Poetry

Poetry is the first literary genre to be considered because, as for any other language, the first Anglo-Saxon literary works were passed on from generation to generation orally, and poetry, with its rhytm and musical qualities, was easier to learn by heart.

Poetry derive its name from the Greek verb piein which means "to create". It was born as an oral art generally accompanied by dancing and music and is the oldest form of loiterature. People used it as a means:

To express the most remarkable events in their lives;

To convey the feelings associated with them.

Poetry is characterised by musical patterns of sounds which are based on the natural qualities of spoken language. Its language is far more condensed and intensificated: the poet combines words to make his reader felt what he has felt, and experience what he has experienced.

The structural units of poetry are:

The line;

The stanza;

The canto or book.

All thease can vary almost infinitely.

A line of poetry in English is usually from eight to twelve syllabeles in length and stanzas are normally from two to twlvw lines long.

The types of stanza are:

The couplet (2 lines)

The tercet (3 lines)

The quatrain (4 lines)

The seset (6 lines)

The octave (8 lines).

A complete poem may consist of only 2 lines, as in the case of epigram, while narrative poems may extend over thousands of lines.

The main kinds of poetry are narrative and epic, dramatic, satiric, and lyric.

Narrative and epic, dramatic and satiric poetry tell a story in verse and may express a moral commentary.

Lyric poems, which are generally very short, are relatively fixed forms used in almost every age, especially because of their musical quality and as means for the expression of personal feelings.

Some fixed forms are:

The elegy, which combines natural setting with poetic lamentation or speculation on death;

The ballad, generally meant to be sung and used to express basic human emotions such as love and hate or fear and wonder at physical an supernatural worlds;

The sonnet, which, though the most formal among the lyric poems, is capable of great variety and intensity;

The ode, which is another classical form, in quite long and complex. Its form however, is determined by the theme (usually yhe celebration of an abstract concept) and situation.

The 3 most important elements of poetry are:

Its sound;

Its visual layout;

The special way it uses language.

Therefore it is necessary to focus our attention on the means by which the poets communicates his message.

An analysis of the poet's technique, of his use of language, of the tone of his work, should increase the enjoyment through a better understanding of poem.

The epic poem

The word epic comes from the greek noun épos, the poets oral exposition. The 2 major epic poems in the western traditions are the Iliad and the Odyssey attributed to the Greek poet Homer. Later examples of epic poems are: Virgil's Aeneid and the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf. The epic poem is the recollection af a glorious past and speaks about great deeds of heroes. The narrative of the epic poem is characterized by  vivid language. The type-scenes ą the banquet, the bettle, the voyage and the funeral.

The main theme is the nature of heroic life.

The didactic aim is linked to the calibration of heroic ethic: all men should direct themselves to action which lead to glory and praise.

The style is elevated, the vocabulary is extremely rich and various. In lines there are also alliterations.

SCHEMA

Epic

supernatural events.

Recollection of a glorious past

Aristocratic, military society

Objective narration

Vivid language

Didactic aim

Great deeds of heroes

Type scenes: banquet, battle, voyages and funerals.

The pagan elegy

Elegy is a lyrical poem, generally in the form of monologue. An isolated speaker expresses his loss of friendship and favour, and part splendour. One of the favourites themes of this poetry is the figure of the exile of wracca. The main character of the elegy is the lone wonder with whom the audience might easily identify. The melancholic mood of the poem is conveyed through vivid and descriptive language, while the oral aspect is underline by the frequent use of alliteration.

SCHEMA

Elegy

loss of friendship

moving view of the human conditions

vivid language

alliteration

melancholic mood

figure of exile

dramatic monologue

Beowulf (7^th century)

Beowulf is an epic poem since it celebrates the great actions of its protagonist. This hero is praised highly. Beowulf is a man with a personal sense of mission. Arms armour form a persistent and powerful symbol of heroic activity throughout the poem.

Superhuman powers are attributed to him: he spends days underwater, he kills monsters which live underwater and underground, which can fly and which breathe out fire. He fight at night and in a mythical region of the earth.

In each poem these exaltation  of the past takes place under the influence of a foreign culture: pagan Greece in Aeneid, Christian Rome in Beowulf.

Beowulf has an original epic structure.

Themes

The society described in this poem is heroic too; a lord is the "shepherd" to his people and he gives them shelter, food and drink. Other themes are: sense of passing of time, the cult of fame and a dip feeling for nature.

Style

The language is rich and analytical and the style is vigorous aimed at praising the figure of the hero.

Alliteration, parallelism, antithesis and variations recur throughout the poem.

The monster

The word monster comes from the Latin "monstrum" and means phenomenon. The monster is usually strange and terrifying so as to excite disgust and fear. Monsters often have hybrid forms as a result of a mixture of species or sexes. The most common monster is the dragon ( mixture of species). The dragon appears as a symbol of evil. The symbol of the dragon may be ambiguous and ambivalent in the medieval representation. For example there are 2 type of dragon: white dragon and red dragon. The first one has the pale hue of death while the red dragon has the colour of rage and violence.