Genre is a type of literary work. There are epic, lyrical, dramatic genres. There are also lyric epic genres. Genres are also divided by volume into large (including Romani and epic novels), medium (literary works of “medium size” - stories and poems), small (short story, novella, essay). They have genres and thematic divisions: adventure novel, psychological novel, sentimental, philosophical, etc. The main division is related to the types of literature. We present to your attention the genres of literature in the table.
The thematic division of genres is rather arbitrary. There is no strict classification of genres by topic. For example, if they talk about the genre and thematic diversity of lyrics, they usually single out love, philosophical, and landscape lyrics. But, as you understand, the variety of lyrics is not exhausted by this set.
If you set out to study the theory of literature, it is worth mastering the groups of genres:
- epic, that is, prose genres (epic novel, novel, story, short story, short story, parable, fairy tale);
- lyrical, that is, poetic genres (lyric poem, elegy, message, ode, epigram, epitaph),
- dramatic – types of plays (comedy, tragedy, drama, tragicomedy),
- lyroepic (ballad, poem).
Literary genres in tables
Epic genres
Epic novel
Epic novel- a novel depicting folk life in critical historical eras. “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, “Quiet Don” by Sholokhov.
Novel
Novel- a multi-issue work depicting a person in the process of his formation and development. The action in the novel is full of external or internal conflicts. By topic there are: historical, satirical, fantastic, philosophical, etc. By structure: novel in verse, epistolary novel, etc.
Tale
Tale- an epic work of medium or large form, constructed in the form of a narrative about events in their natural sequence. Unlike the novel, in P. the material is presented chronically, there is no sharp plot, there is no shallow analysis of the feelings of the characters. P. does not pose tasks of a global historical nature.
Story
Story– small epic form, a small work with a limited number of characters. In R. most often one problem is posed or one event is described. The novella differs from R. in its unexpected ending.
Parable
Parable- moral teaching in allegorical form. A parable differs from a fable in that it draws its artistic material from human life. Example: Gospel parables, the parable of the righteous land, told by Luke in the play “At the Bottom.”
Lyrical genres
Lyric poem
Lyric poem- a small form of poetry, written either on behalf of the author or on behalf of a fictional lyrical character. Description of the inner world of the lyrical hero, his feelings, emotions.
Elegy
Elegy- a poem imbued with moods of sadness and sadness. As a rule, the content of elegies consists of philosophical reflections, sad thoughts, and sorrow.
Message
Message- a poetic letter addressed to a person. According to the content of the message, there are friendly, lyrical, satirical, etc. The message may be addressed to one person or group of people.
Epigram
Epigram- a poem that makes fun of a specific person. Characteristic features are wit and brevity.
Oh yeah
Oh yeah- a poem distinguished by solemnity of style and sublimity of content. Praise in verse.
Sonnet
Sonnet– a solid poetic form, usually consisting of 14 verses (lines): 2 quatrains (2 rhymes) and 2 tercet tercets
Dramatic genres
Comedy
Comedy- a type of drama in which characters, situations and actions are presented in funny forms or imbued with the comic. There are satirical comedies ("The Minor", "The Inspector General"), high comedies ("Woe from Wit") and lyrical ones ("The Cherry Orchard").
Tragedy
Tragedy- a work based on an irreconcilable conflict in life, leading to the suffering and death of the heroes. William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet".
Drama
Drama- a play with an acute conflict, which, unlike the tragic one, is not so sublime, more mundane, ordinary and can be resolved one way or another. The drama is based on modern rather than ancient material and establishes a new hero who rebelled against circumstances.
Lyric epic genres
(intermediate between epic and lyric)
Poem
Poem- an average lyric-epic form, a work with a plot-narrative organization, in which not one, but a whole series of experiences are embodied. Features: the presence of a detailed plot and at the same time close attention to the inner world of the lyrical hero - or an abundance of lyrical digressions. Poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol
Ballad
Ballad- a medium lyric-epic form, a work with an unusual, intense plot. This is a story in verse. A story, told in poetic form, of a historical, mythical or heroic nature. The plot of a ballad is usually borrowed from folklore. Ballads “Svetlana”, “Lyudmila” V.A. Zhukovsky
Lyrics ( from Greek lyra - a musical instrument, to the accompaniment of which poems and songs were performed), a type of literature in which it is not the object that is primary, but the subject of the statement and his relationship to what is depicted. The central character of a lyrical work is its creator himself, and above all his inner world. This is the objectification of lyrical experience in the form of lyrical experience (alienation of a personal state, but again in personal forms).
lyrical hero, the image of a poet in lyrics, one of the ways to reveal the author's consciousness. A lyrical hero is an artistic double of the author-poet, growing out of the text of lyrical compositions (a cycle, a book of poems, a lyric poem, the entire body of lyrics) as a clearly defined figure or life role, as a person endowed with certainty of individual destiny, psychological clarity of the inner world, and sometimes and features of plastic appearance. This concept was first formulated by Yu. Tynyanov in 1921 in relation to the work of A. Blok. The lyrical hero is the “I” created” (M. Prishvin). At the same time, this image is accompanied by a special sincerity and “documentary” lyrical outpouring, introspection and confession prevail over fiction. When referring to the image of a lyrical hero, it is necessary to remember his: 1) integrity; 2) inadequacy to its author. Attention to the inner life of the lyrical hero, changes, states, sensations.
In literary criticism, there is a classification of lyrics by genres and themes (love, civil, philosophical, landscape).
There are also meditative lyrics (reflections on the eternal problems of existence) and suggestive lyrics (suggestive, focused on conveying an emotional state).
Lyrical genres: dithyrambs, hymns, iambs, songs, elegies, satires, lamentations, laments, tensons, albs, ballads, pastorellas, sirvents, canzones, madrigals, sonnets, triolet, epistles.
Historical principle of classification of lyrics:
In folk art, lyrical works differed either in their everyday function (lamentations: wedding, funeral, recruiting, songs: dance, game, round dance, wedding, carol) or in their tune (drawn-out, frequent).
In ancient literature - by the nature of performance: choral and monodic, declamatory and song, elegiac and satirical; hymn, dithyramb, paean, ode, scholia, phrenos, elegy, encomia, epithalamus, epigram, epitaph, iambics.
Middle Ages - troubadours (alba, ballad, romance, pastorella, canzona, sirventa, tenson, lament), trouvères (songs about the Crusades, weaving songs, songs about an unsuccessful marriage).
Renaissance – canzone, sonnet, madrigal, triolet, rondo, rondel.
Alba(Provence alba, lit. dawn) a genre of medieval courtly lyrics: a morning song about a secret night love meeting, interrupted by the morning dawn; in form - predominantly strophic dialogue. It developed among the troubadours. Wed. serena: “evening song” - an invitation to a date (see. Serenade).
Anacreontic poetry, light, cheerful lyrics common in European literature of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. An example of artistic poetry was the late Greek collection of poems Anacreontika, created in imitation of the ancient Greek poet Anacreon and later erroneously attributed to him. The main motives of Anacreontics are earthly joys, wine, love, and less often - political free-thinking. Anacreontic poems in Russia were written by M.V. Lomonosov, G.R. Derzhavin, K.N. Batyushkov.
Ballad(French ballade, from Provence ballada - dance song), 1) solid form of French. poetry of the 14th–15th centuries: three stanzas with identical rhymes (ababbcbc - for 8-syllable and ababbccdcd for 10-syllable verse) with a refrain and a final half-stanza - “premise” (address to the addressee). Vivid examples are in the poetry of Fr. Villon. It became widespread outside of French poetry only in stylizations (V. Bryusov, M. Kuzmin). 2) Lyric-epic genre of English-Scottish. folk poetry of the 14th–16th centuries on historical (later even on fairy-tale and everyday) themes - about border wars, about nationalities. the legendary folk hero - Robin Hood - usually with tragedy, mystery, abrupt narration, dramatic dialogue. Interest in the folk ballad in the era of pre-romanticism and romanticism gave rise to a similar genre of literary ballad (W. Scott, G. Burger, F. Schiller, A. Mitskevich, V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, A. Tolstoy); here, fairy-tale or historical themes were usually developed; modern themes were rarely involved, usually with the aim of glorifying the event or, conversely, ironically (H. Heine). In Soviet poetry, poems about exploits during the Great Patriotic War often took the form of a ballad (N. Tikhonov, K. Simonov).
Bucolic poetry ( Greek bukolika, from bukolikos - shepherd) genre of ancient poetry of Hellenistic and Roman times (3rd century BC - 5th century AD), small poems in hexameter in narrative or dialogic form describing the peaceful life of shepherds, their simple life, tender love and pipe songs (often using folklore motifs). Works of bucolic poetry were called idylls (lit. - picture) or eclogues (lit. - selection); subsequently, it was conventionally believed that an idyll requires more feeling, and an eclogue requires more action. The founder and classic of Greek bucolic poetry was Theocritus, and of Roman poetry - Virgil. In modern European literature, bucolic poetry, crossing with medieval folklore in the pastoral of the 12th - 13th centuries, gave birth to various genres of pastoral of the 14th - 18th centuries. Long's novel Daphnis and Chloe is adjacent to bucolic poetry.
Gazelle(Arabic ghazal), a type of monorimic lyric poem (usually 12-15 beits). Distributed in the poetry of Bl. and Wed. East and South-East. Asia. Most likely, it arose from pre-Islamic Persian folk lyrical songs and was finally formed by the 13th – 14th centuries. In the first beat, both hemistiches rhyme, then there is a rhyme scheme according to the scheme ba, ca, da... In the last beat, the author's takhallus should be mentioned. Each beit of a gazelle, as a rule, contains a complete thought and has an independent meaning. The genre reached a high degree of perfection in the works of Persian and Tajik poets Rudaki, Saadi, Hafiz.
Hymn ( Greek gymnos - praise), celebrations. a song based on programmatic verses. There are known anthems for state, revolutionary, religious, in honor of historical events, etc. The most ancient hymns go back to the literature of the early state formations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India (for example, the hymn of the Rig Veda). In the anthem one sees the beginnings of epic, lyricism, and drama.
Dithyramb(Greek dithyrambos), a genre of ancient lyric poetry that arose (apparently in Ancient Greece) as a choral song, a hymn in honor of the god Dionysus or Bacchus, and later in honor of other gods and heroes. Accompanied by an orgasmic dance; had the beginnings of a dialogue (between the lead singer and the choir) and contributed to the emergence of ancient drama. It took shape literary in the 7th century BC. e., flourishing in the 5th – 6th centuries BC (poetry of Simonides of Kios, Pindar). In new European literature there are imitations of the ancient dithyramb (for example, in F. Schiller, I. Herder, satirical in F. Nietzsche).
Cantata ( from Italian cantata, from Lat. canto – I sing). 1) A large poetic work designed for musical accompaniment, usually in the form of alternating arias, recitatives and choruses, written in different sizes; in content - usually festive poems for the occasion, of a high allegorical style, close to the Pindaric ode. There were cantatas of more religious and epic content (oratorios) and more secular and lyrical ones (cantatas proper). Developed in the art of Baroque and Classicism of the 17th – 18th centuries (J.B. Rousseau, G.R. Derzhavin).
2) A large vocal-instrumental work of a solemn or lyrical-epic nature, consisting of solo (arias, recitatives), ensemble and choral parts. Russian composers of the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries composed cantatas based on poetic texts that were not specifically intended for this purpose (“Moscow” by P. Tchaikovsky with poems by A. Maykov, “On the Kulikovo Field” by Yu. Shaporin with poems by A. Blok).
Madrigal ( French Madrigal, Italian. Madrigale, from Late Lat. Matricale - a song in the mother's native language), a small poem written in free verse, mainly of loving-complimentary (less often abstract-meditative) content, usually with a paradoxical sharpening at the end (bringing the madrigal closer to the epigram). It developed in Italian poetry of the 16th centuries on the basis of the madrigal of the 14th–15th centuries - a short love song (to music) with motifs of bucolic poetry; was popular in the salon culture of Europe in the 17th–18th centuries (in Russia - N. Karamzin).
Macaronic poetry(Italian . poesia maccheronica), satirical or comic poetry in which comedy is achieved by mixing words and forms from different languages. Russian macaroni poetry was based mainly on parodying the speech of French nobles.
Message, epistole (Greek epistole), lit. genre, poetic writing. In European poetry it first appeared in Horace, lives in the Latin new language poetry of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and flourishes in the era of classicism of the 17th–18th centuries. (N. Boileau, Voltaire, A. Pop, A.P. Sumarokov). In the era of romanticism, it loses its genre characteristics (V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, A.S. Pushkin “Message to the Censor”), and by the middle of the 19th century it disappears as a genre.
The formal sign of a message is the presence of an appeal to a specific addressee and, accordingly, such motives as requests, wishes, exhortation. The content of the message, according to tradition, is predominantly moral, philosophical and didactic, but there were numerous messages of narrative, panegyric, satirical, love, etc. The line between the message and other genres that developed the same content was erased as the formal characteristics weakened, so many messages are close to satires (Horace), elegies (Ovid), didactic poem (A. Pop), lyric poems of an indefinite genre (“In the depths of the Siberian ores” by A.S. Pushkin).
Oh yeah ( from Greek ode – song), a genre of lyric poetry. In antiquity, the word “ode” at first had no terminological meaning, then it began to mean a predominantly lyrical choral song written in stanzas of a solemn, upbeat, moralizing nature (especially the songs of Pindar). In the Renaissance and Baroque era (XVI-XVII centuries), the word was applied primarily to pathetic high lyric poetry, guided by ancient examples (Pindar, Horace) and written in strophic verse (P. Ronsard). In the poetry of classicism, ode (XVII-XVIII centuries) is the leading genre of high style with canonical themes (glorification of God, fatherland, life wisdom), techniques (quiet or swift attack, the presence of digressions, permitted lyrical disorder) and types (spiritual solemn odes - Pindaric , moralizing - Horatian, love - Anacreontic). Classics of the genre - F. Malherbe, J.B. Rousseau. In Russia – M.V. Lomonosov and A.P. Sumarokov (respectively “enthusiastic” and “clear” types). In the era of pre-romanticism (late 18th century), the genre characteristics of the ode were weakened (G.R. Derzhavin).
Solid forms- these are poetic forms in which both the volume and the strophic structure of the poem are more or less firmly determined by tradition. In terms of the predictability of formal elements, solid forms are close to stanzas, but in stanzas the repetition of identical forms occurs within one poem, and in solid forms - between different poems of the same tradition.
According to the severity of the organization, solid forms are distinguished, in which 1) both volume and stanza are fixed ( sonnet, triolet, rondo, rondel, sextine; 2) the volume is not fixed, the stanza is fixed ( terzines, villanelle, ritornello; 3) neither the volume nor the stanza is fixed ( canzona, virele, glossa).
Villanelle(French Villanelle - village song) - solid poetic form: 6 stanzas with rhyme A 1 bA 2 abA 1 abA 2 abA 1 abA 2 abA 1 A 2, where A 1 and A 2 are repeating choruses. It took shape in French poetry of the 16th century, modeled on imitations of Italian folk songs, and became widespread only in stylizations (“It was all an instant dream…” by V.Ya. Bryusov).
Virele(French virelai - refrain, chorus based on onomatopoeia) - song form in medieval French poetry: chorus + 2-member stanza of a structure not identical with the chorus + 1-member stanza of a structure identical to the chorus + chorus: ABBA + (сd + cd+ abba +ABBA).
Gloss- a solid form in Spanish poetry of the 14th–17th centuries: a verse of several stanzas (usually 4 decimes), the last lines of which constitute a special stanza (introductory motto), commented on by subsequent stanzas (for an example, see Cervantes’s novel “Don Quixote”, part II , chapter 18). Rarely used in other literatures; cf., for example, similarly constructed poems by V. Bryusov “Stained Glass Triptych” and “Parks Woman’s Babbling...”.
Canzona(from Italian canzone - song) - semi-solid form of Italian. poetry. The stanza of a classical canzone consists of an ascending part (two members with identical arrangement of short and long verses) and a descending part (one member, coda (Italian coda, lit. tail: 1) the descending part of stanzas of song and dance origin, closing the two-member part; 2 ) additional lines, i.e., in addition to 14 at the end of the comic sonnet)). The whole poem consists of 5-7 stanzas and one more coda. In other literatures it is used in stylizations. An example of a canzone stanza (Vyach. Ivanov according to Petrarch’s scheme: AbC+AbС+сDdEE, where the capital letters are long and the small letters are short verses):
Great Bell on pilgrimage
I called you... Longing
Suddenly trembled impatient
And the soul escaped into its freedom
(For feat or peace?)
From the tender shackles of jealous love...
And again over a thin field
I see you as Sir Ceres:
With sadness and faith
You call rain and sun to the fields,
Where the earth still hides the captive rain.
When publishing a new poem, the site program always asks us the same question: which section should your work belong to? To be honest, many of us answer it randomly, without really thinking about it. We are generally not used to thinking about anything seriously: after all, we are all “geniuses” for whom unnecessary worries are always a burden. But, unfortunately, we are far from genius, and the correct assignment of a poem to a specific section is an important and useful matter. It is needed by readers who came to the site to read poetry of a very specific type (our readers and, perhaps, our future friends!). We ourselves need it - as a reason to think about whether we wrote our poem correctly, in the right language, or according to the right rules. Because every genre in which we write our poetry deserves to understand its features.
The stichera offers us the following sections for publication:
1. Lyrics
2. Solid Molds,
3. Free forms and prose
4. Parodies and humor
5. Children's sections
6. Musical creativity
7. Translations
8. Large forms
9. Grassroots genres
10. Uncategorized.
We won’t talk about sections 5 to 8 for now - we’ll leave them for the future, I would like to comment on the remaining sections (poetry genres). I'll start from the end.
GROSS-GROUND genres
I myself have never written in these genres, I don’t write and I don’t intend to write. But – please, please! - if for some reason an obscene expression has found its way into your poems (and this, unfortunately, occurs quite often in the Stichera), and this word is dear to you to such an extent that even under the threat of execution you will not agree to replace it with a more decent expression – put the heading “obscene poems”. It will be fair. Those who love to read them will find them in the section you indicated, and their opponents will not feel humiliated and spat upon. As for me (by the way, who am I that my opinion should be taken into account?), once I came across “abusive language” in the author’s poems, I never go to his page again, no matter how talented he is.
SOLID FORMS
There are not many of them, but each of them is written according to its own rules. On the page “Educational Education For Beginners” there is a collection “Solid Forms”, which is not yet finished and not fully edited. There is a publication of articles devoted to writing each of these forms.
Solid forms are quite archaic - it is quite difficult to write particularly good (deep and interesting in content) poems within their rigid framework. And, if you are not a fan of painstaking and thoughtful work, then don’t take it! Poems are not charades or crosswords - not a game of filling out a given form, no matter what...
In particular, I do not advise you, without a clear understanding of the nature and meaning of oriental forms, to undertake writing numerous Japanese sonnets (YAS) and haiku, which have become very fashionable, but have nothing in common with real YAS and haiku.
My attitude to this hobby (may their fans forgive me!) was perfectly reflected in his ironic “haiku” by the author of our site and my great friend, Sergei Smetanin:
People compose haiku.
Publish in Japanese -
There aren't enough Japanese people to read!..
Having once tried to master the difficult genre of eastern poetry, I very soon realized that for real YAS and haiku, I must first penetrate very deeply into the culture of eastern versification, and, most importantly, worldview. And also the fact that not every three lines of five and seven syllables make a Russian tercet a real haiku, that not every theme is suitable for Yasa and Hokku, and this theme should be performed in a completely different way than our Russian-language authors playfully and carefreely do. A new collection is planned on the peculiarities of writing the latter at Likbez.
FREE FORMS
There are also many pitfalls here. The author does not know how to rhyme, his rhythm is clumsy and changeable, and in the worst case he calls his creation lyricism, considering its form “innovative.” In a more honest, but not the best, case, he calls it “free verse”, or “white verse”, or (oh, how beautiful it sounds!) “free verse”. These are all free forms. Free ones are free, but they also have their own writing rules and differ significantly from each other. And just like everything else in poetry, they do not tolerate self-abuse and unprofessionalism. You can read about them in any textbook, including on our website on the “Educational Education for Beginners” page in the collection “Free Forms”
And now let’s look at the most important sections for us – LYRICS and SPOKEN AND EVERYDAY GENRE. The latter in STIKHI.RU, unfortunately, is not allocated to a separate section; its partial representative can be the section closest to it in terms of the type of vocabulary, the section of PARODIES, HUMOR, IRONIC POEMS. It's a pity. We cannot ignore the huge layer of poetry of the colloquial genre, which is still present (whether we like it or not) on the site and is impudently disguised as “lyrics”. It would be most correct to classify these poems as the “UN RUBRICED” genre - well, at least in order not to confuse them with Lyrics.
We will talk about the differences and features of the language of these two completely different sections (poetic genres). But first, a little about the concept of GENRE.
GENRES OF POETRY are the types of literary works that are found within that type of literature. Since poetry is a phenomenon that covers a large number of diverse works, it also includes a variety of poetic genres: odes and sonnets, elegies and romances, poems and ballads, hymns and thoughts, songs and ditties and much more.
The concept of “genres of poetry” includes all the many poetic forms that exist in nature. Currently, there is a serious tendency to lose the “purity of the genre”, in which various genres of poetry lose their characteristic features, becoming similar to each other and even to prose genres. And this has a largely beneficial effect on the development of literature - it expands its capabilities.
Another classification is widespread in literature, in which genres of poetry are divided depending on THEIR SUBJECT. And since the number of such topics, in parallel with the development of the world and society as a whole, is increasing, this classification is constantly expanding and supplemented.
The genres of poetry are headed by works classified according to thematic criteria: LYRICS.
LYRICS is a word that came to us from the Greek language. In the classical sense, this is one of the types of literature, which is based on an image of a person’s spiritual life, the world of his feelings and emotions, thoughts and reflections. A lyrical work implies a poetic narrative that reflects the author’s thoughts about various natural phenomena and life in general.
Until the 19th century, lyric poetry was divided into: sonnet, fragment, satire, epigram and epitaph. Let's take a closer look at each of these genres of lyrics.
SONNET is one of the poetic forms of the Renaissance. A dramatic genre in which its structure and composition are united in meaning, like a struggle of opposites.
AN EXCERPT is a fragment of a work or an intentionally unfinished poem of philosophical content.
SATIRE, as a genre, is a lyric-epic work designed to ridicule some phenomenon of reality, or social vices; in essence, it is an evil criticism of public life.
EPIGRAM - a short satirical work. This genre was especially popular among Pushkin’s contemporaries, when an evil epigram served as a weapon of revenge against a rival author; later the epigram was revived by Mayakovsky and Gaft.
EPITAPH is a gravestone inscription dedicated to the deceased, often the epitaph is written in poetic form.
Today, there are other ways to classify lyric genres. According to the theme of the poems, the following main genres of lyricism are distinguished: landscape, intimate, philosophical.
LANDSCAPE LYRICS in most cases reflects the author’s own attitude to nature and the surrounding world through the prism of his own worldviews and feelings. For landscape poetry, more than for all other varieties, figurative language is important
INTIMATE LYRICS are a depiction of friendship, love, and in some cases, the personal life of the author. It is similar to love lyrics, and, as a rule, intimate lyrics are a “continuation” of love lyrics.
PHILOSOPHICAL LYRICS examines universal questions about the meaning of life and humanism, the eternal themes of the meaning of life, good and evil, the world order and the purpose of our stay on earth. Its continuation and varieties are “civil lyrics” and “religious lyrics”.
CIVIL LYRICS is a type of philosophical poetry that is close to social problems - history and politics; it describes (in poetic language, of course!) our collective aspirations, love for our homeland, and the fight against evil in society.
RELIGIOUS LYRICS is a type of philosophical poetry, where the theme is understanding one’s faith, church life, relationships with God, religious virtues and sins, repentance.
For information about the peculiarities of writing poetry in each genre, see the corresponding article on the Educational Program for Beginners page in the collection “All about Genres”:
List of genres - Reference material –
Genre - landscape or urban lyrics -
Genre - intimate lyrics -
Genre - philosophical lyrics -
Genre - civil lyrics -
Genre - religious lyrics -
Genre - sonnet -
Genre - mysticism and esotericism -
Poetry is one of the most ancient literary genres. Not yet knowing writing, people saw that any story is easier to understand if it is written in rhymed verse.
Poets attach no less importance to the sound of a word than to its content. Poems composed by poets are simply set to music and transformed into beautiful songs.
Poems are usually written in rhyme. This means that the endings of the last words in two or more lines must be consonant with each other. However, rhyme is not indispensable for the poet, and from time to time they write so-called “blank verse”, devoid of rhyme.
Large poems, or poems, are divided into parts - chapters or couplets. Each line of a poem must have a precise, cyclic rhythm, which is called poetic meter. Rhythm is the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a verse.
There are many types of poetry - it can be narrative, lyrical or dramatic.
A narrative poem tells a story. A lyric poem conveys the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A dramatic poem has characters and is akin to a theatrical play.
The most famous playwright who wrote his plays in verse was William Shakespeare.
Genre translated from French (genre) means genus, species. In fiction there are three genres: drama, epic and lyric. Epic genres include not only prose works (epic, fairy tale, novel, story, short story, short story, essay, etc.), but also poetic works, such as fable, epic, poem, novel, fairy tale in verse. Lyrical genres of poetry include ode, ballad, elegy, song, short poem, etc.
A lyrical work is a musical, exciting work. It is in the lyrics that the most intimate, deep experiences of the poet as a citizen of the country are embodied, conveying his attitude towards society and the world as a whole. Each poem bears the stamp of the poet’s individuality with his own passions and moral assessments. “Introspection and a deeply personal interpretation of experience become the lyricist’s main method of artistic expression.” 16
Lyrics are divided into four main thematic categories: philosophical, civil, love and landscape. Nowadays there is a shift in genres and their interpenetration. Works that combine lyrical and epic principles are called lyric-epic poetry. Romantic poems by Pushkin, Lermontov, poems by V. Mayakovsky, A. Voznesensky and others belong to this type of poetry. (44)
Civic poetry includes journalistic poetry, which responds to important phenomena in the socio-political life of the country and to events in the world. We know the journalistic poetry of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov. M. Gorky’s poetic works “Song of the Falcon” and “Song of the Petrel” are permeated with enormous journalistic intensity. With “all his sonorous power as a poet,” V. Mayakovsky asserted journalistic poetry:
will grimace bitterly
quilt with a whip:
Where is the soul?!
Yes it is -
rhetoric!
Where is the poetry?
Just journalism?!
Capitalism -
an inelegant word
sounds much more elegant -
"nightingale",
I'll get back to him
again and again.
Soar your propaganda slogan!
(from the poem “V.I. Lenin”).
Such lyrical poems as elegy are imbued with the thoughts and thoughts of the poet; permeated with a feeling of sadness and hope, sadness and joy. Elegies are written primarily in iambic pentameter:
My path is sad. Promises me work and grief
The troubled sea of the future.
But I don’t want, O friends, to die;
I want to live so that I can think and suffer...
One of the varieties of lyric verse is the sonnet. Sonnet - from the Italian word sonare - to sound, to ring. Its homeland is Italy of the 13th century. Sonnets were written by Petrarch, Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare; in Russia - Derzhavin, Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, Bryusov, Akhmatova... Many modern poets also turn to sonnets.
A sonnet is a strict form of fourteen lines, usually consisting of two quatrains and two tercets. Shakespeare has a different construction of the sonnet: three quatrains and a final couplet. (45)
Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. The rhymes of the sonnets are sonorous and rich. Each stanza represents a complete whole. Usually in the first quatrain, which is perceived as an exposition, the main theme of the sonnet is stated. In the second, the provisions put forward at the beginning are developed; in the third - there is a denouement. And the strongest in thought, imagery and feelings are the last two lines (in Shakespeare) or the last line in a tercet. These lines are called a “sonnet lock.” It is the “sonnet lock” that you should pay attention to when studying the material and when performing sonnets.
We want to finish the section devoted to the laws of versification with the words of L.N. Tolstoy: “Science and art are as closely related to each other as the lungs and the heart, so if one organ is perverted, then the other cannot function correctly.” However, the incorrect point of view of some directors, actors, and leaders of amateur groups, who assert the priority of intuition and improvisation over the laws of creativity, has not yet been eliminated; We must not forget the main principle of K. S. Stanislavsky’s system “From the conscious to the subconscious”; forget that an actor, a reader can improvise only when everything is carefully thought out and worked out to the smallest detail. It is known that “intuition is enough to discern the truth, but it is not enough to convince others and oneself of this truth. This requires proof." 17 But in order to prove to others, the head of an amateur studio must be knowledgeable in all matters of art, able to comprehend the laws of creativity. This is the only way to ensure the effectiveness of the final result of the work of both the manager, the team, and each of its participants.
VERBAL ACTION IN SOUNDING POETRY
We don't want to recite beautifully,
That is, just speak a monologue. We want
They act, live in a comprehensive
concept of this word!
K. S. Stanislavsky.
It is necessary not to recite, but to act, to live in the material when performing poetry. After all, poems, especially lyrical ones, in essence. there is a monologue in which the complex inner world of the lyrical hero is revealed. When working on any literary work, a certain sequence must be observed, which allows you to more organically master the art of verbal action. What is the sequence of work on poetic material? |
The directing and performing work on a poetic work can be divided into five stages. 18
1. Choice of material.
2. Knowledge of the characteristic features of the selected material.
4. The creative act of execution.
5. Analysis of the speech.
Material selection
When choosing performance material, certain conditions must be observed. The first condition is the relevance of the material, its high ideological and artistic sound. At the same time, current material should not be understood as only Soviet poetry, and certainly of recent years. We find the relevance of the problems that concern us in many classical works of poetry. Having taken into account the poems of our classics, one must be able to read them from a modern perspective. To do this, it is necessary to accurately determine: to change what situation in the life of our society and the world a classical work can be aimed at.
Let's take for example Pushkin's lyric poem “I loved you.”
“I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly,
How may God grant you, beloved, to be different" (47)
This is the main idea of this poem. A person should always remain human and be grateful to the one who lit the fire of love - a feeling that not everyone can experience.
Performing these poems by Pushkin, we perform a speech action: to warn against petty feelings of anger and possessiveness, to remind a person that he is a higher being with a kind heart and a wise mind. “My love’s torment is dear to me. Let me die, but let me die lovingly,” says the poet in his other poems.
The second condition for choosing the right material is that the performer likes it, excites him, and makes him want to work on it. It’s better if the team members look for it themselves. And there is no need to immediately disappoint them if the material they propose for some reason is not worth taking into work. You can tactfully replace it with another on the same topic that excited the reader, but of better quality. Or advise you to postpone work on it for a while and, as a step towards the mastery of poetry, offer to make another poem that will enrich the performer with the necessary technological skills.
The third condition that ensures success in work is the correspondence of the material to the creative abilities of the amateur reader and the degree of his preparedness for performances: after all, there are frequent cases (the results of competitions, shows, and creative reports of artistic expression groups convince us of this) when materials are performed that are clearly beyond the capabilities of reader This is especially evident when an unduly large place in the programs of amateur readers is occupied by the poems of the poets A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, B. Pasternak with their very personal content, complicated train of thought. The poems of these poets require the highest skill in execution.
Often performers “drown” in enormous amounts of time. (20-25 minutes) poetic compositions, poorly structured script. When performing such materials, creative abilities are not revealed, but, on the contrary, are crossed out. And such performances cause bewilderment and annoyance among the audience. However, out of condescension towards non-professional readers, they are even praised. This is what harms the development of creative individuality. The aesthetic criteria of art are lost, the creative growth of the performer is delayed, bad taste and a frivolous attitude towards one of the most difficult types of art - the art of reading - are cultivated. (48)
Second phase working on poetry: studying all the features of the form of the poem chosen for execution. * (* The reader is assumed to know the basic laws of versification. Comprehension of the form of a verse is carried out in inextricable connection with its ideological and effective analysis. That is why we are talking about the conventionality of the stages of work. One stage is intertwined with another. But they cannot be avoided.)
To read a lyric poem correctly, one must live with the poet’s high feelings, hear poetic intonation, the tone of purposeful action; This is facilitated by a careful familiarization with the poet’s work, as well as studying the “biography” of the poem being performed. What does such a “biography” mean?
Poems are born from experienced events, meetings, memories, surging feelings, contacts with nature, etc. A detailed “biography” of poems should, as it were, guarantee a more accurate disclosure of the poet’s intention, the world of his feelings and thoughts. Here is an example of a “biography” of A. S. Pushkin’s poem “I. I. Pushchin." Let us recall its contents: