Subjective Poetry

Dr Farida Panhwar
Institute of English
Language & Literature
University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
 Kinds of Poetry
 According to Hudson poetry, broadly, is
divided into two broad categories :

1. Subjective Poetry
2. Objective Poetry
 Subjective Poetry
 Subjective Poetry, also known as the
lyrical poetry, is to pour out intensely-felt
feelings, emotion, love, hatred, joy,
sorrow, wonder, admiration, etc.
 Although the Subjective Poetry is the self-
expression but some times it embody
typical humane rather than merely
individual.
 Kinds of Subjective Poetry
 Poetry is divided into the two broad categories:
1. Subject Poetry and
2. Objective Poetry

 The subjective poetry has many kinds:

– Lyric
– Elegy
– Ode
– Sonnet
lyre
 Kinds of Subjective Poetry:
Lyric ‫گیت‬
 The word ‘lyric’ means to song or to sing with
the ‘lyre’, or ‘harp’ a stringed musical instrument
known to the Greeks.
 In current time the lyric signify any short poem
or song expressing the personal emotions and
experiences of the poet.
 Says Hudson, “a lyric is almost unlimited in
range and variety, for it may touch nearly all
aspects of experience, from those which are
most narrowly individual to those which involve
the broadest interests of our common
humanity”.
 Qualities of Lyric
 It is a short poem, characterised by simplicity in
language and treatment.
 It deals with a single spontaneous emotion which
is generally stated in the first few lines. Then the
poet gives us the thoughts suggested by that
particular emotion.
 In the last part embodies the conclusion reached
by the poet.
 Such is the development of a lyric in general, but
often these three parts are not distinctly marked.
 It is musical, using verbal-music & various devices
used by poets to enhance the appeal and charm.
 Subjective Poetry: Elegy
 An elegy is the elegy is a lament, a lyric of
mourning, or an utterance of personal
bereavement and sorrow.
 it is a lament over the dead, over places,
over lost love, over the past, over an
individual’s misery or failure; there are
laments over departed pet animals, and so
forth.”
 It is an expression of the emotion of sorrow,
woe, or despair characterised by absolute
sincerity of emotion and expression.
 Kinds of Elegy: Elegy of Reflection
& Philosophy
 When a poet passes on to reflections on human
suffering, the shortness of human life, and the
futility of human ambitions is more philosophical
in nature.
 “Sometimes Death is the inspiration and sole
theme;– speculations on the nature of death
and the hereafter, tributes to friends, the poet’s
own mood, even literary criticism.”
 Thomas Gray’s in Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard does not mourn the death of some
particular friend or relative, but expresses his
grief at the sorry fate of the rude forefathers of
the village, who die in obscurity, unknown,
unsung.
 Elegy of Reflection
& Philosophy
 Arnold’s Rugby Chapel is the expression of grief
on the death of his father, but from personal grief,
the poet soon passes on to reflect on the futility of
human life.
 It thus, embodiment of the melancholy & the
pessimism and despair of the age in which he
lived.
 Tennyson’s In Memoriam is lament at the death of
his friend but it is an epitome of the philosophical
and religious thought of the age.
 Thus, elegy is a magnificent and complex work of
art, dignified and solemn in tone, and not an
expression of personal grief only.
 The Pastoral Elegy
 The pastoral elegy is an elegy in which the poet
represents himself as a shepherd mourning the
death of a fellow shepherd.
 The form arose among the ancient Greeks, and in
ancient Rome it was used by the Latin poet Virgil.
 Spenser’s Astrophel,Milton’s Lycidas, Shelley’s Adon
ais and Arnold’s Thyrsis and Scholar Gipsy, are the
most notable examples of pastoral elegy in the
English language.
 The pastoral elegy is a work of art using imagery
drawn from rural life & scenery.
Kinds of Subjective poetry: Ode ‫غزل‬
 The Ode is a dignified, stately and elaborate than
the simple lyric, originated by Greek poet Pindar
was the first to write Odes, and later on the form
was practiced with certain modification by the
Roman poet, Horace.
 The word ‘ode’ is simply the Greek word
for ‘song’. It was used by the Greeks.
 An English Ode may be defined as,‘a lyric poem of
elaborate metrical structure, solemn in tone, and
usually taking the form of address” very often to
some abstraction or quality.

 Characteristics of an Ode
 It is in the form of an address, often to
some abstraction.
 Its theme is dignified and exalted & has
‘high seriousness’.
 Its style is equally elevated; sufficiently
long on a dignified theme.
 Its metrical pattern may be regular or
irregular, but it is always elaborate and
often complex in nature.
 Kinds of ode: The Pindaric Ode
 Pindar the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece (6th to
5th century B.C.) was the father of the Pindaric or
Choric’ Ode.
 Pindaric Odes were written generally in honour of the
gods or to sing the triumphs or victories of rulers or
athletes.
 Hence they are also known as “triumphal” odes.
 A Pindaric Ode has a fixed stanza-structure or pattern.
 The number of stanzas may vary, but they are invariably
arranged in groups of three, each group being called
a triad.
 The first stanza in each triad is called a ‘strophe’ – it was
chanted by the dancing chorus as it proceeded in one
direction.
 The second stanza in each triad is
called an ante-strophe’ – it was
chanted by the chorus as it
returned.
 The third stanza in each triad is
called an‘epode’, and it was sung
when the chorus was stationary.
An example of a Pindaric Ode poem
 ('The Progress of Poesy' by Thomas Gray)
– Wake up, you little sleep head, awake a
– And give great joy to life that's found in dreams b
– From Nature's most sweet sounding streams b
–
– A thousand turns their twisty journeys take a
– The dancing flowers, that above them blow c
– Breathe life and music as they flow c

– Now the vast waves of sound drift along d

– Deep, beautiful, vast and strong d
– Through the fields and vales and valleys they glide e
– And rolling down the mountain side e
– Daring and carefree the water pours f
– From the highest edge they jump and falling, they roar. f
 The Horatian Ode
 The Horation ode is named after the Latin poet, Horace.
 The Horation Ode consists of a number of stanzas with a
more or less regular metrical structure but without any
division.
 It may be rhymed or unrhymed.
 It was in the hands of Keats that the Ode attained its
highest possible perfection.
 His odes are the finest fruits of his maturity.
 All the characteristic qualities of his poetry find full and
vivid expression in them.
 Keats’ genius six great odes The Ode to Psyche, to
Melancholy, to Nightingale, to a Grecian, Urn to
Indolence, and to Autumn, have received the highest
praises from all critics.
Example of Horatian Ode

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,

Together mixed; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
 Irregular ode

 Irregular odes use rhyme scheme and meter, but

do not have the same stanzaic structure as
either the Pindaric or Horatian odes.
 There is no correspondence between the
different parts, as there is in the other two
forms, and the rhyme scheme requires lines only
to rhyme somewhere, and not in a particular
place.
 Sonnet ‫نظم‬
 The Greek word “Sonnet” means “a sound”
introduced by Italian poet Petrarch one-
stanza fourteen verses (lines) using a formal
rhyme schemes.
 Petrarch had divided his sonnets into two
parts, the octave of 8 lines and the sested of 6
lines, with a ceasura (pause) after 8th line.
 His rhyme-scheme was ab, ba, ab , ba,cde,cde.
 However, the Petrarchan sonnet varies from
poem to poem.
Example of Petrarchan sonnet
 English Sonnet
 English also known as Shakespearean sonnet
was actually developed in the 16th century
named after Shakespeare because of his great
contribution in a series of sonnets.
 The Shakespearean sonnet has the rhyme
scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, forming
three quatrains (four lines in a group) and a
closing couplet (two rhymed lines).
 Most strikingly unlike the Petrarchan version, the
Shakespearean sonnet is brought to a punchy
resolution in the epigrammatic final couplet.
Example of Shakespearean sonnet