Prepared by Sudha sharma Lecturer in English P

Prepared by Sudha sharma Lecturer in English P. G. G. C. 46, Chandigarh.

BALLAD A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dancing songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19 th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18 th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19 th century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonymous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock power ballad.

Ballads were originally composed to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines. These refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains (four-line stanzas) of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed (in the scheme a, b, c, b), which has been taken to suggest that, originally, ballads consisted of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables.

SONNET A sonnet is a poetic form which originated in Italy; the Sicilian poet Giacomo da Lentini is credited with its invention. The term sonnet derives from the Italian word sonetto, meaning "little song“. In the thirteenth century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure.

RHYME SCHEME OF SONNET One of the best-known sonnet writers is William Shakespeare, who wrote 154 of them (not including those that appear in his plays). A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is a-b -a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet.

SONNETEERS The first known sonnets in English, written by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, used this Italian scheme, as did sonnets by later English poets including John Milton, Thomas Gray, William Wordsworth and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Early twentieth-century American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay also wrote most of her sonnets using the Italian form.

JOHN MILTON: ON HIS BLINDNESS When I consider how my light is spent (a) Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b) And that one talent which is death to hide, (b) Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a) To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a) My true account, lest he returning chide; (b) "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied? " (b) I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a) That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c) Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d) Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e) Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c) And post o'er land ocean without rest; (d) They also serve who only stand wait. " (e)

LYRIC A lyric is any short poem or song expressing the personal emotions and experiences of the poet. A lyric may embody any kind of emotion.

QUALITIES OF LYRIC It is a short poem , characterised by simplicity in language and treatment. It deals with single emotion which is generally stated in the first few lines. A lyric is more often than not, mood -dictated. It is musical. Verbal music is an important element in its appeal and charm. A lyric is always an expression of moods and emotions of a poet. But in metaphysical lyrics, intellectual touch is also there. It is characterised by intensity and poignancy. Spontaneity is another important quality of a lyric.

TYPES The Elizabethan lyric The Metaphysical lyric The Religious lyric Cavalier lyric The Romantic lyric The Victorian lyric The modern lyric

ELEGY Elegy is a special kind of lyrics. A lyric expresses the emotions of the poet and the elegy is an expression of the emotion of sorrow, woe or despair. (In short, elegy is a lament, a lyric of mourning, or an utterance of personal bereavement and sorrow and , therefore it should be characterised by absolute sincerity of emotion and expression. ) Examples : Thomas Grey : Elegy written in a Country Churchyard Tennyson : Break, Break & In Memoriam Matthew Arnold : Rugby Chapel

PASTORAL ELEGY The word pastoral comes from the Greek word “pastor”. Pastoral elegy is an elegy in which the poet represents himself as a shepherd mourning the death of a fellow shepherd. Example : Milton : Lycidas Shelley : Adonais Arnold : Thyrsis & Scholar Gipsy

THE ODE The Ode is a special kind of lyric, more dignified , stately and elaborate than the simple lyric. The word ‘Ode’ is simple the Greek word for ‘song’. An English ode may be defined as , “ a lyric poem of elaborate metrical structure, solemn in tone , and usually taking the form of address. ” very often to some abstraction or quality.

TYPES ode The Pindaric Ode The Horatian Ode It consists of a number of stanzas with a more or less regular metrical structure but without any division into triads of pindaric ode Pindaric ode has a fixed stanza pattern but enjoys rhythmical and metrical freedom