Lyric
poetry
Origin:
Lyric is one of the oldest forms of
literature. It originated in ancient Greece with two characteristic,
1. It is an expression of single emotion
2. It is a musical composition.
The word 'Lyric' comes from the word 'Lyre'.
It was sung to the addition of lyre. The history of English lyric is very long.
The Elizabethan poets were master of the art of lyrical poetry. Now lyric were
no more sung with musical instrument in public. It became literary art for
poets.
Definitions
According to Oxford dictionary Lyric is,
"The
name for a short poem usually divided into stanzas and directly expressing the
poet's own thoughts or sentiments"
"A musical
thought" - Carlyle
"The
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" - Wordsworth
"The rhythmic
creation of brevity" - Poe
It speaks the language
of soul. It is an impassioned (emotional) speech. The basic quality of lyric is
feeling rather than thought. It should be noticed that all lyrical poems are
not suitable for singing. It is a short poem about feelings, an emotion, or a
single idea.
Subject:
Lyric appears more to the
heart than to the intellect. It appeals to the intellect through heart.
Therefore the subjects of Lyrical poetry have remained the same for ages -
Love, Death, God, the beauty of nature etc.
Love has been the
favourite, the love between man and woman, likewise the love of man for God,
men's love for beauty of the nature. On the other hand dark subjects like
hatred, fear, grief, and death have also inspired poets. Subjectivity and
briefness are the two essential features of lyric.
There are four different
poetic methods of lyrical poetry. These methods may be called direct,
intellectual, formal, and musical. The lyric of romantic poets like Wordsworth,
Scott, Shelly, Keats, Byron are the examples of direct types of lyric, they
express poet's own feeling in the shortest and simplest form. They are easy to
read and understand, but difficult to write.
Characteristics:
1) A lyric turns on some single thought situation or feeling
2) It is characterized by brevity and rapidity of thought.
3) It is subjective
4) A good lyric sings and dances in the mind of readers, this happens
because of its rhythm and rhyme
5) It is a poetic cry for the heart - of joy, sorrow.
6) A good lyric has generally three parts. In the first there is an
emotional stimulation (motivation - inspiration), in the second, the emotion is
developed to its almost capacity. In the third, the emotion is finally resolved
into a thought or attitude.
The subjectivity of lyric:
When we say
that a lyric is subjective or personal, we do not mean that it is necessarily
autobiographical. The poet, like other artists is capable for entering into the
experiences of other people. Poets make the experiences of others to their own.
English
literature has a long history of lyric poets, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne,
Milton, Shelly, Keats, Blake, Burns, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott,
Tennyson, Hardy, Brooke and lots of others.
Types of Lyric:
There are four quite
different poetic methods. They have been widely used by English lyrical and
reflective poets.
1) Direct lyrics:
These types of lyrics are
very simple. They give us poet's experience and the feeling connected with it.
In the simplest and shortest form, they are easy to read and understand but
difficult to write. They seem to come directly from the heart of the writer and
to go straight to the heart of the reader. But this simplicity requires a great
deal of deep thought by the poet. Wordsworth's 'Rainbow' and Robert Burn's 'Red
Rose', are the best example of direct types of lyrics.
2) Intellectual lyrics:
All good lyrical poets are
not simple, some of them are highly intellect and complicated. They can be
understood after several readings and poetry of this kind is not 'spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings' but 'powerful feelings' are 'recollected in tranquillity'.
To put these feelings in proper order and expression quietness is necessary.
Metaphysical poetry is a kind of these lyrics.
Metaphysical poetry is
difficult. Dr. Johnson gave the name "metaphysical" to a school of
poets in which John Donne. Sex, love, and religion were their subjects. They
were revolutionary poets.
3) Formal lyrics:
Every writer has his own
way of writing and that's why he can use different forms of lyric. He can write
in the form of an ode, a ballad, or a sonnet. Formal is related with forms and
form is all about technical skill. The poem is composed to a set of rules. In
this method poet experiments lyrics with different types of forms.
4) Musical lyrics:
All poetry
ought to have some musical qualities, but there are some poems in which sound
is as important as sense. Sometimes the sound is carefully planned to add the
sense through 'Onomatopoeia'. In this the words and the sounds are the same.
For example - Cuckoo, Tennyson's 'Break, Break, Break'
There are wide divisions of
four types of lyrical poetry - direct, metaphysical - intellectual, formal and
musical. But they are not ever fixed. Even the simplest direct lyric for
example must also have some formal quality; otherwise it could not be a poem at
all.
The lyric appears to be very
simple but it is not able to understand easily. It comes from the vibrations of
the soul. It is written in an artistic mood of mind. It is the 'happiest
expression of happiest moment of life'. It is in this state of mind the poet catch
the inspiration, his mind starts singing immediately and the result is a good
lyric. Shelly has aptly described it as 'an unpremeditated art', so much so
that poet himself is surprised by his own composition.
