Portfolio Comentario

Ana María Leal Oliva Portfolio of Commentary of texts

Index

Critical Concepts ................................................................................................ page 2

Novel .................................................................................................................. page 14

Drama ................................................................................................................. page 24

Poetry ................................................................................................................. page 33

Bibliography ...................................................................................................... page 48

1


CRITICAL CONCEPTS

DISCOURSE

Discourse begins with Post-structuralism and Michael Foucalt. Structuralism was started by

Ferdinand Saussure, a linguistic. He said that language is compose by signs. Language creates

reality. Signs are shared by a community of speakers in order to be understood and every sign has

two parts: a significant and a signifier.

The signifier is not forever, that is, a lack of meaning does not imply the no existance of it.

If a meaning is lost another will come. Here is where Foucalt appears with post-structuralism.

Foucalt explains the reasons why meanings change.

Discourse is the set of rules established by language. There are a variety of discourses. The

interactions among those discourses change language. This constant interaction allows the

significant to change its meaning, and with those changes new realities can be born.

Some discourses are: medical, religious, psychological, media, legal, etc.

The term discourse is used in a number of different ways. Widely speaking it describes

“how” a text is written, not the content. Basically, it is a language which is understood as utterance

and thus involves subjects who speak and write. Discourse has an object and is directed to or at an

object.

(Critical Concepts I, 1)

Used specifically, (1) the thoughts, statements, or dialogue of individuals, especially of

characters in a literary work; (2) the words in, or text of, a narrative as opposed to its story line; or

(3) a “strand” within a given value system (...) More generally, discourse refers to the language in

which a subject or area of knowledge is discussed.

(Murfin, Ray, 89)

“Basically, it is a language which is understood as utterance and thus involves subjects who

speak and write”

(Cuddon, 228)

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CONVENTION

“A literary convention is a feature of a text which is in evidence in a large number of texts.”


For instance, a convention is the structure of a sonnet: poetic composition of 14 lines. The

first on use it was Petrarca. The content is about love. This became a convention.

A second sense is a general agreement on how world works.

“A literary device, usage, style, situation, or form so widely employed that it has become

accepted and even expected by knowledgeable readers or audiences.”

(Murfin, Ray, 61)

“In literature, a device, principle, procedure or form which is generally accepted and trough

which there is an agreement between the writer and his or her readers (or audience) which allows

various freedoms and restriction. The term is especially relevant to drama.”

(Cuddon, 178)

TEXT

A text is anything with a meaning. We can see also intertextuality, which alludes a text in

other text. For instance, a can of tomato of Campbell's.

“a term that may be defined in a number of ways. Some critics restrict its use to the written

word”

(Murfin, Ray, 398)

A number of meanings may be distinguished: (a) the actual words of a book in their original

form or any form they have been transmitted in or transmuted to; (b) a book of such words; (c) the

main body of matter in a book - apart from notes , commentary, glosses, index, appendices, etc.; (d)

a short passage taken from the Bible as the theme or subject or a sermon.

(Cuddon, 907)

3


CANON

Applied to literature the term has two uses. The first, narrow, use is where we apply it to

works by, for instance, Shakespeare: the Shakespeare canon consists of those works accepted as

genuinely written by Shakespeare. In its wider use, the term literary canon has come to refer to

those authors who, by tradition and by consensus, have been regarded as major or great; they are the

classics.


A canon is a measure. To be in the canon is to be studied as a writer in the American

University. To be canonial is to be selected and exclusive.

A term used since the fourth century to refer to those books of the Bible that the Christian

church accepts as being Holy Scripture (...) More recently, it has been employed to refer to the body

of works generally attributed by scholars to a particular author (...) Canon may also refer more

generally to those literary works that are “privileged”, or given special status, by a culture.

(Murfin, Ray, 37-38)

A body of writings established as authentic. The term usually refers to biblical writings

accepted as authorized (...) The term can also apply to an author's works which are accepted as

genuine.

(Cuddon, 108)

FORM AND CONTENT

Content is what is said, and form is the way in which it is said. They are connected to the

conventions and between them. But sometimes this connection is a problem. For example,

Alexander Pope is a poet of 18th century. He wrote The Rape of the Lock, in which a lover dares to

cut a lock of his lover girl (in that century the women's hair was untouchable). This work has a

content which is not serious in an epic form. This problematize the connection between content and

form.

4


About form:

The unique structure of a literary work. When used synonymously with general type, or

genre, it refers to the categories according to which literary works are commonly classified (...) and

may imply a set of conventions (...) Form can be also used generally to refer to rhyme patterns,

metrical arrangements (...) The term is often used more specifically, however, to refer to the

singular structure of a particular work.


When we speak of the form of a literary work we refer to its shape and structure and to the

manner in which it is made (...) as opposed to its substance or what it is about. Form and substance

are inseparable, but they be analysed and assessed separately.

As secondary meaning of form is the kind of work (...) to which it belongs. Thus sonner,

short story, essay, etc.

(Cuddon, 327)

LANGUAGE AND STYLE

The difference between a literary text and another is not the language but the style.

About style:

“Used generally, the way in which a literary work is written, the devices the author uses to

express his or her thoughts and convey work's subject matter. (...) Style, however, is as elusive to

define as it is to identify and analyze in a particular work or a group of works.”

(Murfin, Ray, 385)

The characteristic manner of expression in prose or verse; how a particular writer says

things. The analysis and assessment of style involves examination of a writer's choice of words, his

figures of speech, the devices (rhetorical and otherwise), the shape of his sentences (whether they

be loose or periodic), the shape of his paragraphs – indeed, of every conceivable aspect of his

language and the way in which he uses it.

(Cuddon, 872)

5


MOTIF AND THEME

“The theme of a work is the large idea or concept it is dealing with. (...) A motif is much

smaller: it is one of the dominant ideas in a work of literature; a part

of the main theme.”


The theme is the main idea of the work while the motif is a secondary theme, that is

something that is important to understand the main theme. There are some motifs around the main

theme that helps the reader to understand it.

Not simply the subject of a literary work, but rather a statement that the text seems to be

making about that subject. (...) Theme is distinguished from motif, a term that usually refers to a

unifying element in an artistic work, especially any current image, symbol, theme, character type,

subject, or narrative detail.

(Murfin, Ray, 400)

“Properly speaking, the theme of a work is not its subject but rather its central idea,which

may be stated directly or indirectly.”

(Cuddon, 913)

A motif is one of the dominant ideas in a work of literature; a part of the main theme. It may

consist of a character, a recurrent image or a verbal pattern.

(Cuddon, 522)

STRUCTURE

“The structure of a text is its overall shape and pattern. This is sometimes referred to

as its form, though strictly speaking form is a more inclusive tem which embraces every

aspect of the work’s technique.”


6


There are two types of structures: an imposed form (a pre-existing format) and an organic

form.

When equated with form, a term that refers to the arrangement of material in a work, that is,

the ordering of its component parts or the design devised by the author to convey content and

meaning. In a poem, for instance, structure encompasses the division of the material into stanzas.

Some critics extend the use of the term to include arrangement of ideas or images. In a play,

structure refers to the division of the material into acts and scenes as well as to the logical

progression of the action. (...) In discussing novels, critics typically use the term to refer to plot (the

ordering of the events that make up the story).

(Murfin, Ray, 384)

“The sum of the relationships of the parts to each other; thus, the whole. (...) we can speak of

the structure of a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, a book, and so forth.”

(Cuddon, 871)

SYNTAX

Syntax is sometimes used loosely to mean ‘grammar’. However, ‘grammar’ is a much wider

term than syntax, involving the study of every aspect of the system of language. Syntax, on the

other hand, is concerned with the placing and relationship of the units of language within sentences.

More simply, syntax refers to the way in which word order affects meaning.


An author, when writes, can use the correct English syntax or not. For instance, John Milton

in Paradise Lost uses epic English syntax, he does not use average English syntax, he moves latin

syntax into English. He uses Paradise Lost to educate society, he has a serious theme and he uses a

serious epic syntax. In this case form and content is fixed.

“Syntax is the arrangement – the ordering, grouping, and placement – of words within a

sentence. (...) Syntax is a component of grammar, thought it is often used – incorrectly – as a

synonym for grammar.”

(Murfin, Ray, 395)

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“Syntax is the sentence construction.”

(Cuddon, 892)

IRONY

Irony is a way of writing in which what is meant is contrary to what the words appear to say.


It is the difference between what we expect to happen, and what actually does happen. It is

often used to add suspense and interest and it is also used to keep the reader thinking about the

moral of the story. There three types of irony:

Verbal irony

This is done intentionally by the speaker. It is the simplest kind of irony. We use it everyday

when we say one thing and really means another. It is often similar to a sarcastic response.

Mock on someone wanting to hurt.

Situational irony

Occurs when a situation turns out to be the opposite of what you thought it would be.

Dramatic irony

Occurs when the audience knows something that the characters in the story, on the screen, or

on the stage do not know. It is like the audience is more aware of what is going on than the

people in the production. This is used to engage the audience and keep them actively

involved in the story line.

“Irony is a contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality.”

(Murfin, Ray, 176)

8


It seems fairly clear that most forms of irony involved the perception or awareness of a

discrepancy or incongruity between words and their meaning, or between actions and their results,

or between appearance and reality. In all cases there may be an element of the absurd and the

paradoxical.

(Cuddon, 430)

SATIRE

“Satire is a mode of writing in which social affectation and vice are ridiculed. The

satirist mocks errant individuals and the folly of society, the purpose being to correct

conduct.”


Is a novelty genre or sub-genre. It tends to teach society. There are three types of satire:

Direct satire

Author clearly show that the work is a satire.

Indirect satire

The satire is not stated directly but implied.

Estates satire

A literary genre popular at Medieval times first common among French poets in which the

speaker lists various occupations among the three estates and depicts them in a manner that

shows how short they fall from the ideal of that occupation. Later in England, estates satire

was use to mock on representatives of various classes and occupations from the monarch

down who are portrayed with a particular emphasis on their vices and abuses commonly

associated with each calling.

(Ceballos, Eizaga, 377-378)

9


“A literary genre that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to expose humanity's vices and

foibles, giving impetus to change or reform through ridicule. The satirist reduces the vaunted worth

of someone or something to its real – and decidedly lower – worth.”

(Murfin, Ray, 357)

“The satirist is thus a kind of self-appointed guardian of standards, ideals and truth; of moral

as well as aesthetic values. (...) Thus satire is a kind of protest, a sublimation and refinement of

anger and indignation.”

(Cuddon, 780)

METAPHOR

“A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another; it identifies one

thing with another.”


There different parts of a metaphor: the metaphor comes in two main parts, the tenor and the

vehicle, which are connected by a verb.

Tenor

The tenor is the original subject, that is, the real thing which we are talking about.

Vehicle

The vehicle is both the words and concepts that are invoked by the words.

Connecting verb

The tenor and the vehicle are generally connected by a verb that equates them.

Dimension

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The vehicle has dimensions, attributes or variables which can be transferred to onto the

tenor.

There are three types of metaphor:

Dead metaphor

A metaphor that has been so overused that its original metaphorical impact has been lost.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor that is developed at length and that involves several points of comparison.

Sustained metaphor

A metaphor that does not necessarily develop in meaning but is referred to several times in a

literary work.

(Ceballos, Eizaga, 370)

A figure of speech (more specifically a trope) that associates two unlike things; the

representation of one thing by another. The image (or activity or concept) used to represent or

“figure” something else is known as the vehicle of metaphor; the thing represented is called the

tenor.

(Murfin, Ray, 210)

“A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. The basic figure in

poetry. A comparison is usually implicit; whereas in simile it is explicit.”

(Cuddon, 507)

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ALLEGORY

An allegory is a story that alludes to other literary works or comments on common

conditions of life. When a work or its passages are allegorical, they are similar to an event,

character or setting in a story that is universally known: a fable, a parable in the Bible, or a Greek

myth. Allegories have two levels of narration occurring at the same time: the actual events,

characters and setting presented in the story, and the ideas they are intended to convey or the

significance they bear.


For instance the Statue of New York is allegorical, because it has more than one meaning

and they are unmistakable.

There are three literary forms that we might use when discussing allegory:

Fable

A short history which characters are animals and which have a moral sense.

Parable

Short narratives used by Jesus Christ in His teachings.

Myth

Stories related to religion or philosophy which contain the moral values of the society.

There are two types of allegory we can see in a history:

S ustained allegory

The whole work is allegorical.

12


Episodic allegory

Allegory appears in one or some parts of the work.

There are two main types of allegory: historical and political.

The typical allegory is a narrative – whether in prose, verse, or drama – that has at least two

levels of meaning. The first is the surface-level story line, which can be summed up by stating who

did what to whom and when. Although allegories have coherent plot, their authors expect readers to

recognize the existence of a second and deeper level of meaning, which may be moral, political,

philosophical, or religious. (...) sometimes characters even bear the names of the qualities or ideas

the author wishes to represent. (Personification is a device common to many allegories).

(Murfin, Ray, 8)

“As a rule, an allegory is a story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a primary or

surface meaning; and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning. It is a story, therefore, that can be

read, understood and interpreted at two levels (and in some cases at three or four levels).”

(Cuddon, 20)

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THE NOVEL

Although there are earlier novels, the history of the English novel really begins with the

publication of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in 1719. The late arrival of the novel on the literary

scene tells us something important about the genre: it is, above all else, a form of literature which

looks at people in society. (...) Most novels are concerned with ordinary people and their problems

in the societies in which they find themselves. (...) Novels do not, however, present a documentary

picture of life. Alongside the fact that novels look at people in society, the other major

characteristics of the genre is that novels tell a story. (...) So, in thinking about a novel, try to see

this informing structure: a society, and characters who are in some ways at odds with this society.

Do not, however, make the mistake of believing that the novel is written to put across a point. (...)

Novels, however, are long works with a great amount of detail on every page. They, thus present all

the complicating facts need to be taken into account before we can reach any sort of judgement. The

effect of this detail is that we come to recognise the complex reality of a character or event in the

story. (...) As readers, our real interest lies in the complications the novelist creates within the

familiar pattern of characters at odds with their society that enable us to gain a vivid sense of what it

is like for particular individuals to be caught in certain events.

A general point we can make, however, is that, although our first response might be to think

that novelists are mainly interested in presenting an accurate picture of life, because novels also

involve a made-up thing, the story, the novelist can tilt the balance away from a direct picture of life

and make more of the fact that a story is being told.

(Critical Concepts II, 1-2)

A lengthy fictional prose narrative. The novel is distinguished from the novella, a shorter

fictional prose work that ranges from roughly fifty to one hundred pages in length, from which

many scholars have argued the novel developed. The greater length of the novel, especially as

compared with even briefer prose works such as the short story and the tale, permits authors to

develop one or more characters (characterization) and established their motivation, as well as to

construct intrincate plot. (...) the stories recounted in novels are usually and perhaps essentially

products of the imagination (...) some scholars trace the genre's roots back to classical times, to

narrative epics written in verse that tell a sustained story and feature a single protagonist.


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Derived from Italian novella, “tale, piece of news”, and now applied to a wide variety of

writings whose only common attribute is that they are extended pieces of prose fiction. But

“extended” begs a number of questions. The length of novels varies greatly and there has been

much debate on how long a novel is or should be. (...) Broadly speaking, the term denoted a prose

narrative about characters and their actions in what recognizably everyday life and usually in the

present, with the emphasis on things being “new” or a “novelty”.

(Cuddon, 560-561)

A novel should have four qualities:

1.- length is generally one hundred pages or more

2.- emphasis is in character

3.- allows for more than one theme

4.- basically based on human experiences

CHARACTER

The people in a novel are referred to as characters. We asses them on the basis of what the

author tell us about them and on the basis of what they do and say. (...) a point to remember is that

the characters are part of a broader pattern: they are members of a society, and the author’s

distinctive view of how people relate to society will be reflected in the presentation of everyday

character. (...) In some novels, however, particularly comic novels, the characters are not

very substantial or credible. (...) Acting images are often used in comic novels, and there is an

emphasis on outward appearance.


Usually a novel has to main characters: a protagonist (a hero or heroine) and an antagonist (a

villain or villainess).

A character is a person or animal who takes part in the action of a literary work. Depending

on the work, it could be found the following types of characters:

15


Round / Dynamic

A multidimensional character changes/develops in the course of the story.

Flat / Static

Character does not change much or at all.

Misfit

Character whose values are at odds with the other characters.

Stock

Character type that occurs repeatedly in a literary genre

Stereotype

Fixed character with little individuality, often based on racial, social, sexist, or ethnic

prejudices.


In its most general literary sense, a character is a figure in a literary work. That figure need

not to be human, although most characters are. Characters may be nonhuman animals or even

nonliving entities, provided that the author characterizes them by giving them the attributes of a

human individual. Character also carries the nonliterary connotation of personality and even of

morality.

(Murfin, Ray, 43)

“Modern “charactery” to be the portrayal of individuals”

(Cuddon, 127)

16


NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

Narrative is the organisation of a series of events into the form of a story. This is obviously

what we have in novels; what is less obvious is how similar the narrative structure is most novels.

(...) A novel usually begins with a description of a place or a character. (...) A character introduced

at the beginning of a novel will usually come into collision with society. (...) The novel will then

progress by taking the characters through a sequence of events extending over a certain time span.

Some conflict will always be in evidence (...) The novel will bring various characters into

confrontation and put characters into problematic situations. (...) The simple sequence of events in a

novel is the story. Plot is slightly different. To talk about the plot of a novel, then, we have to

provide a fuller description of the work, taking into account the nature of the characters and the

significance of events. By the end of the novel the character has either matured or at least

discovered something about himself or herself. (...) The story, however, is not there merely as a

starting-point for the novelist. A story suggests that events can be arranged into a meaningful order.


About plot:

The plot is the relationship between characters and what emerges of that.

The arrangement and interrelation of events in a narrative work, chosen and designed to

engage the reader's attention and interest (...) while also providing a framework for the exposition of

the author's message, or theme, and for other element such as characterization, symbol, and conflict.

Plot is distinguished from story, which refers to a narrative of events ordered chronologically, not

selectively, and with an emphasis on establishing causalty.

(Murfin, Ray, 286)

“The plan, design, scheme or pattern of events in a play, poem or work of fiction; and,

further, the organization of incident and character in such a way as to induce curiosity and suspense

in the spectator or reader.”

(Cuddon, 676)

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NARRATOR

The narrator tells the story in a novel. Novels contain simple stories which, in their telling,

become complicated. There are two overlapping ways by which the novelist can complicate

matters. One is by introducing complications in the content: the inclusion of a mass of details about

people, places and events makes the story seem substantial and real. The other way in which the

writer can complicate is by the way in which he or she chooses to narrate the story: a story can be

told in many ways, for every narrator will see things from a different point-of-view.

(Critical Concepts II, 6)

There are different types of narrator:

Objective narrator

The narrator just tells the story, he does not meddle in the thoughts of the spectator or reader

by including his own opinion or telling what the characters feel or think.

First person narrator

The narrator is the main character of the work, he or she tells the story from his or her own

point of view. It can be recognized by the use of pronouns I, me, us.

Third person narrator

The narrator tells the thoughts and feelings of characters but he is not a character in the

work. It can be recognized by the use of pronouns he, she, they.

Third person omniscient

The narrator does not participate in the story but he knows everything about characters and

the story.

18


Third person limited

The narrator does not participate in the story and he only knows the thoughts and feelings of

one character, his knowledge is limited.

“A speaker through whom an author presents a narrative, often but not always a character in

the work. Every narrative has a narrator; a work may even occasionally have multiple narrators or a

main narrator with sub-narrators.”

(Murfin, Ray, 233)

“Plato and Aristotle distinguished three basic kinds of narrator: (a) the speaker or poet (or

any kind of writer) who uses his own voice; (b) one who assumes the voice of another person or

people, and speaks in a voice not his own: (c) one who uses a mixture of his own voice and that of

others.”

(Cuddon, 535)

STYLE

Style is the way in which the author writes, the way in which he or she tells the story with a

personal stamp.

“Style means the writer’s characteristic manner of expression. What in the end distinguishes

one writer from another.”

(Critical Concepts II, 6)

“The modes and devices of expression in prose or verse. Thus diction, grammatical

constructions, figurative language, alliteration and other sound patterns all enter into style.”


“Used generally, the way in which a literary work is written, the devices the author uses to

express his or her thoughts and convey the work's subject matter.”

(Murfin, Ray, 385)

19


The characteristic manner of expression in prose or verse: how a particular writer says

things. The analysis and assessment of style involves examination of a writer's choice of words, his

figures of speech, the devices (rhetorical and otherwise), the shape if his sentences (whether they be

loose or periodic), the shape of his paragraphs – indeed, of every conceivable aspect of his language

and the way in which he uses it.

(Cuddon, 872)

APPENDIX: TYPES OF NOVEL

Allegory

The surface story, while a good read in itself, is but a means to an end of a deeper meaning.

Comic novels

These are about people caught in situations which draw out their own absurdities.

Educational

A character engages with a series of predicaments and learns something about him or

herself.

Epistolary

These are in the form of letters or emails to and from people.

Feminist

Boundaries are challenged in the ordered male world. The categorising of male and female

as binary opposites is undermined, particularly the subordinate female.

Gothic

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This utopian related form of novel is often set in the past and perhaps in some far away land

of the trees, like Transylvania. The place of dilemma is not the location but in the mind,

however. The point about the fantastical world is not to seek perfection but to show the

fallacy of seeking perfection (e.g. everlasting life) or the evil involved in seeking it

immorally.

Ironic

It is the difference between how things seem and how they really exist. Often this is the

expression of views to those intended or otherwise existing, and through expressing them

creates the real meaning or situation desired.

Magic realism

Events usually are bizarre and even supernatural or mythical. Rationality is undermined for

the purpose or examining what may be more real than the rational.

Naturalism

Influenced by Darwin, this is a form of realism which stresses environment, the family line

(and advantages/ disadvantages) and something of a deterministic outcome.

Picaresque

A set up and denial of the romance, particularly a journey in search of an ideal, and shows

the characters to be foolish and in fact involved in no such thing other than attacking their

predicaments as they prove too powerful or complex to resolve.

Postmodern

A general category for those novels which deny realism, which are poststructural in

language, whose devices draw attention to the novel as a novel. These novels are reflexive.

21


Psychological

Either ordinary grammatical introspection can be used or a stream of consciousness. The

idea is to present at least part of the novel from the mind at a cost of easy to be followed

narrative.

Realism

Realistic novels are like looking glasses through which the reader sees an ordinary world

operate. This produces a story to get lost into, because the only interest is in the characters

as they work through the plot.

Reflexive

The fact that here is a novel is highlighted by devices both written and presented, and this

self-conscious, self referential, approach allows complexity to be better presented.

Romance

This form of novel goes beyond ordinary experience and social predicaments into make-

believe.

Satire

A form of comic novel which intends, by lampooning, to be in fact constructive in its

criticism because it wants things to be better.

Science fiction

A popular novel form which involves some utopian elements. The object is to reflect back

on how we are now, as well as to dream on the possible future where life has more potential.

Another object is to create an environment for moral discussion.

22


Stream of conciousness

This is a method of writing that tries to locate predicaments in the mind of the person. Our

thoughts jump around and exhibit hopes and fears and the need for instant decisions on all

kinds of matters, with intrusions from all over the place.

Utopian

This is an extreme form of romantic novel because problems are eliminated. This make-

believe intends to point up what could be the case, with the possibilities of utopia, though

sometimes the characters may not be as perfect as the world they live in and some utopias

may collapse at some point within the story, exposing them as a sham or unavailable in

the real world.

Writerly

This kind of novel is usually beyond realism, forcing the reader to generate meaning actively

from the given text. It stands at first glance in binary opposition to being readerly.

23


DRAMA

Most plays are not only entertaining to watch but also enjoyable to read. Studying a play,

however, is more demanding, for the student is obliged to work out a critical response, and this can

prove difficult. The easiest way of overcoming the problem would seem to be to concentrate on the

personalities of the main characters, saying that the play is about them. (...) Character study,

however, is not a completely satisfactory way of looking at drama, because it puts a false emphasis

on one strand in a play at the expense of the text’s larger significance. (...) A further complication is

that our discussion of dramatic themes should always go hand in hand with a discussion of dramatic

form. (...)

The basic point about all plays, both in formal and thematic terms, is that characters are

always caught up in some sort of crisis, dilemma, or confusion; they are always faced by some sort

of problem. (...) All plays employ the same basic structure of exposition, complication and

resolution. The first part of the play, its exposition stage, prepares the ground: some alteration in the

established pattern of life occurs which means that the existing social order of the play is going to

be thrown into confusion. In the central, and usually longest, stage of a play, we encounter the

complication that ensues from this change. (...)

It is at this point that we start to see how similar most plays are, and also how they differ

from novels or poems. (...) A play, then, is less concerned with the individual characters involved in

it than with questions about the whole basis and nature of social organisation and social order. This

is one reason why we have political plays but very few political poems or novels, for drama insists

upon this public debate about society. (...)

In brief, we can say that any play is about the order that has been created in society

and the awareness that social order is fragile –that all sorts of disruptive forces can intrude

at any moment. (...)

The pattern of drama we have been describing is very clearly in evidence in the two

dominant modes of drama: comedy and tragedy. In comedy, the disorder that threatens the

character’s lives and social concord is overcome and most comedies end either with marriage or a

dance, the traditional signs of harmony and order in society. In tragedy, on the other hand, what we

witness is the falling apart of all signs of order as we are confronted by the most shocking form of

disorder, death itself.

(Critical Concepts III, 1-2)

24


In today's usage, a serious literary work usually intended for performance before an

audience. (...) The term drama originally encompassed all works, whether prose or verse, written to

be performed theatrically. (...) Although play is the most common synonym for drama, a play is a

drama intended for performance. Thus although all plays are, broadly speaking dramas, not all

dramas are plays.

(Murfin, Ray, 96)

“In general any work meant to be performed on a stage by actors. A more particular meaning

is a serious play; not necessarily tragedy.”

(Cuddon, 237)

ACT AND SCENE

A play is traditionally divided into acts and scenes. Most plays have five acts, but 19th and

20th century dramatists favour three acts.

About act:

A major division of the action of a play or drama. Acts are generally subdivided into scenes.

Acts and scenes were developed by ancient Roman dramatists, who normally divided their plays

into five acts. (...) Modern plays typically consist of two or three acts, but some playwrights have

dispensed with acts altogether in favor of serial scenes or episodes.

(Murfin, Ray, 3)

A major division in play. Each act may have one or more scenes. Greek plays were

performed as continuous wholes, with interpolated comment from Chorus. Horace appears to have

been the first to insist on a five-act structure. At some stage during the Renaissance the use of five

acts became standard practice among French dramatists. (...) Since early in the 20th century most

playwrights have preferred the three-act form, though the two-act play is not uncommon. In modern

productions, especially in the cases of five and four acts plays, there is only once curtain-drop and

interval. Many modern plays are written and presented in a sequence of scenes.

(Cuddon, 7-8)

25


About scene:

“Traditionally, a subdivision of an act in drama. Today, however, many playwrights dispense

with acts and compose plays that involve a series of scenes.”

(Murfin, Ray, 359)

“A sub-division of an act in a play or an opera or other theatrical entertainment.”

(Cuddon, 788)

CHARACTER

The people in a play are referred to as dramatic characters. They are fictional devices. We

assess them on the basis of what they say and do, and what the other characters say about them.

This is important: we must avoid loose conjecture and base everything we say on the evidence of

the text. We only really understand the characters, however, when we relate them to the broader

themes of the play.

The main character is called the hero or protagonist. The term ‘hero’ does not mean someone

who is brave or noble: heroes may be good or evil, low- or high-born. Often opposing the hero is

the villain or antagonist (...) In some plays, however, particularly comedies, the characters are not

presented in such a credible way. This is because comedy presents people as familiar types acting

out familiar roles.


It is needed one character at least.

See Character in Novel in page .

DRAMATIC STRUCTURE

All plays have the same basic structure of exposition, complication and resolution. The

exposition stage prepares the ground by showing us some sort of change taking place in the

character’s lives or the social order. In the central stage of the play the dramatist develops the

26


complication that arises from this change as the characters seek to come to terms with the problems

that have developed so that a sense of disorder prevails. In the resolution, however, as the play

reaches its denouement or ending, order is reestablished, or the characters at least come to terms

with the new situation that has developed.

(Critical Concepts III, 4)

“In a play, structure refers to the division of the material into acts and scenes as well as to

the logical progression of the action.”

(Murfin, Ray, 384)

“The formal structure of a play consists of its acts and scenes and their interdependent

balance. The non-formal structure comprises the events and actions which take place.”

(Cuddon, 871)

GENRE

“Literary form, a recurring type of literature.”


“From the French genre for “kind” or “type”, the classification of literary works on the basis

of their content, form, or technique.”

(Murfin, Ray, 146)

“A French term for kind, a literary type or class.”

(Cuddon, 342)

Types of plays: comedy, tragedy, tragicomedy, historical, farce.

PLOT

If we tell the story of a play we are constructing a simple account of what happens. ‘Plot’,

however, is a more inclusive term: it could be said to be fully developed version of the story. It

27


takes account of the nature of the characters, the way in which events are related to each other and

their dramatic effect. In talking about the plot we are trying to talk about the overall significance of

the play.

Many plays, however, have not just one plot but two –that is, two fully developed stories

running side by side. The main plot focuses on the central character, the subplot on another set of

characters or events. This might seem to complicate matters, but in fact the subplot usually

illuminates the main plot. This is particularly the case when the subplot has close parallels with the

main plot.

Not all plays, however, have pots in the way that we conventionally use the word.


See Plot in Novel page .

SCRIPT

The script is the written words and directions of a play.

“There are five main meanings: (a) the characters used in a writing system; (b) handwriting;

(c) the text of a manuscript; (d) the text of a play or film ir television or radio broadcast; (e) to write

a script for a play or film.”

(Cuddon, 802)

SETTING

The setting is where the action takes place.

That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that provides the general

background for the characters and plot of a literary work. (...) In drama, setting may refer to the

physical backdrop of the play, that is, the scenery and sometimes the props. Setting frequently plays

a crucial role in determining the atmosphere of a work.

(Murfin, Ray, 366)

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“The where and when of a story or play; the locale. In drama the term may refer to the

scenery or props.”

(Cuddon, 812)

DIALOGUE, MONOLOGUE AND SOLILOQUY

Everything a character says is a speech. If there are two or more characters in the speech, we

have a dialogue. If the character is talking alone and the speech is long, we have a monologue. And

if the character is talking to himself or in a loud voice to the audience, we have a soliloquy.

About dialogue:

“Conversation between two or more characters in a literary work.”

(Murfin, Ray, 87)

“Two basic meanings may be distinguished: (a) the speech of characters in any kind of

narrative, story or play; (b) a literary genre in which “characters” discuss a subject at length.”

(Cuddon, 219)

About monologue:

“An extended narrative, whether oral or written, delivered uninterrupted and exclusively by

one person (although it may be heard or witnessed by others).”

(Murfin, Ray, 222)

“A term used in a number of senses, with the basic meaning of a single person speaking

alone.”

(Cuddon, 517)

About soliloquy:

“A soliloquy is a type of monologue performed onstage as part of a play in which a single

29


speaker reveals his o her inner thoughts out loud but while alone.”

(Murfin, Ray, 222)

“A soliloquy is a speech, often of some length, in which a character, alone on the stage,

expresses his thoughts and feelings.”

(Cuddon, 838)

COMEDY

Comedy consists of laughing at people caught in difficult situations which we know will

usually be resolved; traditional comedy ends with marriage or a dance, the disorder that threatened

the social concord having been overcome. At the heart of comedy, however, lies something more

disturbing, for it is a way of looking at the world that regards the whole of social life as an elaborate

charade which is constantly disrupted by people’s folly. Comedy often shows us how people’s

irrational impulses, such as love or greed, or their absurd self-importance, undermine any claims of

society to be a rational, civilised order. The aim of the comic dramatist is not to correct behaviour,

for he or she is too aware of our irredeemable folly.

This could be a gloomy vision, but it emerges as funny because of the detached stance of the

comic writer. People are seen as types acting out familiar roles. The action is meant to strike us not

as real but as illustrative of human weakness, with everything being exaggerated. It is an alternative

perspective to that of tragedy, informed not by a sense of how complex the problems are that face

people, but by a sense of how ridiculously serious people are about themselves.

(Critical Concepts III, 6)

“A work, mainly a play, in which the materials, dialogues and scenes are selected and

managed primarily in order to interest, involve, and amuse and make an audience laugh.”


“Broadly defined, any amusing and entertaining work; more narrowly defined, an amusing

and entertaining drama.”

(Murfin, Ray, 53)

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There are two types of comedy:

High comedy

Subject is serious, it provokes thoughtful laughter. It is also known as comedy of smiles. The

humor grows out the character. The plot is possible and probable. It is usually a realistic

portrayal of life.

Low comedy

Objective is riotous laughter. It is the comedy of the belly laugh. The plot is possible but not

probable. It is believable for the moment. Characters are dominated by the situation. It

requires little or no thought by the audience.

TRAGEDY

The simplest definition of tragedy is that it is a play that ends with the death of the main

character. There are two main types: the type written by Shakespeare and his contemporaries (and

by classical dramatists, such as Sophocles) in which we witness terrible disorder in a society, and a

narrower type of tragedy, established by Ibsen and Strindgerg in the 19th century, which focuses on

the breakdown of a family. It is the most ambitious from of drama. Indeed, because a tragedy can

carry such weight of meaning, students sometimes shy away from a particular tragedy’s full

implications, creating a simplified version of what the play is about. The most common reductive

approach is one which concentrates on the tragic hero or heroine, stressing his or her nobility in

suffering; this is a way of making sense of tragedy in reassuring and coherent human terms. The

fortitude of the hero or heroine is important, but far more central is the impression tragedy conveys

of how chaotic life becomes when the established social order is destroyed. Tragedies begin with

some alteration in the existing social order, and this change leads to a shocking destruction of

human life. Comedy laughs at the folly of people, but tragedy asks fundamental questions about the

nature and purpose of existence in a world where, if the conventional social bonds are broken, the

most appalling violence and vicious self-interest become dominant. It is the tragic heroes and

31


heroines who usually pose these large questions about life in the speeches they make as they

experience the full horror of what the world can be like. (...)

What modern tragedy has in common with earlier tragedy is that it explores the painfulness

of a world where fictions of a rational social order can no longer be maintained. Yet there is a

difference. It has something to do with the fact that the central characters of modern tragedy are

fairly insignificant figures: they are antiheroes, meaning that they are just ordinary people as

opposed to the great men and women who feature in earlier tragedies.


“Literary, particularly dramatic, representations of serious and important actions which

culminate in a disastrous conclusion for the protagonist.”


“A serious and often somber drama, written in prose or verse, that typically ends in disaster

and that focuses on a character who undergoes unexpected personal reversals.”

(Murfin, Ray, 403)

Tragic hero

The tragic hero is someone we, as an audience, look up to someone superior. The tragic hero

is nearly perfect and the audience feel identify with him or her.

The tragic flaw

The tragic hero is nearly perfect but he or she has one flaw or weakness.

Catharsis

Catharsis is the audience's purging of emotions trough pity and fear. The spectator is

purgued as a result of watching the hero fall.

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POETRY

The most common misunderstanding of poetry is the assumption that it is concerned with

esoteric, abstract matters remote from everyday experience. This is not the case. While poetry itself

is a complicated way of writing, its basic subject matter is usually far from complicated.

In theory a poem can be about anything. There are, however, certain topics that concern us

all and these are the recurrent themes of poetry. Love is a central experience in life, and it is not

surprising that love poems outnumber all others. Death is also a major concern to us all, and this

can be linked with religion: most people at some time wonder whether life ends with death or if

they are part of some greater pattern. Poets need not, however, concern themselves with such

weighty topics: they might wish to write about nature, or their families or some other domestic

matter. Poetry becomes less frightening if we realise that it is always concerned with ordinary

human concerns, with the daily matters of everybody’s life. (...) The central themes of poetry are

familiar topics from everyday experience: love death, nature, religion. What he poet does is take

one of these familiar themes and write about it in a striking way. (...)

Poets, however, can never be totally original. Like any artist they have to work within the

limits of their chosen art. In the case of poetry these limits are surprisingly narrow. We can, in fact,

reduce poetry to two basic types: narrative and lyric. A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story:

the main kinds are the epic, the ballad and the romance. The vast majority of poems, however, are

lyrics. A lyric is a poem in which the poet offers a direct response to some aspect of experience. (...)

A structure is in evidence in all lyric poetry and provides us with a simple way of getting

hold of what any poem is about. This will be the case even with those poems where we may feel

that very complex ideas are being advanced. (...)

There are many such poems where the meaning is found not in the poet’s ideas but rather in

the gap between the patterns the writer creates and life’s lack of pattern, in the gap between the

dream of order and the reality of life’s lack of order. Although this might seem a difficult idea to

grasp, it is not really so, because it takes us back to the main characteristic of poetry: that it is a

patterned response to that unpatterned thing – life.

(Critical Concepts IV, 1-3)

Generally said to be one of the three or four major literary genres, a term defined and

described in so many different ways that one might easily argue that there are as many ways to

33


characterize it as there are people. However, there is general agreement about what poetry is not;

poetry is generally contrasted with prose and frequently distinguished from verse – broadly

speaking, any rhythmical or metrical composition. Poetry is a subset of verse, from which it is

distinguished (and to which it is superior) by virtue of its imaginative quality, intricate structure,

serious or lofty subject matter, or noble purpose.

(Murfin, Ray, 290)

“It is a comprehensive term which can be taken to cover any kind of metrical composition.

However, it is usually employed with reservations, and often in contradistinction to verse.”

(Cuddon, 682)

Poetry may be scheduled in three categories:

Narrative

Long history in a very long poem, it has characters, maybe a speaker, we do not have

narrator but speaker. For instance John Milton with Paradise Lost.

Lyric

What we usually called poems. They are short. We perhaps can talk about a speaker (usually

the writer) but not of characters (is rarely).

Balad (song)

Late middle ages (14th c.- 15th c.). Scottish tradition. William Blake returned this tradition

with Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience.

ALLITERATION

“Repetition of the same letter (or, more precisely, sound) at the beginning of two or

more words in a line of poetry.”

(Critical Concepts IV, 4)

34


The repetition of sounds, especially consonant sounds, within a passage of prose or poetry.

Unlikely, the repetition of vowel sounds is distinguished from alliteration and called assonance.

Consonance is a kind of alliteration in which a similar sequence of consonants varies by changing

vowel sound, as in top, tap, tip.


“The repetition of sounds in a sequence of words. Alliteration generally refers to repeated

consonant sounds (often initial consonant sounds or those at the beginning of stressed syllables) but

has also been used by some critics to refer to repeated vowel sounds.”

(Murfin, Ray, 9)

“A figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words, or stressed

syllables, are repeated. It is very old device indeed in English verse (older than rhyme) and is

common in verse generally. It is used occasionally in prose.”

(Cuddon, 23)

ARCHAISM

“The use of old antiquated words in poetry.”


“A word, expression, or phrase that has become obsolete. Archaism are sometimes used

intentionally to evoke images, sensations, and attitudes associated with the past.”

(Murfin, Ray, 22)

“This term denotes what is old or obsolete. It use was common in poetry until the end of the

19th c.”

(Cuddon, 52)

ASSONANCE

“Repetition of the same vowel sound in two or more words in a line of poetry.”


35


“The repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar consonant

sounds.”


“The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables, followed

by different consonant sounds in proximate words.”

(Murfin, Ray, 24)

“Sometimes called 'vocalic rhyme', it consists of the repetition of similar vowel sounds,

usually together, to achieve a particular effect of euphony.”

(Cuddon, 58)

BLANK VERSE

Unrhymed poetry, but a very disciplined verse form in that each line is an iambic pentameter

(a ten-syllable with five stresses). I t is close to the rhythm of speech, but stylised enough in its

regularity to be quite distinct from speech or prose. A poem in blank verse appears less formally

contrived than a poem that rhymes, and therefore our attention is not so forcibly drawn to the way

in which the poet is creating a pattern.


“Poetry or poetic drama written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. It is one of the most

common kinds of verse in English.”


“Broadly defined, any unrhymed verse but usually referring to unrhymed iambic

pentameter.”

(Murfin, Ray, 34)

“consists of unrhymed five-stress lines; properly, iambic pentameters”

(Cuddon, 89)

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ELEGY

A poem written on death of a friend of a poet. The ostensible purpose is to praise the friend,

but death prompts the writer to ask, ‘If death can intervene so cruelly in life, what is the point of

living?’ By the end of the poem, however, we can expect that the poet will have come to terms with

his or her grief.


“A formal and sustained poetic lament (and usually consolation) for the death of a particular

person.”


In Greek and Roman times, the term elegy was used to refer to any poem composed in

elegiac meter (alternating dactylic hexameter and pentameter lines). Since the seventeenth century,

elegy has typically been used to refer to reflective poems that lament the loss of something or

someone (or loss or death more generally).

(Murfin, Ray, 102)

In the elegy the speaker is a mourning with something or someone lost.

EPIC

The most ambitious kind of poem. An epic represents the great deeds of a heroic There is,

however, more to epic than just the story. The scope of epic is encyclopaedic: it is the big poem that

seeks to explain everything. The poet does not just focus on telling the story but attempts to include

all knowledge and the whole of human experience. The poems are made all-inclusive in various

ways, figure or group of figures.


“Long narrative poem on a great or serious subject told in an elevated style and centred on a

heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe or nation.”


37


“A long and formal narrative poem written in an elevated style that recounts the adventures

of a hero of almost mythic proportions, who often embodies the traits of a nation or people.”

(Murfin, Ray, 105)

“An epic is a long narrative poem, on a grand scale, about the deeds of warriors and heroes.

It is a polygonal, 'heroic' story incorporating myth, legend, folk tale and history. Epics are often

significance in the sense that they embody the history and aspirations of a nation in a lofty or

grandiose manner.

(Cuddon, 264)

Epic genre is a narrative poetry, character, speaker and plot. It deals with the deeds of a hero,

rhyme an rhythm.

FREE VERSE

“Poetry written in irregular lines and without any regular metre. To grasp the significance of

this we need to know that other forms of verse are based upon a regular metrical pattern.”


“Poetry not written a regular, rhythmical pattern, or meter.”


“From the French vers libre, literally meaning 'free verse', poetry that lacks a regular meter,

does not rhyme, and uses irregular (and sometimes very short) line lengths.”

(Murfin, Ray, 134)

“Called vers libre by the French, it has no regular meter or line length and depends on

natural speech rhythms and the counterpoint of stressed and unstressed syllables.”

(Cuddon, 331)

HEROIC COUPLET

38


“A pair of ten-syllable lines that rhyme: a poem as a whole can be written in a sequence of

heroic couplets.”


“Iambic pentameter verse that rhymes in couplets (aa, bb, cc, ...) also known as heroic verse

from its use in epic poetry in English”


“A paired of rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. Chaucer was the first to compose

verse using heroic couplets”

(Murfin, Ray, 156)

“It comprises rhymed decasyllables, nearly always in iambic pentameter rhymed in pairs,

one of the commonest metrical forms in English poetry but of uncertain origin. It is generally

thought that it developed with Chaucer”

(Cuddon, 378)

IMAGERY

When we read a poem there are several things we respond to. Initially we follow the

argument or the story, trying to decide what the poem is ‘about’. If we cannot immediately

see, it helps, to look for some structural opposition. Once we have got hold of the poem’s theme we

can then start to examine some of its subtleties and how it creates its effect upon the reader. One

aspect of this is how the poet orders the poem (his or her use of the stanza, rhyme and syntax to

create certain effects), but the most important thing we have to look at is what the pot does

with language. Terms such as ‘alliteration’ or ‘assonance’ cover the effects of the sounds

in a sequence of words, but much more important is the choice of individual words. The

most convenient way of describing the key words in a poem is to use the term ‘imagery’:

imagery covers every concrete object, action and feeling in a poem and also the use of

metaphors and similes.


39


“The descriptive language used in literature to recreate sensory experiences.”


“A term used to refer to: (1) the actual language that a writer uses to convey a visual picture

(...); and (2) the use of figures of speech, often to express abstract ideas in a vivid and innovative

way.”

(Murfin, Ray, 167)

“Imagery as a general term covers the use of language to represent object, actions, feelings,

thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory or extra-sensory experience. An 'image' does not

necessarily mean a mental picture.”

(Cuddon, 413)

LYRIC

A poem in which the poet writes about his or her thoughts and feelings. The basic type is the

song, but we use the term to cover all poems that present the poet’s immediate response to life,

including sonnets, odes and elegies. Lyric poems can deal with any facet of experience, such as

love, death, nature or religion, or some domestic, social or political issue, but we are always offered

the poet’s direct response. Most poems are like this: indeed, the only other approaches a poet can

take are to write a narrative poem, in which ideas are explored through the medium of a story, or to

opt for a form borrowed from prose, such as the verse essay or epistle.

In essence the lyric is an attempt to confront and understand some aspect of our complex

experience of life. The poet tries to order and organise his or her feelings and impressions.

(Critical Concept IV, 13)

“A poem that expresses the observations and subjective feelings of a single speaker. Lyric is

distinguished from dramatic and narrative poetry. Although the boundaries are flexible, most lyric

poems are fairly short, and are often personal.”


“Today, a brief melodic and imaginative poem (...), characterized by the fervent but

40


structured expression of private thoughts and emotions by a single speaker who speaks in the first

person.”

(Murfin, Ray, 194)

METRE

Metre means the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. The most

widely used line in English poetry is the iambic pentameter: this is a ten-syllable line with five

stresses or emphases. (...) Often, however, poets will disrupt this regular pattern on rhythm to

produce certain effects in their verse. The reason for this is that a poem written in a totally

predictable and regular pattern would become very mechanical. (...) We have called this pattern

both metre and rhythm. The difference between these, strictly speaking, is that metre is something

the poet imposes on the words, arranging them into a pattern. Rhythm, however, is something that

comes with the language itself because of the way we speak. In reading a poem it is the rhythm of

the language we hear, its movement and flow. Indeed, the only way to spot the stresses in a line of

poetry is to read it as you would normal prose, noticing which syllables you emphasise. Most of the

time the pattern of syllables will be straightforward. When it is not, then the poet will be

varying the metre to suit his or her theme. (...)

There are three technical terms related to prosody (prosody is the study of versification,

especially metre, rhyme, stanzas) which it can prove useful to know.

a) Caesura: a pause in a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation.

b) End-stopped lines: a pause at the end of a line of poetry, marked by punctuation.

c) Run-on lines: there is no pause at the end of a line. This running-over of the sense of one

line into the next is also called enjambement, meaning a striding over.


“The rhythmical pattern of a poem, determined by the number and types of stresses, or

beats, in each line. Meter is usually described by giving both kind of feet and the number in each

verse.”


41


“The more or less regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry.”

(Murfin, Ray, 213)

“The term refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.”

(Cuddon, 509)

MOCK-HEROIC

A mock-heroic (or mock-epic) poem imitates the elaborate form and elevated style of epic

poetry, but applies it to some trivial subject matter. Epic is the most ambitious form of poetry,

presenting its protagonists in heroic encounters which can affect the whole destiny of the world.

When the style and conventions of epic are used to describe petty incidents the effects is comic and

satiric.


A type of high burlesque, the mock epic is a lengthy poem written in the lofty and exalted

style of the epic but that deals with an utterly trivial subject. Mock epics are not generally intended

to mock the epic form or style, but rather to mock the subject by treating it with a dignity it does not

deserve.

(Murfin, Ray, 217)

“A work in verse which employs the lofty manner, the high and serious tone and

supernatural machinery of epic to treat of a trivial subject and theme such a way as to make both

subject and theme ridiculous.”

(Cuddon, 514)

NARRATIVE POETRY

“A poem that tells a story. The two basic types are epic and ballad”


42


ODE

An elaborate and elevated lyric poem, extending over quite a few stanzas, and addressed to a

person or thing or to an abstraction. In its more straightforward form it simply praises the subject,

but as it developed in the romantic period the typical ode became more hesitant and philosophical.

(...) In analysing an ode, look first at hoe elevated language is used to create a sense of something

that transcends the mundane. Then look for the opposing images that create a sense of the harsher

realities of life. The poem is likely to become complicated –with difficult ideas, an involved

argument and a variety of images in each stanza- as the poet attempts to convey his or her

awareness of being trapped in everyday difficulties, an awareness of the gap between an ideal and

the reality of life.


A long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate in

its stanzaic structure. Odes are usually longish (a few pages), serious, and dignified. They could be

written into two different modes: the Horatian ode is regular – each stanza has the same form; and

the Pindaric ode is irregular – an inconsistent number of feet in each line, for instance, or variation

from stanza to stanza.


“A relatively long, serious, and usually meditative lyric poem that treats a noble or otherwise

elevated subject in a dignified and calm manner.”

(Murfin, Ray, 257)

“A lyric poem, usually of some length. The main features are an elaborate stanza-structure, a

marked formality and stateliness in tone and style (which make it ceremonious), and lofty

sentiments and thoughts. In short, an ode is a rather a grand poem; a full-dress poem.”

(Cuddon, 608)

RHYME

Identify of sound between two words, extending from the last fully stressed vowel to the end

43


of the word (...).

There are technical terms for the different kinds of rhyme, which it can prove useful to

know:

a) End-rhyme occurs at the end of lines.

b) Internal rhyme occurs within lines.

c) Strong rhymes (also called masculine rhyme): a single stressed syllable –‘hill’ and ‘still’.

d) Weak rhymes (also called feminine rhyme): two rhyming syllables, a stressed one

followed by an unstressed one –‘hollow’ and ‘follow’.

e) Eye rhyme or courtesy rhyme: words spelt alike not actually rhyming –‘love’ and ‘prove’.

f) Imperfect rhyme (also called partial, near, slant or off-rhyme): words which do not quite

rhyme and so produce a sense of discordance –‘soul’ and ‘wall’.

g) Half-rhyme (also called ‘consonance’): repetition of the same consonant sounds before

and after different vowels –‘groaned’ and ‘groined’.


“The repetition of identical or closely related sounds in the syllables of different words, most

often in concluding syllables at ends of lines.”


“Generally, the repetition of identical vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of two or ore

words, as well as of all subsequent sounds after this vowel sound.”

(Murfin, Ray, 342)

RHYTHM

“Rhythm means the flow or movement of a line, whether it goes fast or slow, is cal or

troubled.”


“From the Greek for 'flow', a term referring to a measured flow of words and signifying the

basic (though often varied) beat or pattern in language that is established by stressed syllables,

unaccented syllables, and pauses.”

(Murfin, Ray, 344)

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“In verse or prose, the movement or sense of movement communicated by the arrangement

of stressed and unstressed syllables and by the duration of the syllables. In verse the rhythm

depends on the metrical pattern. In verse the rhythm is regular, in prose it may or may not be

regular.”

(Cuddon, 753)

SONNET

A fourteen-line poem. There are two basic types: the Italian or Petrarchan has an octave (8

lines) and a sestet (6 lines) and rhymes abba abba cde cde. The English or Shakesperian sonnet is

made up of three quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet and rhymes abab cdcd efef gg. The metre is

iambic pentameter. A sonnet sequence is a series of sonnets on the same theme by the same poet:

there are three major sequences in English, by Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney. All are about love.

The sonnet form, however, has been used by many poets to treat all manner of themes. The sonnet

appeals to poets because it is such a disciplined form: there is a challenge in confronting the

diffuseness of experience within such an ordered mould.


A lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an

intricate rhyme scheme; Elizabethan and Petrarchan being the predominant forms. The Italian (or

Petrarchan) sonnet can be broken into two parts, the octave (eight lines) and the sestet (six lines).

The octave typically rhymes abba abba; the sestet varies, sometimes cde cde, sometimes some

variant of that. The Shakespearean (or English) sonnet is instead three quatrains and a couplet:

typically abab cdcd efef gg.


“From the Italian word sonnetto, meaning 'little song', a lyric poem that almost always

consists of fourteen lines (usually printed as a single stanza) and that typically follows one of

several conventional rhyme schemes.”

(Murfin, Ray, 372)

STANZA

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A sixteen-line poem might be divided into four equal units of four lines: these units of verse,

separated by a space in the printed text, are called stanzas. Four-line units (quatrains) are the most

common, but the term refers to any such group of lines. Each unit normally contains the same

number of lines, and usually the same rhyme scheme is employed. In long poems, where there are

divisions at irregular intervals, each unit of verse is referred to as a verse paragraph.

The logic informing the use of stanzas is simple, but always worth commenting on,

particularly if you feel that the stanza pattern falters at any stage in a poem, as this is an effective

way of enacting the difficulty the poet is having in ordering his or her view. Many stanzas have no

special name and often a poet will invent a stanza form for a particular poem. But there are some

patterns that are widely used:

a) Couplet: a pair of rhymed lines.

b) Heroic couplets: rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.

c) Tercet or triplet: three lines with a single rhyme.

d) Quatrain: a four-line stanza.

e) Rhyme royal: a seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc.

f) Ottava rima: an eight-line stanza rhyming abababcc.

g) Spenserian stanza: a nine-line rhyming ababbcbcc; the first eight lines are iambic

pentameter, the ninth an alexandrine.

h) Sonnet: a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. There are variations on the

sonnet, such as a shortened form invented by Hopkins called the curtal sonnet. This has

two separated stanzas, one of six lines, the other of four –with a halfline tail-piece.

i) Canto: a sub-division of a narrative poem.


“A grouping of the verse-lines in a poem, set off by a space in the printed text. Common

stanza forms are quatrains, terza rima, rime royal, an the sonnet. Where the form of the stanza is

entirely irregular and the lengths of the stanzas vary, the term verse paragraph is sometimes used.”


“A grouped set of lines in a poem, usually physically set off from other such clusters by an

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extra line of space. Stanzas in a given poem need not have the same rhyme scheme, and, technically

speaking, rhyme need not be present for a group of lines to be called a stanza.”

(Murfin, Ray, 377)

SYMBOL

“An object which stands for something else (e.g. a dove symbolises peace). In a poem it is a

word which, while signifying something specific, also signifies beyond itself.”


“A specific word, idea, or object that may stand for ideas, values, persons, or ways of life.”


A symbol may thus be defined as a metaphor in which the vehicle – the image, activity, or

concept used to represent something else – represents many related things (or tenors) or is broadly

suggestive. (...) Symbols are distinguished from both allegories and signs. Like symbols, allegories

present an abstract idea through more concrete means, but a symbol is an element of a work used to

suggest something else. (...) Symbols (...) have one or more particular significations. Symbols are

much more broadly suggestive than signs.

(Murfin, Ray, 391)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ceballos, A. Critical Concepts

Ceballos, A. & Eizaga, B. English as a second Language and Its Literature. Cádiz: Grupo

Editorial Universitario, 2005

Cuddon, J. A. Dictionary of LITERARY TERMS & LITERARY THEORY. England: Penguin

Books, 1998

Murfin, R. & Ray, S. M. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. The United

States of America: Bedford Books, 1997

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