Poetic and Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament
REL 310
Week 1 Class Notes
What is Poetry ?
Poetry can be hard to define. Poetic forms have changed over time and between cultures. While "good poetry" is generally recognized within a culture, there is a vast gray area of various types of "mediocre poetry", "bad poetry", "good bad poetry", "bad bad poetry", doggerel, jingles, etc. with the boundary between what is considered good or bad varying according to the individual taste of the reader.
Definition of Poetry from the "Literary Dictionary" by Oxford University Press :
poetry : language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between words on the basis of sound as well as sense: this pattern is almost always a rhythm or metre, which may be supplemented by rhyme or alliteration or both. The demands of verbal patterning usually make poetry a more condensed medium than prose or everyday speech, often involving variations in syntax, the use of special words and phrases ( poetic diction) peculiar to poets, and a more frequent and more elaborate use of figures of speech, principally metaphor and simile. All cultures have their poetry, using it for various purposes from sacred ritual to obscene insult, but it is generally employed in those utterances and writings that call for heightened intensity of emotion, dignity of expression, or subtlety of meditation. Poetry is valued for combining pleasures of sound with freshness of ideas, whether these be solemn or comical. Some critics make an evaluative distinction between poetry, which is elevated or inspired, and verse, which is merely clever or mechanical. The three major categories of poetry are narrative, dramatic, and lyric, the last being the most extensive.
Definition of Poetry from the "Britannica Concise Encyclopedia" :
poetry : Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through its meaning, sound, and rhythm. It may be distinguished from prose by its compression, frequent use of conventions of metre and rhyme, use of the line as a formal unit, heightened vocabulary, and freedom of syntax. Its emotional content is expressed through a variety of techniques, from direct description to symbolism, including the use of metaphor and simile.
Definition of Poetry from "The Glossary of Poetic Terms" at http://www.poeticbyway.com/gl-p.html
poetry : A heightened literary expression cast in lines, rather than sentences, in which language is used in a concentrated blend of sound, meaning, and imagery to create an emotional response; essentially rhythmic, it is usually metrical and frequently structured in stanzas
NOTE : Poetry does not have to have rhyme
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
