MODULE 3: UNDERSTANDING FORM & THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORM AND STRUCTURE

The learning objectives of this module are:

• To understand the differences between narrative, descriptive and lyrical poetry, and to understand the relationship between form and structure.
• To give an overview of a poem's structural devices including Verse Line and Length, and the Stanza.
  

INTRODUCTION

Simply put; Form is the style within which a poem is written. Form is an important part of the language of poetry. Form helps readers derive meaning from a poem, and many poetic forms were developed early on in cultures where poetry could impart stories or information to the listener without any need for writing things down. Form relates to style, and styles were initially developed according to the audience, and subject or theme. Whatever kind of story was being told, for example a sad story, or poetry about heroism, or remembrance, they all had their own particular style. Although sometimes a style was developed just as a way of demonstrating the poem's beginning, middle and end, and that style became its form, which has been passed down through the ages and generations.

In this module we will look in more detail at form; what it is, and different types of form, as well as how form relates to the structure of a poem, and how structural techniques are used in forming and composing a poem.

WHAT IS FORM?

To think form, you must first think of the three common types of poem: narrative, descriptive and lyrical.

• A narrative poem tells a story and generally involves characters and plots.
• A descriptive poem - also known as a dramatic poem - is intended to be spoken. It describes the world around us, and the situation the poet sees. Descriptive poetry tends to look outwards at things. A lot of descriptive poetry is written in blank verse, or even free verse, and generally without rhyme.
• Typically spoken in the first person, a lyrical poem expresses strong feelings and emotions, and generally relies on the personal experiences or views of the narrator - which may or may not be the poet. Lyrical poetry tends to look deeply inwards.

Within these three basic types of poem, there are sub-forms too; poems which follow specific patterns, rhyming scheme or a particular topic or focus, and could be organised in a distinct way, for example a limerick, haiku or sonnet. Most descriptive, narrative or lyrical poetry will fall into further description or sub-forms to better define it. However, poetry within these sub-forms will generally use conventional arrangements of metre and rhyme. Even free verse, by its very nature, subscribes to a particular style of poetry.

TYPES OF NARRATIVE POETRY

Idyll

An idyll tends to be a poem that deals with country or rustic life and pastoral scenes, perhaps painting a picture of everyday life, heightening its meaning and significance. An Idyll can also idolise or represent a heroic individual.

Ballad

A ballad is often a poem that tells a story similar to a folk-tale or based on mythology, written in quatrains (we'll explain this shortly).

Epic

An epic poem is a long narrative poem, usually telling of deeds and happenings that are meaningful in some way to the poet telling it.

TYPES OF DESCRIPTIVE or DRAMATIC POETRY

A descriptive or dramatic poem is usually written in blank verse. A dramatic monologue is a poem in which the imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, not usually the reader.

TYPES OF LYRICAL POETRY

A lyrical poem focuses on deep thought and emotion. A lyre is a hand-held harp like instrument that was often used when reciting or singing lyrical poetry in the past, and this is where the word lyrical comes from. There are many forms of lyrical poetry, but the primary four sub-forms are the Ode, Elegy, Sonnet and Villanelle.

Ode

An ode is generally serious in subject and tone and is often written in celebration of a person, place, object or indeed an experience. Odes need not be very long, but are more often elaborate in their patterns of stanzas. There are three typical types of ode; the three-part Pindaric (Pindaric ode, ceremonious poem by or in the manner of Pindar, a Greek professional lyrist of the 5th century BCE.), the two or four-lined stanza that imply the Horatian (Horatian ode, in the manner of the 1st-century-BC Latin poet Horace), and the irregular verse and stanzaic structure that characterises the irregular ode.

Elegy

The elegy (not to be confused with eulogy!), is a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. Elegies often has no particular stanzaic pattern.

Sonnet

A sonnet is a 14-line poem, with a variable rhyme scheme, originating in Italy, and brought to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, in the 16th century. There are many different types of sonnet, such as the Shakespearean sonnet, and the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet.

Villanelle

The villanelle was originally a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas, and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORM AND STRUCTURE

The best analogy for describing how form and structure work together is the building of a house. The structure is its frame including beams, joists, rafters etc. Without a structure, the house cannot be given a form. How would we know what sort of a house was it, or indeed if it was a house, if it didn't have a roof, or an entrance or exit? Poetry is the same, it needs structure and shape in order for it to have form. This structure is in lines and stanzas (i.e. verses), the rhythm, repetition and generally how the content is imparted. Rhythm and metre are two important devices of a poem, which will be looked at later in the course.

STRUCTURAL DEVICES

Verse line and length - a poem with longer verse lines and length might have a slower pace than poems with much shorter lines, one after another. A poem with many stanzas (verses) can build on its content, introducing ideas and thoughts, or delve deeper into its message. A poem where lines are repeated at the end of each stanza can underline the significance of the idea, thought or sentiment. And lines can have punctuation (commas, full-stops etc.,) in the middle of each line. 

LINE-RELATED TECHNIQUES

Caesura

Caesura is generally a punctuation somewhere else other than the end of the line in a poem. Caesura is formed by the rhythms of natural speech, and poets often use caesuras to break the rhythm or monotony of a line. They may also use it to surprise a reader, forcing them to consider meaning within a particular line.

Enjambment

An enjambment is when the phrase, sentence or indeed the idea does not end with the line of poetry, but is carried over from one line to the next. This allows the poet to focus on fast moving rhythms, and to continue an idea beyond the limitations of a single line, which reinforces the ideas within the lines themselves.

Stanza

1. As already mentioned in this course, a stanza is a basic structural grouping of lines. Stanzas are the building blocks of most poetry, in much the same way as paragraphs are the structure of prose. Stanzas can vary in the number of lines, but generally have the same number of lines in each stanza, and are created around rhythmical patterns and metre. Certain fixed forms of poetry, for example the sonnet, have a determined number of lines, whereas other 'freer' forms allow the poet to decide of the number of lines of each stanza depending upon its content, structure and form.

Free Verse

Free verse rejects traditional structures and is considered as an open form of poetry. However, it does make use of rhythm, poetic imagery and speech patterns. It is through the use of these techniques that poems written in free verse separate themselves from prose verse.

CONCLUSION

I hope you've enjoyed this third module. In this module we have looked at Form and Structure, and examined the differences between narrative, descriptive and lyrical poetry and their sub-forms including Idyll, Ballad, Epic, Ode, Sonnet and Villanelle. We have also looked at the relationship between form and structure, and been given an overview of a poem's structural devices.



MODULE 4

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