Types of Poetry …and the poets who mastered them!

Dramatic Poetry





Presents the voice of an imaginary character (or characters) speaking directly, without any additional narration by the author. T.S. Eliot said dramatic poetry does not consist of “what the poet would say in his own person, but only what he can say within the limits of one imaginary character addressing another imaginary character.”

Dramatic Monologue





A lyric poem written where the speaker addresses a silent listener, revealing himself in the context of a dramatic situation. Usually addressed by the speaker to some other character who remains silent.

Ballads


A poem that recounts a story and has been composed to be sung.




The use of refrains / choruses are frequently used, just like in modern music.

Robert Browning









Liked to put words in the mouths of characters who were conspicuously nasty, weak, reckless, or crazy. Had written his first book of poetry by age 12. Father had over 6,000 books in their library. Married to poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Robert Browning


Victorian poet= 



Poets during Queen Victoria’s era (18371901) Themes and topics included reclaiming the past, heroic, chivalrous stories of knights, and fantasy-like characters (larger-than-life, think Sherlock Holmes and Dracula)

Edwin A. Robinson






Won three Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. In the fall of 1891, at the age of 21, Edwin entered Harvard University as a special student. He took classes on English, French, and Shakespeare, as well as one on Anglo-Saxon that he later dropped. His mission was not to get all A's, as he wrote his friend Harry Smith, "B, and in that vicinity, is a very comfortable and safe place to hang". American poet

Lyric Poetry








A poem made for singing until the printing press came around in the fifteenth century A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker Often written in first person

D. H. Lawrence






Overused poetic tropes (a play on words, such as metonymy, synecdoche, irony) and archaic language dominated his style Rewrote many of his poems and novels to perfect them Was concerned with man’s modern distance from nature

Modernist Poetry










1890-1930 Wrote about the continuous excesses of Victorian society with its emphasis on traditional formalism and ornate diction Modernists thought they looked back to the best of earlier poets Deals more with the literal meaning of words Dominated by free verse in the beginning

Modernist Poetry


Moved away from the Victorian idea of an unproblematic poetic self talking to an equally unproblematic audience

Narrative Poetry






Main purpose is to tell a story Also known as ballads – storytelling songs Draws on fictional elements such as




Drawing characters and settings Engage attention Shape a plot

Examples of Narrative Poetry



The Illiad and The Odyssey Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

Anne Sexton









Feminist poet Prominently known for her confessional poetry because she lived a most unhappy life. “Cinderella” comes from her book Transformations where she satirized Grimm Brother’s fairy tales. Her purpose in this book was to teach the world that “happily ever after” doesn’t exist.

Robert Frost







American Poet (1874-1963) Won four Pulitzer Prizes Spoke at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration He mastered using conversational American language into metered lines.

William Wordsworth (1779-1850)


English Romantic Poet  



Took intuition over reason Pastoral (dealing with shepherds) over the urban Tried to use “real” language over classical

Confessional Poetry






Family of lyric trafficks in intimate, and sometimes unflattering, information about details of the poet's personal life, such as in poems about illness, sexuality, and despondence. Poets whose writing is classified as confessional (it has been argued) use writing as an outlet for their demons.

Sylvia Plath


Plath describes her poems by saying “I think my poems come immediately out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have. I believe one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrifying, and should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and intelligent mind”

Plath



29th century feminist poet Published her first poem when she was eight.

Theodore Roethke









“When I go mad, I call my friends by phone: I am afraid they might think they're alone.” American poet A college professor who married a student, Beatrice O’Connell. He suffered from many bouts of depression.

Sonnets







14 line lyric poems What do lyric poems do again? These poems can be about any topic. Unlike which type of poetry? Popular in the sixteenth century Taken from the Italian sonnetto, meaning “little song.”

Italian sonnet





Developed by Petrarch, so also known as the Petrarchan sonnet 14 lines; two units  

Eight lines – a-b-b-a a-b-b-a Six lines a sestet – c-d-c-d or c-d-e-c-d-e

Italian sonnet





The octave serves to present a problem, question, story or idea The sestet resolves or contrasts with the octave.

English Sonnet









Also knows as the Shakespearean sonnet Three quatrains + a couplet with a new rhyme A-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g As is Shakespeare’s nature, the rhythm is iambic pentameter

Shakespearean Sonnet







Shakespeare does not have to have written it! The couplet usually indicates the theme. Sonnets 1 through 126 address a young man with outstanding physical and intellectual attributes. The first 17 urge the man to marry so that he can pass on his superior qualities to a child.

Spencerian Sonnet




Consists of three quatrains, followed by a couplet Interlocking rhyme scheme Abab bcbc cdcd ee

Fixed Form


Poems that can be categorized by the patterns of its lines, meter, rhymes, and stanzas.

Open Form / Free


Poems that do not conform to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza

Richard Wilbur









American Poet Published first poem at the age of 8 Born in 1921 Currently teaches at Amherst College Poet Laureate after Robert Penn Warren Won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry

Metaphyisical Poetry


Lyric poems of seventeenth-century men




John Donne Andrew Marvell George Herbert

Metaphysical Poets






Their writing was characterized by wit Metaphysical conceits – extended metaphors that have a much more conceptual, thus tenuous, relationship with the thing being compared. A comparison becomes a conceit when we are made to concede likeness while being strongly conscious of unlikeness – Helen Gardner

Metaphysical Poets








Their writings also include unusual metaphors and similes Metaphysical concerns deal with a rational discussion of the world and its phenomena They employed an energetic, uneven, and rigorous style

Romantic Poetry





Originated in medieval France and told stories of chivalrous knights undertaking perilous journeys to rescue damsels in distress. This movement peaked in England in the nineteenth century

Romantic Poets





William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Blythe Shelley, and They loved nature and saw God within nature.