Questions tagged [poetry]

Poetry Is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning.

Poetry (from the Greek 'poiesis'/ ποίησις [poieo/ποιέω], a making: forming, creating, or the art of poetry, or a poem) is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning.

Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. The earliest poems evolved from folk songs, such as the Chinese Shijing, or from the need to retell oral epics, such as the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad. 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 labelled as a fundamental creative act using language.

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Difference between meter and rhythm in poetry

What is the difference between meter and rhythm in poetry? The explanations found from googling were highly confusing.
Ramkryp
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Term for poetic technique in which the last word of a line is the first word of the next

"Runs in the family" by Amanda Palmer contains the following lyrics: Strips in the city and shares all her best tricks with Me? Well, I'm well The first word of the bridge, "Me?", is also the last word in the preceding verse. However, unlike with…
varkor
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Why does the letter 'y' appear randomly in front of words in Renaissance poetry?

In a work by Thomas Watson (1555-1592), there is a line as follows: Her dainty forehead from the sun ykept. Why does y appear in front of kept? I have seen this odd use of y in other poems in the collection I am reading: Poetry of the English…
Mike
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Is Nabokov's Pale Fire really in iambic pentameter?

The poem is described as written in heroic couplets (iambic pentameter lines with end rhyme). When I read it, it seems to be to be free verse with end rhyme. I can't consistently identify the iambs (da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM) And when read aloud, it…
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How does one scan multi-syllabic words in poetry to determine meter?

Let me explain. Usually poems written in iambic pentameter have short syllables. A line could be, say: I DROVE past DANcing BIRDS aLONG the WAY. But what if we have longer words, like "alluring, "beautiful", "unusual", or "responsibility". Take…
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What is the meaning of the line "Upon a homely object Love can wink" in this context

What's the meaning of the last line of this extract from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona? Valentine. This is the gentleman I told your ladyship Had come along with me, but that his mistress Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks.…
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Is there a "correct" way to perform scansion in poetry?

Is there a foolproof or "rigorous" way to accurately and repeatably perform scansion in English poetry? It seems highly subjective at times. For example, I can pretty easily grasp the iambic tetrameter in Frost's Whose woods these are I think I…
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What is the stylistic device used in this poem?

I am not sure if there is a kind of stylistic device in below poem sentence. The king’s horses are purebloods, his barns cut stone; roans, blacks, dapples, bays; the granite reds, greys, blues. If I understand correctly, the "normal" sequence…
gerry
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What does "brook no challenge" mean?

I am not sure how to understand this expression which showed up in a Walt Whitman poem (Passage to India : 142) - English is not my first language Brook normally means 'to not tolerate' but that doesn't make sense to me in the context. The line…
michaPau
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Using the metonymy "feather" to refer to an angel?

I was wondering if you can use the metonymy feather to refer to an angel(s)? Would feathers refer to several angels? Does this apply to poetry only or can I use it in other media?
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Did this scan or rhyme when Coleridge wrote it?

The following five lines are from one of the most famous poems in history: A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. "saw" and "Abora"? Was Abora…
Ricky
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What's up with G. M. Hopkins's use of accented characters?

Here are a some extracts from G. M. Hopkins I say móre: the just man justices; Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; Or this And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. Or this Yet both droop deadly sómetimes in their cells …
spraff
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What is the rhythm of the following poem?

When we grab you by the ankles, Where our mark is to be made, You'll soon be doing noble work, Although you won't be paid. When we drive away in secret, You'll be a volunteer, So don't scream when we tell you: "The world is quiet here." And how is…
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Please help me understand a poem by W. B. Yeats

The poem in question is 'The Choice': The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work, And if it take the second must refuse A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark. When all that story's finished, what's the…
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What is the meaning of Mark O'Brien's "The Man in the Iron Lung" poem?

"I scream The body electric, This yellow, metal, pulsing cylinder Whooshing all day, all night In its repetitive dumb mechanical rhythm. Rudely, it inserts itself in the map of my body, Which my midnight mind, Dream-drenched cartographer of terra…
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