Types of Poems ma english uos part 2

1. SAMPLE ANSWERS - POETRY


QUESTION NO. 1
Answer the following questions. (Types of Poems)
(i) Define poetry.

Ans. Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language --- such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre -- to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.  

(ii) What is an aubade?

Ans. Aubade is a love poem welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn. One of the finest aubades in literature occurs in Act II, Scene III, of Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. It begins with the famous words, "Hark, hark! The lark at heaven's gate sings". Donne's "The Sun Rising" is also an aubade. 

(iii) What is a ballad?

Ans. A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain. The Anonymous medieval ballad, "Barbara Allan", exemplifies the genre. 

(iv) What is a folk ballad?

Ans.Folk ballad is a song that it traditionally sung by the common people or a region and forms part of their culture. Folk ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event. Examples include "Barbara Allan" and "John Henry". 

(v) Define a carol?

Ans. A carol is a hymn or poem often sung by a group, with an individual taking the changing stanzas and the group taking the burden or refrain. Examples include "The Burning Babe" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" 

(vi) What is a dramatic monologue?

Ans. A dramatic monologue is a poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener. It is a 'mono-drama in verse'. Examples include Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" and T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

(vii) Define elegy.

Ans. An elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song of a lament for the dead. It usually ends in consolation. Examples include John Milton's "Lycidas" and W.H. Auden's "In Memory of W.B. Yeats". 

(viii) Define an epic.

Ans. An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation narrated in elevated style. For example, Homer's "Iliad" is an epic. 

(ix) What is a mock epic?

Ans. A mock epic is a satire or parody that mocks common classical stereotypes or heroes and heroic literature. Typically, a mock epic either puts a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerates the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd. Examples include John Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe" and Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock". 

(x) What is an epigram?

Ans. An epigram is a short, satirical and witty poem (statement) usually written as a couplet or quatrain but can also be a one lined phrase. It is a brief and forceful remark with a funny ending. Examples include Walter Savage Landor's "Dirce" and Ben Jonson's "On Gut". 

(xi) What is an epithalamion?

Ans. An epithalamion is a lyric ode in honour of a bride and bridegroom usually containing suggestive language and innuendo. Examples include Theocritus' "The 18th Idyll" and Edmund Spenser's "Epithalamion". 

(xii) What is a hymn? 

Ans. A hymn is a religious poem praising God or the divine, often sung. In English, the most popular hymns were written between the 17th and 19th centuries. Examples include Isaac Walts' "Our God, Our Help" and Charles Welsey's "My God! I Know, I Feel Thee Mine". 

(xiii) What is a lyric? 

Ans. A lyric is a short poem which expresses personal emotions or feelings, often in a song-like style or form. It is typically written in the first person. Examples include John Clare's "I Hid My Love" and Louise Bogan's "Song for the Last Act". 

(xiv) Define an ode. 

Ans. An ode is a long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes devoted to the praise of a person, animal, place, thing or idea. Examples include P.B. Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn". 

(xv) What is a sonnet?

Ans. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes. In English, a sonnet has 3 quatrains followed by a couplet and ten syllables per line. (iambic pentameter). It usually expresses a single, complete thought, idea or sentiment. Examples include P.B. Shelley's "Ozymandias" and John Keats' "When I Have Fears".