] and Elizabeth Bishop.[110]

Tanka

Main article: Tanka
Tanka is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, with five sections totalling 31 onji (phonological units identical to morae), structured in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern.[111] There is generally a shift in tone and subject matter between the upper 5-7-5 phrase and the lower 7-7 phrase. Tanka were written as early as the Asuka period by such poets as Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, at a time when Japan was emerging from a period where much of its poetry followed Chinese form.[112] Tanka was originally the shorter form of Japanese formal poetry (which was generally referred to as "waka"), and was used more heavily to explore personal rather than public themes. By the tenth century, tanka had become the dominant form of Japanese poetry, to the point where the originally general term waka ("Japanese poetry") came to be used exclusively for tanka. Tanka are still widely written today.[113]

Haiku

Main article: Haiku
Haiku is a popular form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, which evolved in the 17th century from the hokku, or opening verse of a renku.[114] Generally written in a single vertical line, the haiku contains three sections totalling 17 onji, structured in a 5-7-5 pattern. Traditionally, haiku contain a kireji, or cutting word, usually placed at the end of one of the poem's three sections, and a kigo, or season-word.[115] The most famous exponent of the haiku was Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694). An example of his writing:[116]
富士の風や扇にのせて江戸土産
fuji no kaze ya oogi ni nosete Edo miyage
the wind of Mt. Fuji
I've brought on my fan!
a gift from Edo

Ode

Main article: Ode
Odes were first developed by poets writing in ancient Greek, such as Pindar, and Latin, such as Horace. Forms of odes appear in many of the cultures that were influenced by the Greeks and Latins.[117] The ode generally has three parts: a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode. The antistrophes of the ode possess similar metrical structures and, depending on the tradition, similar rhyme structures. In contrast, the epode is written with a different scheme and structure. Odes have a formal poetic diction, and generally deal with a serious subject. The strophe and antistrophe look at the subject from different, often conflicting, perspectives, with the epode moving to a higher level to either view or resolve the underlying issues. Odes are often intended to be recited or sung by two choruses (or individuals), with the first reciting the strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the epode.[118] Over time, differing forms for odes have developed with considerable variations in form and structure, but generally showing the original influence of the Pindaric or Horatian ode. One non-Western form which resembles the ode is the qasida in Persian poetry.[119]

Ghazal

Main article: Ghazal
The ghazal (also ghazel, gazel, gazal, or gozol) is a form of poetry common in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Urdu and Bengali poetry. In classic form, the ghazal has from five to fifteen rhyming couplets that share a refrain at the end of the second line. This refrain may be of one or several syllables, and is preceded by a rhyme. Each line has an identical meter. The ghazal often reflects on a theme of unattainable love or divinity.[120]
As with other forms with a long history in many languages, many variations have been developed, including forms with a quasi-musical poetic diction in Urdu.[121] Ghazals have a classical affinity with Sufism, and a number of major Sufi religious works are written in ghazal form. The relatively steady meter and the use of the refrain produce an incantatory effect, which complements Sufi mystical themes well.[122] Among the masters of the form is Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet.[123]

Genres

In addition to specific forms of poems, poetry is often thought of in terms of different genres and subgenres. A poetic genre is generally a tradition or classification of poetry based on the subject matter, style, or other broader literary characteristics.[124] Some commentators view genres as natural forms of literature. Others view the study of genres as the study of how different works relate and refer to other works.[125]

Narrative poetry

Main article: Narrative poetry
Narrative poetry is a genre of poetry that tells a story. Broadly it subsumes epic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often reserved for smaller works, generally with more appeal to human interest. Narrative poetry may be the oldest type of poetry. Many scholars of Homer have concluded that his Iliad and Odyssey were composed from compilations of shorter narrative poems that related individual episodes. Much narrative poetry—such as Scottish and English ballads, and Baltic and Slavic heroic poems—is performance poetry with roots in a preliterate oral tradition. It has been speculated that some features that distinguish poetry from prose, such as meter, alliteration and kennings, once served as memory aids for bards who recited traditional tales.[126]
Notable narrative poets have included Ovid, Dante, Juan Ruiz, Chaucer, William Langland, Luís de Camões, Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Robert Burns, Fernando de Rojas, Adam Mickiewicz, Alexander Pushkin, Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Tennyson.

Epic poetry

Main article: Epic poetry
Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form of narrative literature. This genre is often defined as lengthy poems concerning events of a heroic or important nature to the culture of the time. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons.[127] Examples of epic poems are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the Nibelungenlied, Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, the Cantar de Mio Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Valmiki's Ramayana, Ferdowsi's Shahnama, Nizami (or Nezami)'s Khamse (Five Books), and the Epic of King Gesar. While the composition of epic poetry, and of long poems generally, became less common in the west after the early 20th century, some notable epics have continued to be written. Derek Walcott won a Nobel prize to a great extent on the basis of his epic, Omeros.[128]

Dramatic poetry

Dramatic poetry is drama written in verse to be spoken or sung, and appears in varying, sometimes related forms in many cultures. Greek tragedy in verse dates to the 6th century B.C., and may have been an influence on the development of Sanskrit drama,[129] just as Indian drama in turn appears to have influenced the development of the bianwen verse dramas in China, forerunners of Chinese Opera.[130] East Asian verse dramas also include Japanese Noh. Examples of dramatic poetry in Persian literature include Nizami's two famous dramatic works, Layla and Majnun and Khosrow and Shirin, Ferdowsi's tragedies such as Rostam and Sohrab, Rumi's Masnavi, Gorgani's tragedy of Vis and Ramin, and Vahshi's tragedy of Farhad.

Satirical poetry

Poetry can be a powerful vehicle for satire. The Romans had a strong tradition of satirical poetry, often written for political purposes. A notable example is the Roman poet Juvenal's satires.[131]
The same is true of the English satirical tradition. John Dryden (a Tory), the first Poet Laureate, produced in 1682 Mac Flecknoe, subtitled "A Satire on the True Blue Protestant Poet, T.S." (a reference to Thomas Shadwell).[132] Another master of 17th-century English satirical poetry was John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.[133] Satirical poets outside England include Poland's Ignacy Krasicki, Azerbaijan's Sabir and Portugal's Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage.

Light poetry

Main article: Light poetry
Light poetry, or light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered "light" are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration. Although a few free verse poets have excelled at light verse outside the formal verse tradition, light verse in English is usually formal. Common forms include the limerick, the clerihew, and the double dactyl.
While light poetry is sometimes condemned as doggerel, or thought of as poetry composed casually, humor often makes a serious point in a subtle or subversive way. Many of the most renowned "serious" poets have also excelled at light verse. Notable writers of light poetry include Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash, X. J. Kennedy, Willard R. Espy, and Wendy Cope.

Lyric poetry

Main article: Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlike epic and dramatic poetry, does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a more personal nature. Poems in this genre tend to be shorter, melodic, and contemplative. Rather than depicting characters and actions, it portrays the poet's own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions.[134] Notable poets in this genre include John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Antonio Machado.

Elegy

Main article: Elegy
An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term "elegy," which originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiac meter), commonly describes a poem of mourning. An elegy may also reflect something that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious. The elegy, as a reflection on a death, on a sorrow more generally, or on something mysterious, may be classified as a form of lyric poetry.[135][136]
Notable practitioners of elegiac poetry have included Propertius, Jorge Manrique, Jan Kochanowski, Chidiock Tichborne, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, John Milton, Thomas Gray, Charlotte Turner Smith, William Cullen Bryant, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Evgeny Baratynsky, Alfred Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Louis Gallet, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, William Butler Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Virginia Woolf.

Verse fable

Main article: Fable
The fable is an ancient literary genre, often (though not invariably) set in verse. It is a succinct story that features anthropomorphized animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that illustrate a moral lesson (a "moral"). Verse fables have used a variety of meter and rhyme patterns.[137]
Notable verse fabulists have included Aesop, Vishnu Sarma, Phaedrus, Marie de France, Robert Henryson, Biernat of Lublin, Jean de La Fontaine, Ignacy Krasicki, Félix María de Samaniego, Tomás de Iriarte, Ivan Krylov and Ambrose Bierce.

Prose poetry

Main article: Prose poetry
Prose poetry is a hybrid genre that shows attributes of both prose and poetry. It may be indistinguishable from the micro-story (a.k.a. the "short short story", "flash fiction"). While some examples of earlier prose strike modern readers as poetic, prose poetry is commonly regarded as having originated in 19th-century France, where its practitioners included Aloysius Bertrand, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé.[138] Since the late 1980s especially, prose poetry has gained increasing popularity, with entire journals, such as The Prose Poem: An International Journal,[139] Contemporary Haibun Online[140] devoted to that genre.

Speculative poetry

Speculative poetry, also known as fantastic poetry, (of which weird or macabre poetry is a major subclassification), is a poetic genre which deals thematically with subjects which are 'beyond reality', whether via extrapolation as in science fiction or via weird and horrific themes as in horror fiction. Such poetry appears regularly in modern science fiction and horror fiction magazines. Edgar Allan Poe is sometimes seen as the "father of speculative poetry".[141]

See also

Notes

  1. "Poetry". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. 2013.
  2. "Poetry". Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, Inc. 2013.
  3. "Poetry". Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, LLC. 2013—Based on the Random House Dictionary
  4. Strachan, John R; Terry, Richard, G (2000). Poetry: an introduction. Edinburgh University Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-8147-9797-6.
  5. Eliot, TS (1999). "The Function of Criticism". Selected Essays. Faber & Faber. pp. 13–34. ISBN 978-0-15-180387-3.
  6. Longenbach, James (1997). Modern Poetry After Modernism. Oxford University Press. pp. 9, 103. ISBN 0-19-510178-2.
  7. Schmidt, Michael, ed. (1999). The Harvill Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. Harvill Press. pp. xxvii–xxxiii. ISBN 1-86046-735-0.
  8. Hoivik, S; Luger, K (3 June 2009). "Folk Media for Biodiversity Conservation: A Pilot Project from the Himalaya-Hindu Kush". International Communication Gazette 71 (4): 321–346. doi:10.1177/1748048509102184.
  9. Ahl, Frederick; Roisman, Hannah M (1996). The Odyssey Re-Formed. Cornell University Press. pp. 1–26. ISBN 0-8014-8335-2.. Others suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. Goody, Jack (1987). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN 0-521-33794-1.
  10. Ebrey, Patricia (1993). Chinese Civilisation: A Sourcebook (2nd ed.). The Free Press. pp. 11–13. ISBN 978-0-02-908752-7.
  11. Sanders, NK (trans.) (1972). The Epic of Gilgamesh (Revised ed.). Penguin Books. pp. 7–8.
  12. Abondolo, Daniel (2001). A poetics handbook: verbal art in the European tradition. Curzon. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-0-7007-1223-6.
  13. Gentz, Joachim (2008). "Ritual Meaning of Textual Form: Evidence from Early Commentaries of the Historiographic and Ritual Traditions". In Kern, Martin. University of Washington Press. pp. 124–148. ISBN 978-0-295-98787-3.
  14. Habib, Rafey (2005). A history of literary criticism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 607–609, 620. ISBN 978-0-631-23200-1.
  15. Heath, Malcolm, ed. (1997). Aristotle's Poetics. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044636-2.
  16. Frow, John (2007). Genre (Reprint ed.). Routledge. pp. 57–59. ISBN 978-0-415-28063-1.
  17. Bogges, WF (1968). "'Hermannus Alemannus' Latin Anthology of Arabic Poetry". Journal of the American Oriental Society 88: 657–70. doi:10.2307/598112. Burnett, Charles (2001). "Learned Knowledge of Arabic Poetry, Rhymed Prose, and Didactic Verse from Petrus Alfonsi to Petrarch". Poetry and Philosophy in the Middle Ages: A Festschrift for Peter Dronke. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 29–62. ISBN 90-04-11964-7.
  18. Grendler, Paul F (2004). The Universities of the Italian Renaissance. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 239. ISBN 0-8018-8055-6.
  19. Kant, Immanuel; Bernard, JH (trans.) (1914). Critique of Judgment. Macmillan. p. 131. Kant argues that the nature of poetry as a self-consciously abstract and beautiful form raises it to the highest level among the verbal arts, with tone or music following it, and only after that the more logical and narrative prose.
  20. Ou, Li (2009). Keats and negative capability. Continuum. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-1-4411-4724-0.
  21. Watten, Barrett (2003). The constructivist moment: from material text to cultural poetics. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 17–19. ISBN 978-0-8195-6610-2.
  22. Abu-Mahfouz, Ahmad (2008). "Translation as a Blending of Cultures". Journal of Translation 4 (1).
  23. Highet, Gilbert (1985). The classical tradition: Greek and Roman influences on western literature (Reissued ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 355, 360, 479. ISBN 978-0-19-500206-5.
  24. Wimsatt, William K, Jr; Brooks, Cleanth (1957). Literary Criticism: A Short History. Vintage Books. p. 374.
  25. Johnson, Jeannine (2007). Why write poetry?: modern poets defending their art. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8386-4105-7.
  26. Jenkins, Lee M; Davis, Alex, ed. (2007). The Cambridge companion to modernist poetry. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–7, 38, 156. ISBN 978-0-521-61815-1.
  27. Barthes, Roland (1978). "Death of the Author". Image-Music-Text. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. pp. 142–148.
  28. Connor, Steven (1997). Postmodernist culture: an introduction to theories of the contemporary (2nd ed.). Blackwell. pp. 123–128. ISBN 978-0-631-20052-9.
  29. Pinsky 1998, p. 52
  30. Fussell 1965, pp. 20–21
  31. Schülter, Julia (2005). Rhythmic Grammar. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 24, 304, 332.
  32. Yip, Moira (2002). Tone. Cambridge textbooks in linguistics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–4, 130. ISBN 0-521-77314-8.
  33. Fussell 1965, p. 12
  34. Jorgens, Elise Bickford (1982). The well-tun'd word : musical interpretations of English poetry, 1597–1651. University of Minnesota Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8166-1029-7.
  35. Fussell 1965, pp. 75–76
  36. Walker-Jones, Arthur (2003). Hebrew for biblical interpretation. Society of Biblical Literature. pp. 211–213. ISBN 978-1-58983-086-8.
  37. Bala Sundara Raman, L; Ishwar, S; Kumar Ravindranath, Sanjeeth (2003). "Context Free Grammar for Natural Language Constructs: An implementation for Venpa Class of Tamil Poetry". Tamil Internet: 128–136.
  38. Brogan, TVF, ed. (1995). The Princeton handbook of multicultural poetries. Princeton University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-691-00168-5.
  39. Hartman, Charles O (1980). Free Verse An Essay on Prosody. Northwestern University Press. pp. 24, 44, 47. ISBN 978-0-8101-1316-9.
  40. Hollander 1981, p. 22
  41. Corn 1997, p. 24
  42. Corn 1997, pp. 25, 34
  43. Annis, William S (January 2006). "Introduction to Greek Meter". Aoidoi. pp. 1–15.
  44. "Examples of English metrical systems". Fondazione Universitaria in provincia di Belluno. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  45. Fussell 1965, pp. 23–24
  46. Kiparsky, Paul (September 1975). "Stress, Syntax, and Meter". Language 51 (3): 576–616. doi:10.2307/412889.
  47. Thompson, John (1961). The Founding of English Meter. Columbia University Press. p. 36.
  48. Pinsky 1998, pp. 11–24
  49. Pinsky 1998, p. 66
  50. Nabokov, Vladimir (1964). Notes on Prosody. Bollingen Foundation. pp. 9–13. ISBN 0-691-01760-3.
  51. Fussell 1965, pp. 36–71
  52. Nabokov, Vladimir (1964). Notes on Prosody. Bollingen Foundation. pp. 46–47. ISBN 0-691-01760-3.
  53. Adams 1997, p. 206
  54. Adams 1997, p. 63
  55. "What is Tetrameter?". tetrameter.com. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  56. Adams 1997, p. 60
  57. James, ED; Jondorf, G (1994). Racine: Phèdre. Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-0-521-39721-6.
  58. Corn 1997, p. 65
  59. Osberg, Richard H (2001). "'I kan nat geeste': Chaucer's Artful Alliteration". In Gaylord, Alan T. Essays on the art of Chaucer's verse. Routledge. pp. 195–228. ISBN 978-0-8153-2951-0.
  60. Alighieri, Dante; Pinsky Robert (trans.) (1994). "Introduction". The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-17674-4.
  61. Kiparsky, Paul (Summer 1973). "The Role of Linguistics in a Theory of Poetry". Daedalus 102 (3): 231–244.
  62. Russom, Geoffrey (1998). Beowulf and old Germanic metre. Cambridge University Press. pp. 64–86. ISBN 978-0-521-59340-3.
  63. Liu, James JY (1990). Art of Chinese Poetry. University Of Chicago Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0-226-48687-1.
  64. Wesling, Donald (1980). The chances of rhyme. University of California Press. pp. x–xi, 38–42. ISBN 978-0-520-03861-5.
  65. Menocal, Maria Rosa (2003). The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History. University of Pennsylvania. p. 88. ISBN 0-8122-1324-6.
  66. Sperl, Stefan, ed. (1996). Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa. Brill. p. 49. ISBN 978-90-04-10387-0.
  67. Adams 1997, pp. 71–104
  68. Fussell 1965, p. 27
  69. Adams 1997, pp. 88–91
  70. Corn 1997, pp. 81–82, 85
  71. Whitworth, Michael H (2010). Reading modernist poetry. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4051-6731-4.
  72. Hollander 1981, pp. 50–51
  73. Corn 1997, pp. 7–13
  74. Corn 1997, pp. 78–82
  75. Corn 1997, p. 78
  76. Dalrymple, Roger, ed. (2004). Middle English Literature: a guide to criticism. Blackwell Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-631-23290-2.
  77. Corn 1997, pp. 78–79
  78. McTurk, Rory, ed. (2004). Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture. Blackwell. pp. 269–280. ISBN 978-1-4051-3738-6.
  79. Freedman, David Noel (July 1972). "Acrostics and Metrics in Hebrew Poetry". Harvard Theological Review 65 (3): 367–392. doi:10.1017/s0017816000001620.
  80. Kampf, Robert (2010). Reading the Visual – 17th century poetry and visual culture. GRIN Verlag. pp. 4–6. ISBN 978-3-640-60011-3.
  81. Bohn, Willard (1993). The aesthetics of visual poetry. University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-0-226-06325-6.
  82. Sterling, Bruce (13 July 2009). "Web Semantics: Asemic writing". Wired. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  83. Barfield, Owen (1987). Poetic diction: a study in meaning (2nd ed.). Wesleyan University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8195-6026-1.
  84. Sheets, George A (Spring 1981). "The Dialect Gloss, Hellenistic Poetics and Livius Andronicus". American Journal of Philology 102 (1): 58–78.
  85. Blank, Paula (1996). Broken English: dialects and the politics of language in Renaissance writings. Routledge. pp. 29–31. ISBN 978-0-415-13779-9.
  86. Perloff, Marjorie (2002). 21st-century modernism: the new poetics. Blackwell Publishers. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-631-21970-5.
  87. Paden, William D, ed. (2000). Medieval lyric: genres in historical context. University of Illinois Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-252-02536-5.
  88. Davis, Alex; Jenkins, Lee M, ed. (2007). The Cambridge companion to modernist poetry. Cambridge University Press. pp. 90–96. ISBN 978-0-521-61815-1.
  89. San Juan, E, Jr (2004). Working through the contradictions from cultural theory to critical practice. Bucknell University Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-0-8387-5570-9.
  90. Treip, Mindele Anne (1994). Allegorical poetics and the epic: the Renaissance tradition to Paradise Lost. University Press of Kentucky. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-8131-1831-4.
  91. Crisp, P (1 November 2005). "Allegory and symbol – a fundamental opposition?". Language and Literature 14 (4): 323–338. doi:10.1177/0963947005051287.
  92. Gilbert, Richard (2004). "The Disjunctive Dragonfly". Modern Haiku 35 (2): 21–44.
  93. Hollander 1981, pp. 37–46
  94. Fussell 1965, pp. 160–165
  95. Corn 1997, p. 94
  96. Fussell 1965, pp. 119–129
  97. Minta, Stephen (1980). Petrarch and Petrarchism. Manchester University Press. pp. 15–17. ISBN 0-7190-0748-8.
  98. Fussell 1965, pp. 119–133
  99. Quiller-Couch, Arthur, ed. (1900). Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford University Press.
  100. Watson, Burton (1971). CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. (New York: Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-03464-4, 1
  101. Watson, Burton (1971). CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. (New York: Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-03464-4, 1-2 and 15-18
  102. Watson, Burton (1971). CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. (New York: Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-03464-4, 111 and 115
  103. Faurot, Jeannette L (1998). Drinking with the moon. China Books & Periodicals. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8351-2639-7.
  104. Wang, Yugen (1 June 2004). "Shige: The Popular Poetics of Regulated Verse". T'ang Studies 2004 (22): 81–125. doi:10.1179/073750304788913221.
  105. Schirokauer, Conrad (1989). A brief history of Chinese and Japanese civilizations (2nd ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-15-505569-8.
  106. Kumin, Maxine (2002). "Gymnastics: The Villanelle". In Varnes, Kathrine. University of Michigan Press. p. 314. ISBN 978-0-472-06725-1.
  107. "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" in Thomas, Dylan (1952). In Country Sleep and Other Poems. New Directions Publications. p. 18.
  108. "Villanelle", in Auden, WH (1945). Collected Poems. Random House.
  109. "One Art", in Bishop, Elizabeth (1976). Geography III. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
  110. Samy Alim, H; Ibrahim, Awad; Pennycook, Alastair, ed. (2009). Global linguistic flows. Taylor & Francis. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-8058-6283-6.
  111. Brower, Robert H; Miner, Earl (1988). Japanese court poetry. Stanford University Press. pp. 86–92. ISBN 978-0-8047-1524-9.
  112. McCllintock, Michael; Ness, Pamela Miller; Kacian, Jim, ed. (2003). The tanka anthology: tanka in English from around the world. Red Moon Press. pp. xxx–xlviii. ISBN 978-1-893959-40-8.
  113. Corn 1997, p. 117
  114. Ross, Bruce, ed. (1993). Haiku moment: an anthology of contemporary North American haiku. Charles E. Tuttle Co. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-8048-1820-9.
  115. Etsuko Yanagibori. "Basho's Haiku on the theme of Mt. Fuji". The personal notebook of Etsuko Yanagibori. Archived from the original on 3 August 2007.
  116. Gray, Thomas (2000). English lyrics from Dryden to Burns. Elibron. pp. 155–156. ISBN 978-1-4021-0064-2.
  117. Gayley, Charles Mills; Young, Clement C (2005). English Poetry (Reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. p. lxxxv. ISBN 978-1-4179-0086-2.
  118. Kuiper, edited by Kathleen (2011). Poetry and drama literary terms and concepts. Britannica Educational Pub. in association with Rosen Educational Services. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-61530-539-1.
  119. Campo, Juan E (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
  120. Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt (Autumn 1990). "Musical Gesture and Extra-Musical Meaning: Words and Music in the Urdu Ghazal". Journal of the American Musicological Society 43 (3): 457–497. doi:10.1525/jams.1990.43.3.03a00040.
  121. Sequeira, Isaac (1 June 1981). "The Mystique of the Mushaira". The Journal of Popular Culture 15 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.4745121.x.
  122. Schimmel, Annemarie (Spring 1988). "Mystical Poetry in Islam: The Case of Maulana Jalaladdin Rumi". Religion & Literature 20 (1): 67–80.
  123. Chandler, Daniel. "Introduction to Genre Theory". Aberystwyth University. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  124. Schafer, Jorgen; Gendolla, Peter, ed. (2010). Beyond the screen: transformations of literary structures, interfaces and genres. Verlag. pp. 16, 391–402. ISBN 978-3-8376-1258-5.
  125. Kirk, GS (2010). Homer and the Oral Tradition (reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 22–45. ISBN 978-0-521-13671-6.
  126. Hainsworth, JB (1989). Traditions of heroic and epic poetry. Modern Humanities Research Association. pp. 171–175. ISBN 978-0-947623-19-7.
  127. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1992: Derek Walcott". Swedish Academy. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  128. Keith, Arthur Berriedale Keith (1992). Sanskrit Drama in its origin, development, theory and practice. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 57–58. ISBN 978-81-208-0977-2.
  129. Dolby, William (1983). "Early Chinese Plays and Theatre". In Mackerras, Colin. University of Hawaii Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8248-1220-1.
  130. Dominik, William J; Wehrle, T (1999). Roman verse satire: Lucilius to Juvenal. Bolchazy-Carducci. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0-86516-442-0.
  131. Black, Joseph, ed. (2011). Broadview Anthology of British Literature 1. Broadview Press. p. 1056. ISBN 978-1-55481-048-2.
  132. Treglown, Jeremy. "Satirical Inversion of Some English Sources in Rochester's Poetry". Review of English Studies 24 (93): 42–48. doi:10.1093/res/xxiv.93.42.
  133. Blasing, Mutlu Konuk (2006). Lyric poetry : the pain and the pleasure of words. Princeton University Press. pp. 1–22. ISBN 978-0-691-12682-1.
  134. Pigman, GW (1985). Grief and English Renaissance elegy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 40–47. ISBN 978-0-521-26871-4.
  135. Kennedy, David (2007). Elegy. Routledge. pp. 10–34. ISBN 978-1-134-20906-4.
  136. Harpham, Geoffrey Galt; Abrams, MH. A glossary of literary terms (10th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-495-89802-3.
  137. Monte, Steven (2000). Invisible fences: prose poetry as a genre in French and American literature. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 4–9. ISBN 978-0-8032-3211-2.
  138. "The Prose Poem: An International Journal". Providence College. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  139. "Contemporary Haibun Online". Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  140. Allen, Mike (2005). Dutcher, Roger, ed. The alchemy of stars. Science Fiction Poetry Association. pp. 11–17. ISBN 978-0-8095-1162-4.
Bibliography

Further reading

Anthologies