CHARACTERISTICS OF POETRY

In our previous blog we discussed various definitions of poetry. We may discern the salient features or elements of poetry from all those definitions. The salient features of poetry are as under:

1. Imagination / Imagery

2. Emotions

3. Moral values

4. Theme

5. Meter or Rhyme

6. Stanza 

7. Poetics Devices

1. IMAGINATION / IMAGERY:

It is rightly said that poetry is “imaginative reconstruction of life.” Every work of art is a piece of imagination and poetry being a work art is not an exception. Use of imagery creates visual pictures in the readers' minds so that they can easily imagine a situations, characters, places and emotions. Imagination plays an important role in poetry. When the poet writes poetry, he observes this world and tries to imitate this world, this society, this life, this human nature and he creates his own world in his poetry. This new world created by the poet is known as “the poet’s world.” It has a touch of realism because it is based on real life, real human nature, real human society. But the poet also adds his own imagination to his creation. The scenes and situations which we see, the characters whom we meet in poetry are imaginative though based on real life and situations.

For example, the natural elements which we find in Wordsworth's poetry are imaginative. In Wordsworth's poem ‘Daffodils', the beautiful flowers which we see are the product of his fertile imagination and this imagination is so powerful that it has the power to create the picture in the minds of the reader. So imagination is important in poetry.

2. EMOTIONS:

For Wordsworth “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions.” Poetry must have the ability to carry the emotions of the poet. Not only that, poetry must be able to arouse the same emotions in the hearts of the readers. Poetry has to be highly emotional and that is the basic difference between science and poetry. Science doesn't deal with emotions but poetry does. Generally, the emotions like love, hatred, fear, anger, sadness, happiness etc. are expressed by the poets. 

For example, Milton’s poem ‘On His Blindness’ expresses the poets feeling of loss of his vision. John Donne’s poem ‘Go and Catch a Falling Star’ unveils his feeling of hatred towards womankind.

3. THEME:

Theme means a thought or a central idea. Thought is the soul of any work of art. Without thought poetry is just like a body without soul. When any serious poet writes poetry, he has a mission to complete, he wants to convey some ideas to the society, convey his own philosophy of life. So thought is the most important element of poetry.

For example, if we examine the Romantic poetry of John Keats, it expresses his thought of love. The poetry of William Wordsworth conveys his eternal love for nature.

4. MORAL VALUES:

Serious literature must release some moral message to the readers. The readers unknowingly learn some good lessons from poetry and that is in fact the function of poetry. The function of poetry is to please or delight the reader but at the same time some critics or scholars believe that true poetry must teach some moral values to the world, to the citizens of the country.

For example, Plato, a great philosopher who was a moralist by nature believed that true poetry must give some moral message to readers.

5. METER/ RHYME:

What makes poetry different from prose is the artistic use of meter or rhyme. Otherwise there is not much difference between prose and poetry. Proper use of meter imparts rhythm to the poetry. Prose is to be read by the readers while poetry is to be read as well as to be sung by the readers. Real joy of poetry is to sing it well. When we sing the poetry well we feel delighted and this delight comes from the element of music which comes from the element of meter. In English poetry, mainly the poets use four types of feet: 1) Iambus 2) Trochee 3) Anapest 4)Dactyl. There are other feet too but these are the four major feet used by the poets in English poetry. These feet make the poetry musical, melodious & singable. Element of music also comes from rhyming. The last words of all lines rhyme with one another and it creates a musical effect. So rhyme also plays an important role in poetry.

For example, see this first stanza of Shakespeare’s poem ‘Sigh No More Ladies’

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh nor more;

    Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea and one on shore,

    To one thing constant never;

Here, the last words “more” and “shore” and “ever” and “never” rhyme with each other creating musical effect.

6. STANZAS:

What makes poetry a poetry also depends on the art of composition. Poetry is composed in the form of stanzas & prose is composed in the form of paragraph. That is the basic difference between poetry and prose. Stanza is group of lines used by the poets. In traditional English poetry we have different kinds of stanzas such as 1) Couplet 2) Tercet 3) Quatrain 4) Quentin, 5) Sestet. These stanzas impart uniformity and unity to the poetry.

7. POETIC DEVICES/FIGURES OF SPEECH:

The poet uses words or language to express his philosophy of life. But this language employed in poetry must be ornamental. Ornaments of language make it more appealing and impressive. This use of ornamental language is also known as poetic devices or figures of speech. In English poetry, many figures of speech like simile, metaphor, alliteration, assonance, hyperbole, climax, anti-climax, antithesis, and oxymoron and so on are popularly used by the poets to make their poetry more charming.

CONCLUSION:

Poetry aims at giving aesthetic pleasure to the reader. This aesthetic pleasure spurs from poetry when there is proper use of imagery, poetic devices, use of rhyme and meter and proper composition of the poem in stanzas. True poetry also holds some serious thought which is expressed in the most artistic and beautiful manner.

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