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Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry Poetry of the 17th Century Baroque Poetry is known as an elaborate style embellished with complicated metaphors. The word baroque is Portuguese for imperfectly formed pearl. English poet Richard Crashaw, 17th century. Upon the Book and Picture of Sacrificial Saint Teresa by Richard Crashaw O THOU undaunted daughter of desires! By all thy dower of lights and fires; By all the eagle in thee, all the dove; By all thy lives and deaths of love; By thy large draughts of intellectual day, And by thy thirsts of love more large than they; By all thy brim-fill'd bowls of fierce desire, By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire; By the full kingdom of that final kiss That seized thy parting soul, and seal'd thee His; By all the Heav'n thou hast in Him (Fair sister of the seraphim!); By all of Him we have in thee; Leave nothing of myself in me. Let me so read thy life, that I Unto all life of mine may die! The Cavalier Poets were 17th century English poets associated with the royal court of the King Charles I. Some of the elements of their works are refined language, light hearted tones, direct language and clear images. The poems were royalist, secular and sometimes nostalgic. Some Cavalier poets were Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace and Sir John Suckling. To Lucasta on Going to Sea by Richard Lovelace IF to be absent were to be Away from thee; Or that when I am gone You or I were alone; Then, my Lucasta, might I crave Pity from blustering wind or swallowing wave. But I'll not sigh one blast or gale To swell my sail, Or pay a tear to 'suage The foaming blue god's rage; For whether he will let me pass Or no, I'm still as happy as I was. Though seas and land betwixt us both, Our faith and troth, Like separated souls, All time and space controls: Above the highest sphere we meet Unseen, unknown; and greet as Angels greet. So then we do anticipate Our after-fate, And are alive i' the skies, If thus our lips and eyes Can speak like spirits unconfined In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind. Dadaism Jacobite Poets refers to poets during the reign of James I (1603-1625). John Donne, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson and even Shakespeare although he is better known as an Elizabethan Poet. Sonnet III Taking My Pen by Michael Drayton Taking my pen, with words to cast my woe, Duly to count the sum of all my cares, I find my griefs innumerable grow, The reckonings rise to millions of despairs; And thus dividing of my fatal hours, The payments of my love I read and cross, Subtracting, set my sweets unto my sours, My joy's arrearage leads me to my loss; And thus mine eye's a debtor to thine eye, Which by extortion gaineth all their looks; My heart hath paid such grievous usury That all their wealth lies in thy beauty's books, And all is thine which hath been due to me, And I a bankrupt, quite undone by thee. Metaphysical Poetry is a movement from 17th century England, emotional poetry using simple or common language and unconventional, sometimes shocking imagery. Recognized as intellectual, psychological, often unconventional and bold. John Donn> and George Herbert are probably the best known of the Metaphysical poets. Sonnet, Death Be Not Proud by John Donne Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. Neoclassic Poetry is from 17th-18th century England overlapping with Augustan poetry, that tended to be satirical and didactic. The movement originated by Ben Jonson and included Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Robert Herrick and Thomas Gray deliberately imitated the classic poetry of Greek and Roman poets and was crafted with a formal correctness with elegant restraint. It tended to view poetry as a honed craft rather than an expression of the soul. The world was described in terms of a strictly ordered heirarchy which neoclassics called The Great Chain of Being. Essay on Critisism by Alexander Pope But most by Numbers judge a Poet's song; And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong: In the bright Muse tho' thousand charms conspire, Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire; Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, Not mend their minds; as some to church repair, Not for the doctrine but the music there. These equal syllables alone require, Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire; While expletives their feeble aid do join; And ten low words oft creep in one dull line: While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, With sure returns of still expected rhymes; Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze," In the next line it "whispers through the trees" If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep" The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with "sleep": Then, at the last and only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Tribe of Ben were 17th century poets who admired and emulated Ben Jonson. Some of the poets were Robert Herrick, Carew, Lovelace and Suckling. The Hag by Robert Herrick The Hag is astride, This night for to ride; The Devill and shee together: Through thick, and through thin, Now out, and then in, Though ne'r so foul be the weather. A Thorn or a Burr She takes for a Spurre: With a lash of a Bramble she rides now, Through Brakes and through Bryars, O're Ditches, and Mires, She follows the Spirit that guides now. No Beast, for his food, Dares now range the wood; But husht in his laire he lies lurking: While mischiefs, by these, On Land and on Seas, At noone of Night are working, The storm will arise, And trouble the skies; This night, and more for the wonder, The ghost from the Tomb Affrighted shall come, Called out by the clap of the Thunder.

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry Greek Verse Latin Verse The Ode The Horatian Ode is the Latin descendant of the Aeolic ode, both of which were written to project a tranquil, contemplative tone meant for meditation. Both retain the purpose and formality of all odes, however, the Latin descendant attributed to Horace in 20 BC, is better preserved. The Horatian Ode is simply a stanzaic form in which all stanzas are structured in the same pattern at the discretion of the poet. (rhyme, meter, number of lines etc.), more technically it is "nonce stanzaic" or a "homostrophic" ode (ode made up of same structured stanzas created specifically for that poem). Below are the first 2 stanzas of a Horatian Ode On Cromwell's Return from Ireland by Andrew Marvel (1621-1678). It is written in quatrains made up of rhyming couplets, L1, L2 iambic tetrameter, L3, L4 iambic trimeter and indented. The poet could just as well have written the ode in cinquains in iambic pentameter with alternating rhyme and as long as all of the stanzas were the same, it too could be identified as a Horatian Ode. The forward youth that would appear Must now forsake his Muses dear, -------Nor in the shadows sing -------His numbers languishing: 'Tis time to leave the books in dust And oil th' unusèd armor's rust, -------Removing from the wall -------The corselet of the hall. Or another example of a Horatian Ode is Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope written in quatrains with alternating rhyme, L1, L2, L3 tetrameter, L4 dimeter. Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread, Whose flocks supply him with attire, Whose trees in summer yield him shade, In winter fire. Blest! who can unconcern'dly find Hours, days, and years slide soft away, In health of body, peace of mind, Quiet by day, Sound sleep by night; study and ease Together mix'd; sweet recreation. And innocence, which most does please, With meditation. Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me dye; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lye. Here is the stanza written by Horace with his famous phrase, "carpe diem", seize the day! A translation can be found in An Introduction of Poetry, XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia, 2002, page 335. This has nothing to do with the Horatian Ode but I just thought it would be an interesting footnote. Odes I (11 ) Tu ne quaesteris---scire nefas quem milu, quem tibi finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios temptaris numeros. Ut melius, quicquid erit, pati! seu plures hiemes, seu tribuit Iuppipter ultiman, quae nunc oppositis debilitate pumicibus mare Tyrrhenum, Sapia, vina liques, et spatio brevi spem longam teseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. - - - Horace 20 BC The Ode Odes named for poet or culture of their origin: The Aeolic Ode The Choral Ode or Pindaric Ode or Dorian Ode The Anacreontic Ode The Horatian Ode The Irregular or Cowleyan Ode The Keatsian or English Ode The Ronsardian Ode Thematic Odes: Elegy, Obsequy, Threnody Ode Elemental Ode Genethliacum Ode Encomium or Coronation Ode Epithalamion or Epithalamium and Protholathiumis Palinode Ode Panegyric or Paean Triumphal Ode Occasional Verse

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry The Frame II. Couplet Construction Interchangeable couplets when the right conditions occur. The repetition of content herein is deliberate for clarity of division. A Closed Couplet is any Complete Couplet in which meter and syntax are sealed at the end. The frame is end-stopped. When the lines are written in iambic pentameter and linked by rhyme it is also a Heroic Couplet. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of Mankind is Man. --- Pope's Essay on Man (note: this is also a Complete Couplet because it expresses a complete thought and a Heroic Couplet because it is written in iambic pentameter and is rhymed.) Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed Spring approaches - - - ---William Carlos Williams Spring and All? (note: This is a Closed Couplet because it is end-stopped and a Complete Couplet because it is a complete thought, but because of the lack of rhyme and the prescribed meter it is not a Heroic Couplet. ) The Complete Couplet is a poetic unit of 2 lines that express a complete thought within itself. Meter and rhyme are at the poet's discretion. It need not be end-stopped to be complete. What is an epigram: a dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit it soul. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834 (note: Because the meter and syntax are end-stopped this is also a closed couplet. Because this example is written in iambic pentameter and linked with rhyme the couplet is also a Heroic Couplet.) Like my daughter I play shy ---A.K. Ramanujan Extended Family (note: Because of the lack of rhyme and meter this is not a Heroic couplet and because of the lack of end stop it is not a Closed Couplet. The syntax makes it complete within itself and the spacing around the couplet sets it apart. A Closed Couplet must be complete but a Complete Couplet need not be closed.) The Heroic Couplet is a complete poetic thought unit of 2 iambic pentameter lines linked by rhyme. It is also a complete couplet and a closed couplet but it is the meter and linking rhyme that sets it apart as a "heroic couplet". Shakespeare popularized the declamatory Heroic Couplet. "But if thou live remembered not to be, Die single and thine image dies with thee." --- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 2 (note: a complete couplet and a closed couplet are only heroic couplets when they are written in iambic pentameter and are linked by rhyme.)