ODE ON A GRECIAN URN

By John Keats

Thou still unravished bride of quietness,

Thou foster child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loath?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit dities of no tone.
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal---yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss
Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unweari-ed,
Forever piping songs forever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
Forever warm and still to be enjoyed,
Forever panting, and forever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
 Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity. Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"---that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

1820

Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.

In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears

and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child

is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac

hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.
It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother

busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.

The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

Bonny Barbara Allen

It was in and about the Martinmas time, November 11

When the green leaves were a-falling,
That Sir John Graeme, in the West country,
Fell in love with Barbara Allen.

He sent his men down through the town

To the place where she was dwelling: living
"O haste and come to my master dear, hurry up
Gin ye be Barbara Allen." if you are

O hooly, hooly rose she up, slowly

To the place where he was lying,
And when she drew the curtain by'
"Young man, I think you're dying."

"O it's I'm sick, and very, very sick,

And it's a' for Barbara Allen;" all
"O the better for me you shall never be,
Though your heart's blood were a spilling."
"O dinna ye mind, young man," she said, don't you remember
"When the red wine ye were filling,
That ye made the healths gae round and drank some toasts; go
round,
And slighted Barbara Allen?" upset

He turned his face unto the wall,

And death was with him dealing; doing business
"Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all, goodbye
And be kind to Barbara Allen."

C. Marlowe

V. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

COME live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks

5
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies, 10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold, 15
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds

With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
 Come live with me and be my Love. 20

Thy silver dishes for thy meat

As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and 25

sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - Elegy

Let them bury your big eyes
In the secret earth securely,
Your thin fingers, and your fair,
Soft, indefinite-colored hair,—
All of these in some way, surely,
From the secret earth shall rise;
Not for these I sit and stare,
Broken and bereft completely;
Your young flesh that sat so neatly
On your little bones will sweetly
Blossom in the air.

But your voice,—never the rushing

Of a river underground,
Not the rising of the wind
In the trees before the rain,
Not the woodcock's watery call,
Not the note the white-throat utters,
Not the feet of children pushing
Yellow leaves along the gutters
In the blue and bitter fall,
Shall content my musing mind
For the beauty of that sound
That in no new way at all
Ever will be heard again.

Sweetly through the sappy stalk

Of the vigorous weed,
Holding all it held before,
Cherished by the faithful sun,
On and on eternally
Shall your altered fluid run,
Bud and bloom and go to seed;
But your singing days are done;
But the music of your talk
Never shall the chemistry
Of the secret earth restore.
All your lovely words are spoken.
Once the ivory box is broken,
Beats the golden bird no more.
Forms

Specific poetic forms have been developed by many cultures. In more

developed, closed or "received" poetic forms, the rhyming scheme,
meter and other elements of a poem are based on sets of rules,
ranging from the relatively loose rules that govern the construction of
an elegy to the highly formalized structure of the ghazal or villanelle.
Described below are some common forms of poetry widely used across
a number of languages. Additional forms of poetry may be found in the
discussions of poetry of particular cultures or periods and in the
glossary.

[edit] Sonnets

Shakespeare
Main article: Sonnet

Among the most common forms of poetry through the ages is the
sonnet, which, by the thirteenth century, was a poem of fourteen lines
following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. The conventions
associated with the sonnet have changed during its history, and so
there are several different sonnet forms. Traditionally, English poets
use iambic pentameter when writing sonnets, with the Spenserian and
Shakespearean sonnets being especially notable. In the Romance
languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely
used meters, although the Petrarchan sonnet has been used in Italy
since the 14th century. Sonnets are particularly associated with love
poetry, and often use a poetic diction heavily based on vivid imagery,
but the twists and turns associated with the move from octave to
sestet and to final couplet make them a useful and dynamic form for
many subjects. Shakespeare's sonnets are among the most famous in
English poetry, with 20 being included in the Oxford Book of English
Verse.[66]

[edit] Jintishi

Du Fu
Main article: Jintishi

The jintishi (近體詩) is a Chinese poetic form based on a series of set

tonal patterns using the four tones of the classical Chinese language in
each couplet: the level, rising, falling and entering tones. The basic
form of the jintishi has eight lines in four couplets, with parallelism
between the lines in the second and third couplets. The couplets with
parallel lines contain contrasting content but an identical grammatical
relationship between words. Jintishi often have a rich poetic diction, full
of allusion, and can have a wide range of subject, including history and
politics. One of the masters of the form was Du Fu, who wrote during
the Tang Dynasty (8th century). There are several variations on the
basic form of the jintishi.

[edit] Sestina

Main article: Sestina

The sestina has six stanzas, each comprising six unrhymed lines, in
which the words at the end of the first stanza’s lines reappear in a
rolling pattern in the other stanzas. The poem then ends with a three-
line stanza in which the words again appear, two on each line.

[edit] Villanelle
W. H. Auden
Main article: Villanelle

The Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a

closing quatrain; the poem is characterized by having two refrains,
initially used in the first and third lines of the first stanza, and then
alternately used at the close of each subsequent stanza until the final
quatrain, which is concluded by the two refrains. The remaining lines of
the poem have an a-b alternating rhyme. The villanelle has been used
regularly in the English language since the late nineteenth century by
such poets as Dylan Thomas,[67] W. H. Auden,[68] and Elizabeth Bishop.
[69]
It is a form that has gained increased use at a time when the use of
received forms of poetry has generally been declining.[citation needed]

[edit] Pantoum

Main article: Pantoum

The pantoum is a rare form of poetry similar to a villanelle. It is

composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each
stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next.

[edit] Rondeau

Main article: Rondeau (poetry)

The rondeau was originally a French form, written on two rhymes with
fifteen lines, using the first part of the first line as a refrain.

[edit] Tanka

Main article: Waka (poetry)#Tanka

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Tanka is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, with five sections
totalling 31 onji (phonological units identical to morae), structured in a
5-7-5 7-7 pattern. There is generally a shift in tone and subject matter
between the upper 5-7-5 phrase and the lower 7-7 phrase. Tanka were
written as early as the Nara period by such poets as Kakinomoto no
Hitomaro, at a time when Japan was emerging from a period where
much of its poetry followed Chinese form. Tanka was originally the
shorter form of Japanese formal poetry, and was used more heavily to
explore personal rather than public themes. It thus had a more
informal poetic diction. By the 13th century, tanka had become the
dominant form of Japanese poetry, and it is still widely written today.
The 31-mora rule is generally ignored by poets writing literary tanka in
languages other than Japanese.

[edit] Haiku

Main article: Haiku

Haiku is a popular form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, which evolved in

the 17th century from the hokku, or opening verse of a renku.
Generally written in a single vertical line, the haiku contains three
sections totalling 17 onji (see above, at Tanka), structured in a 5-7-5
pattern. Traditionally, haiku contain (1) a kireji, or cutting word, usually
placed at the end of one of the poem's three sections; and (2) a kigo,
or season-word. The most famous exponent of the haiku was Matsuo
Bashō (1644 - 1694). An example of his writing:[70]

富士の風や扇にのせて江戸土産?
fuji no kaze ya oogi ni nosete Edo miyage
the wind of Mt. Fuji
I've brought on my fan!
a gift from Edo

[edit] Ruba'i

Main article: Ruba'i

Omar Khayyam

Ruba'i is a four-line verse (quatrain) practiced by Arabian and Persian

poets. Famous for his rubaiyat (collection of quatrains) is the Persian
poet Omar Khayyam. The most celebrated English renderings of the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam were produced by Edward Fitzgerald; an
example is given below:

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep

The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:
And Bahram, that great Hunter—the Wild Ass
Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep.

[edit] Sijo

Main article: Sijo

Sijo is a short musical lyric practiced by Korean poets. It is usually

written as three lines, each averaging 14-16 syllables, for a total of 44-
46 syllables. There is a pause in the middle of each line and so, in
English, a sijo is sometimes printed in six lines rather than three. An
example is given below:

You ask how many friends I have? Water and stone, bamboo and
pine.
The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful comrade.
Besides these five companions, what other pleasure should I
ask?

[edit] Ode

Horace
Main article: Ode

Odes were first developed by poets writing in ancient Greek, such as

Pindar,[71] and Latin, such as Horace. Forms of odes appear in many of
the cultures that were influenced by the Greeks and Latins.[72] The ode
generally has three parts: a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode. The
antistrophes of the ode possess similar metrical structures and,
depending on the tradition, similar rhyme structures. In contrast, the
epode is written with a different scheme and structure. Odes have a
formal poetic diction, and generally deal with a serious subject. The
strophe and antistrophe look at the subject from different, often
conflicting, perspectives, with the epode moving to a higher level to
either view or resolve the underlying issues. Odes are often intended
to be recited or sung by two choruses (or individuals), with the first
reciting the strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the
epode. Over time, differing forms for odes have developed with
considerable variations in form and structure, but generally showing
the original influence of the Pindaric or Horatian ode. One non-Western
form which resembles the ode is the qasida in Persian poetry.

[edit] Ghazal

Main article: Ghazal

See also: Gazel

The ghazal (Arabic: ghazal, Persian: ghazel, Turkish/Azerbaijani: gazel,

Urdu: gazal, Bengali/Sylheti: gozol) is a form of poetry common in
Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Urdu and Bengali poetry. In
classic form, the ghazal has from five to fifteen rhyming couplets that
share a refrain at the end of the second line. This refrain may be of one
or several syllables, and is preceded by a rhyme. Each line has an
identical meter. Each couplet forms a complete thought and stands
alone, and the overall ghazal often reflects on a theme of unattainable
love or divinity. The last couplet generally includes the signature of the
author.

As with other forms with a long history in many languages, many

variations have been developed, including forms with a quasi-musical
poetic diction in Urdu. Ghazals have a classical affinity with Sufism,
and a number of major Sufi religious works are written in ghazal form.
The relatively steady meter and the use of the refrain produce an
incantatory effect, which complements Sufi mystical themes well.
Among the masters of the form is Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet
who lived in Konya, in present-day Turkey.[edit] Other forms

This section requires expansion.

Other forms of poetry include:

 • Acrostic poetry: Letter patterns create multiple messages (such
as where the first letters of lines, read downward, form a
separate phrase or word).
• Canzone: is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used
to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal.
• Carmina figurata
• Cinquain
• Concrete poetry: Word arrangement, typeface, color or other
visual effects are used to complement or dramatize the meaning
of the words used; cinquains, which have five lines with two,
four, six, eight, and two syllables, respectively, and free verse,
which is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence or the
recurrence, with variations, of phrases, images, and syntactical
patterns rather than the conventional use of meter.
• Fixed verse
• Folk song
• Free verse
• Minnesang
• Murabba
• Pastourelle
• Poetry slam: This is a modern style of spoken word poetry,
frequently associated with a distinctive style of delivery.

Genres

In addition to specific forms of poems, poetry is often thought of in

terms of different genres and subgenres. A poetic genre is generally a
tradition or classification of poetry based on the subject matter, style,
or other broader literary characteristics.[73] Some commentators view
genres as natural forms of literature.[74] Others view the study of
genres as the study of how different works relate and refer to other
works.[75]

Epic poetry is one commonly identified genre, often defined as lengthy

poems concerning events of a heroic or important nature to the culture
of the time.[76] Lyric poetry, which tends to be shorter, melodic, and
contemplative, is another commonly identified genre. Some
commentators may organize bodies of poetry into further subgenres,
and individual poems may be seen as a part of many different genres.
[77]
In many cases, poetic genres show common features as a result of a
common tradition, even across cultures.
Described below are some common genres, but the classification of
genres, the description of their characteristics, and even the reasons
for undertaking a classification into genres can take many forms.

[edit] Narrative poetry

Main article: Narrative poetry

Chaucer

Narrative poetry is a genre of poetry that tells a story. Broadly it

subsumes epic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often
reserved for smaller works, generally with more appeal to human
interest.

Narrative poetry may be the oldest type of poetry. Many scholars of

Homer have concluded that his Iliad and Odyssey were composed from
compilations of shorter narrative poems that related individual
episodes and were more suitable for an evening's entertainment. Much
narrative poetry—such as Scots and English ballads, and Baltic and
Slavic heroic poems—is performance poetry with roots in a preliterate
oral tradition. It has been speculated that some features that
distinguish poetry from prose, such as meter, alliteration and kennings,
once served as memory aids for bards who recited traditional tales.
Notable narrative poets have included Ovid, Dante, Juan Ruiz, Chaucer,
William Langland, Luís de Camões, Shakespeare, Alexander Pope,
Robert Burns, Fernando de Rojas, Adam Mickiewicz, Alexander Pushkin,
Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Tennyson.

[edit] Epic poetry

Main article: Epic poetry

Valmiki

Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form of narrative

literature. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a
heroic or mythological person or group of persons. Examples of epic
poems are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the
Nibelungenlied, Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, the Cantar de Mio Cid,
the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Valmiki's Ramayana,
Ferdowsi's Shahnama, and the Epic of King Gesar.

While the composition of epic poetry, and of long poems generally,

became less common in the west after the early 20th century, some
notable epics have continued to be written. Derek Walcott won a Nobel
prize to a great extent on the basis of his epic, Omeros.[78]

[edit] Dramatic poetry

Main articles: Verse drama and dramatic verse, Theatre of ancient

Greece, Sanskrit drama, Chinese Opera, and Noh

Goethe
Dramatic poetry is drama written in verse to be spoken or sung, and
appears in varying, sometimes related forms in many cultures. Verse
drama may have developed out of earlier oral epics, such as the
Sanskrit and Greek epics.[79]

Greek tragedy in verse dates to the sixth century B.C., and may have
been an influence on the development of Sanskrit drama,[80] just as
Indian drama in turn appears to have influenced the development of
the bainwen verse dramas in China, forerunners of Chinese Opera.[81]
East Asian verse dramas also include Japanese Noh.

Examples of dramatic poetry in Persian literature include Nezami's two

famous dramatic works, Layla and Majnun and Khosrow and Shirin,[82]
Ferdowsi's tragedies such as Rostam and Sohrab, Rumi's Masnavi,
Gorgani's tragedy of Vis and Ramin,[83] and Vahshi's tragedy of Farhad.

[edit] Satirical poetry

Poetry can be a powerful vehicle for satire. The punch of an insult

delivered in verse can be many times more powerful and memorable
than that of the same insult, spoken or written in prose. The Romans
had a strong tradition of satirical poetry, often written for political
purposes. A notable example is the Roman poet Juvenal's satires,
whose insults stung the entire spectrum of society.

John Wilmot

The same is true of the English satirical tradition. Embroiled in the

feverish politics of the time and stung by an attack on him by his
former friend, Thomas Shadwell (a Whig), John Dryden (a Tory), the
first Poet Laureate, produced in 1682 Mac Flecknoe, one of the
greatest pieces of sustained invective in the English language,
subtitled "A Satire on the True Blue Protestant Poet, T.S." In this, the
late, notably mediocre poet, Richard Flecknoe, was imagined to be
contemplating who should succeed him as ruler "of all the realms of
Nonsense absolute" to "reign and wage immortal war on wit."
Bocage

Another master of 17th-century English satirical poetry was John

Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. He was known for ruthless satires such
as "A Satyr Against Mankind" (1675) and a "A Satyr on Charles II."

Another exemplar of English satirical poetry was Alexander Pope, who

famously chided critics in his Essay on Criticism (1709). Dryden and
Pope were writers of epic poetry, and their satirical style was
accordingly epic; but there is no prescribed form for satirical poetry.
The greatest satirical poets outside England include Poland's Ignacy
Krasicki and Portugal's Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, commonly
known as Bocage.

[edit] Lyric poetry

Main article: Lyric poetry

Christine de Pizan

Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlike epic poetry and dramatic poetry,
does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a more personal
nature. Rather than depicting characters and actions, it portrays the
poet's own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions. While the genre's
name, derived from "lyre," implies that it is intended to be sung, much
lyric poetry is meant purely for reading.

Though lyric poetry has long celebrated love, many courtly-love poets
also wrote lyric poems about war and peace, nature and nostalgia,
grief and loss. Notable among these are the 15th century French lyric
poets, Christine de Pizan and Charles, Duke of Orléans. Spiritual and
religious themes were addressed by such mystic lyric poets as St. John
of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila. The tradition of lyric poetry based on
spiritual experience was continued by later poets such as John Donne,
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Antonio Machado and T. S. Eliot.
Though the most popular form for western lyric poetry to take may be
the 14-line sonnet, as practiced by Petrarch and Shakespeare, lyric
poetry shows a bewildering variety of forms, including increasingly, in
the 20th century, unrhymed ones. Lyric poetry is the most common
type of poetry, as it deals intricately with an author's own emotions
and views.

[edit] Elegy

Main article: Elegy

Thomas Gray

An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a

lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term "elegy," which
originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiac meter), commonly
describes a poem of mourning. An elegy may also reflect something
that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious. The elegy, as a
reflection on a death, on a sorrow more generally, or on something
mysterious, may be classified as a form of lyric poetry. In a related
sense that harks back to ancient poetic traditions of sung poetry, the
word "elegy" may also denote a type of musical work, usually of a sad
or somber nature.

Elegiac poetry has been written since antiquity. Notable practitioners

have included Propertius (lived ca. 50 BCE – ca. 15 BCE), Jorge
Manrique (1476), Jan Kochanowski (1580), Chidiock Tichborne (1586),
Edmund Spenser (1595), Ben Jonson (1616), John Milton (1637),
Thomas Gray (1750), Charlotte Turner Smith (1784), William Cullen
Bryant (1817), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1821), Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe (1823), Evgeny Baratynsky (1837), Alfred Tennyson (1849),
Walt Whitman (1865), Louis Gallet (lived 1835–98), Antonio Machado
(1903), Juan Ramón Jiménez (1914), William Butler Yeats (1916),
Rainer Maria Rilke (1922), Virginia Woolf (1927), Federico García Lorca
(1935), Kamau Brathwaite (author born 1930).