Poetry – SS1 Nigerian History Lesson Note (First Term)

Poetry is a branch of literature made up of poems. A poem is a feeling expressed in imaginative language and deep thought. The poet arranges words in a systematic pattern to achieve rhythm, harmony, symmetry and grace, creating a vivid picture of an idea for the enlightenment and entertainment of the audience.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• define poetry and a poem;
• explain atmosphere, tone, mood, enjambment, couplet, triplet and quatrain;
• name the different forms and types of poetry;
• give examples of ballads, elegies, epics and odes.

What is poetry?

Poetry is a branch of literature and it is a collection of poems. A poem is a feeling expressed in imaginative language and deep thought. The person who writes poems is a poet, while the female counterpart is a poetess.

According to Wordsworth, poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquillity.

Poetry is about beauty, passion, rhythm and grace in any emotional expression. It must have a rhythmic pattern because rhythmic grace is present in all creation. Inspired, the poet conceptualises or imagines an idea based on an object, an incident or an aspect of it.

The poet uses words, phrases and poetic devices such as figures of speech and imagery to give form to this idea in a poem. He or she arranges the words in a systematic pattern to achieve rhythm, harmony, symmetry and grace. With these, the poet creates a vivid picture of the idea for the enlightenment and entertainment of the audience.

What are the characteristics of poetry?

1. Atmosphere: This refers to the psychological impact of the poem on the reader. A poem’s atmosphere is the combined effect of its tone and mood, which elicit the reader’s response. The nature of the poem’s subject matter and its overall presentation by the poet determine its tone and mood and help to build its atmosphere.
2. Couplet: This refers to the presentation of two rhyming lines, often of equal length, in a poem. The rhyme scheme for couplets is aa, bb, etc.
3. Mood: This refers to the state of mind of the poet-person, which the reader perceives or assumes from the tone of the poem. The poem’s subject matter is presented as “clothed” in the perceived mood.
4. Enjambment: This term comes from a French word meaning “flowing into”. It refers to the continuation of the meaning in one line of a poem into the next. Enjambment often features in free verse, but it also occurs sometimes in rhymed verse.
5. Tone: This refers to something like a voice from inside the poem, which conveys the state of mind of the poet-person. Happiness, anger, sorrow, sarcasm, resignation and other feelings can be conveyed to the reader by the tone of a poem. The impact of the tone becomes the mood of the poem.
6. Quatrain: This refers to four rhyming lines of a poem.
7. Triplet: This refers to three rhyming lines arranged in a poem.

What are the different forms and types of poetry?

1. Ballad: The word “ballad” comes from the Latin word “ballare”, meaning “to dance”. It comprises words which are out of current use. The poems come from village festivals and are often not written but handed down orally from generation to generation. The themes are based on popular stories or legends and great village heroes. There are two types of ballad:
   1. Traditional ballad: This exists mainly when stories are told by word of mouth.
   2. Literary ballad: This is the written type, for example “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
2. Elegy or dirge: This developed from the Greek word “elegos”, meaning a lament, a song of mourning for a sorrowful event such as the death of a bosom friend. Examples are “Lycidas” by Milton and “In Memoriam” by Tennyson. An elegy or dirge may also be an expression of regret for the past, pessimistic fears for the future, or a solemn meditation on humanity, like “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray.
3. Didactic poem: This type of poem conveys an instruction or teaches a moral. A well-known didactic poem is Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man”.
4. Epic: The word comes from the Greek word “epos”, meaning a word. An epic is a long poem narrating the heroic deeds of a people or of great men. It normally has a hero who is an epitome of fame, nobility and strength of character. Examples are Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, Homer’s “Odyssey” and Wole Soyinka’s “Image”.
5. Narrative poem: This is a long poem that tells a story. An example is “The Myth of the Bagre”.
6. Ode: An ode is a poem written or spoken in the form of an address to somebody or something. It is usually used to mark a special occasion. An odist, the writer of odes, is usually nostalgic and thinks of or wants something that is either far away or gone. Examples are Wordsworth’s “Ode to Duty”, Collins’ “Ode to Evening” and Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”.
7. Chant: This is mostly a religious song or a prayer. It is a way of singing using only a few notes that are repeated many times. A Gregorian chant is a type of church music for voices alone and has been used since the Middle Ages.
8. Incantation: An incantation is a set of special or sacred words that are spoken or sung to have a magic effect. The term also covers the act of speaking or singing these words. An example is the Ogun incantation.
9. Recitation: This is the act of singing a creative literary piece (poetry) that you have learned to an audience. It is mostly oral and unwritten.

Evaluation

1. What is a poem?
2. Explain the difference between tone and mood.
3. Define a couplet, a triplet and a quatrain.
4. Name the two types of ballad and give an example of each.
5. What is an ode? Give one example.

Assignment

1. Write out all the various characteristics of poetry in your own words.