Concetti Chiave
- Poetry consists of various sub-genres, often determined by the subject matter and style, such as songs, lyrics, ballads, sonnets, and elegies.
- Songs and lyrics are closely related, with lyrics often described as songs without music, focusing on themes like love and death.
- The sonnet, a 14-line lyrical form originating from Italy, became popular in English literature, with Shakespearean sonnets being a notable variant.
- Ballads are narrative poems with simple, direct metrical patterns, having roots in folk songs and traditionally sung by common people.
- The elegy is an ancient genre, serving as a lament for the dead, reflecting on life’s transitory nature and ending with consolation.
THE SONG AND THE LYRIC
The two terms have often been used as synonyms. Some critics, in fact, say that a lyric is a song without music and reflects a later, more literary awareness of the same impulse to sing life’s basic themes: love and death.
THE SONNET
Another lyric form is that of the sonnet, a 14-line structure of Italy origin which has been immensely popular in English from the Renaissance to the present time.
During the Renaissance, a great innovation was to change the metrical structure of the Petrarchan sonnet (two quatrain and two tercets), creating the pattern which was later by W. Shakespeare and his contemporary and is usually known as Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet (three quatrains and a couplet).
THE BALLAD
Technically speaking the ballad can be defined as a form of popular verse, usually narrative and employing a very direct and simple metrical pattern: stanzas of four lines (quatrains) rhyming abcb or abab. Ballads originally belonged to the same tradition as folk songs: they were poem composed by common people to be sung. This musical origin of ballad is testified by its name, which comes from the Old French balade.
THE ELEGY
One of the oldest poetical genres is the elegy, which is a lament for dead person. It often includes a reflection of transitory nature of life and it ends in a mood of consolation.
EPIC POEM
A long narrative poem usually divided into books or parts and generally mythological or religious in theme. It tells op great actions and events that are usually important to a nation or culture. Epic poems are modelled on classical epics. The first epic poem in English literature is Beowulf.
Domande da interrogazione
- Quali sono i generi poetici più comuni e le loro caratteristiche principali?
- Qual è l'origine e la struttura del sonetto?
- Cosa caratterizza un poema epico e qual è il primo poema epico della letteratura inglese?
I generi poetici più comuni includono il canto, il lirico, la ballata, il sonetto e l'elegia. Il canto e il lirico sono spesso sinonimi, riflettendo temi di base della vita come l'amore e la morte. Il sonetto è una forma lirica di origine italiana, popolare dal Rinascimento. La ballata è un verso popolare narrativo con una struttura metrica semplice. L'elegia è un lamento per una persona morta, riflettendo sulla natura transitoria della vita.
Il sonetto ha origine in Italia ed è una struttura di 14 versi. Durante il Rinascimento, la struttura metrica del sonetto petrarchesco è stata innovata, creando il modello noto come sonetto elisabettiano o shakespeariano, composto da tre quartine e un distico.
Un poema epico è un lungo poema narrativo, spesso diviso in libri o parti, con temi mitologici o religiosi. Racconta grandi azioni ed eventi importanti per una nazione o cultura. Il primo poema epico della letteratura inglese è "Beowulf".
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