The Background of English Literature for BS English 1st Semester

Ode

Origin	Greek word “oide” meaning “song”. Subjective Poetry.
Definition	A long lyrical poem expressing the writer’s thoughts and feelings about a particular person or subject.
Example	Wordsworth’s Hymn to Duty, Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn.
Inventor	Pindar (Greek poet)
Features	Not much lengthy, lyrical in nature, highly serious in its tone and subject matter, elaborate patterns of stanza, elevated theme, and written in metrical scheme, release of emotion, figures of speech.
Structure	Consist of the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode.
Kinds	Pindaric and Horatian ode
1.Pindaric Ode	Pindar was introducer. Ben Jonson was he first who wrote in the Pindaric tradition namely Ode to Sir Lucius Cary.
2.Horation Ode	Named by Horace who followed Pindar with great modification. Short lyric poem with meter and rhyme written in the manner of Horace to praise person or object. Addresses friend and love of friend. Andrew Marvell followed him in writing Horatian ode and wrote ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland.
Ode to autumn Summary	Autumn joins with the maturing sun to load the vines with grapes, to grow apples and other fruit, "swell the gourd," fill up the hazel shells, and set budding more and more flowers. Autumn may be seen sitting on a separating floor, sound asleep in a grain field filled with poppies, carrying a load of grain across a brook, or watching the juice oozing from a cider press. The sounds of autumn are the wailing of gnats, the bleating of lambs, the singing of hedge crickets, the whistling of robins, and the twittering of swallows.

Sonnet (Means sound)

Origin: Italian word "sonetto" (small song or lyric)

A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines and written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables or 5 feets with specific rhyme scheme.

Introducer: Thomas Wyatt and the earl of Surrey in early 16 century.

Types with rhyme scheme: Petrarchan (Rhyme Scheme abbaabba and sestet ‘cdecde’), Spenserian, (Rhyme Scheme: abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee;)Shakespearean (ababa, cdcd, efef, gg;)

Petrarchan Sonnets: This form was used by Italian lyric poets like Guinicelli, Dante etc wrote love poetry. It was Petrarch who introduced this major poetic form

Spenserian’s Sonnets:  Introducer=Edmund Spenser, Example: Amoretti

Shakespeare’s Sonnets : Introducer= Shakespeare,  He wrote 154 sonnets, printed after 1609.

Lyric

Latin lyricus, Writers are called lyricist.

A Lyric is short, consists of fifty or sixty lines and a song to be sung with the instrument lyre (lyra) to give immense pleasure.

Contributions: Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon Writers (wrote lyrics in elegiac tone on religion)

Workers: They used also lyric form of poetry. Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Herbert, Milton (in renascence period), Keats, Shelley, Blake, Wordsworth, Thomas Moore(in Romantic period), Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Manley, John Clare (In 19th Century)

Elegy

Greek word meanings  “lament”

Any poem which is written with subjects: death, war, love and similar themes, used to lament or mourns for some tragic events like death of individual.

Contributions: Donne (His Picture, and Elegie on his Mistris in 16th century)

Pastoral Elegy: it was introduced by three Sicilian poets: Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion.

Workers: Milton Lycidas, Shelley’s Adonais and Arnold’s Thyrsis, and Bion’s Lament for Adonis. Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil, Spenser’s Daphnaid.

Features: Poet-mourns or lament on the death of individual, use mythological characters, parade of mourners, reflects great Justice and conflict sins.

The Epic

Origin: Greek word “Epikos” means word, story or poem.

An epic is long narrative poem dealing with heroic achievements and timeless human problems in seriousness, sincerity and pride style. Example: The Faerie Queene by Edumund Spenser, Paradise Lost by John Milton

Father of The Epic: Veda Vyasa

Features: Oral, represent heroic ideal culture, cosmic in scale and may be worldwide, narrated in ceremonial style, elevation style (overwritten), poet is objective, scarcely based on historical events.

Heading	Drama
Origin	Greek word, meaning “to do” or “to act”.
Definition	It is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story in acting or dialogue, having conflict of characters, particularly the ones who perform in front of audience on the stage. Writer of drama is called dramatist.
Types	Comedy, Tragedy, Farce, Melodrama, Musical Drama.
Comedy	Comedy is a type of drama with a happy ending and having comic theme which make the audience laugh (or for amusing the audience). Example: Twelfth night and Much Ado about Nothing by Shakespeare.
Tragedy	That presents a serious subject matter, darker themes, pain and death, consequence of a tragic flaw, downfall etc. Example: Oedipus Rex (Mythical and immortal drama)
Farce	Nonsensical sort of drama which often engages pleasantry humor. Example: Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Victorian Farce)
Melodrama	Exaggerated drama deals with sensational and romantic topic with music that appeals the emotions of audience. Example: Kitty Foyle by Christopher Marlow.
Musical Drama	Dramatists tell story by acting, dialogue, dance and music as well. Story may comedic with serious subject. Example: The Heiress is based on Henry James’ novel the Washington Square.
.Elements	Understanding drama, dramatic form, characters and actors and plot.

                                                                                                                                                    

Balled

Latin word and Italian “ballare” means to dance.

A poem meant for singing, quite impersonal in material, connected with mutual or communal dance, submitted to oral traditions among people.

Types: Literary Balled, Folk Balled

Literary Balled: Composed and written formally, usually of folk ballad style but are said orally. The literary ballad became popular during the Romantic era.

Features: Beginning is often abrubt, simple language, story is in dialogue actions, theme is tragic, often refrain (a line repeated at the end of the stanza). And deals with single episode, strong dramatic element, the narrator is impersonal.

Folk Balled ( popular ballad): was composed to be sung. It was passed along orally from singer to singer, from generation to generation, and from one region to another. It is popular along with the Anglo-Scottish in 15th and 16th centuries.