Form & Symbolism and Allusion

In the closed form (and also in the open form), the line is, loosely, the poetic equivalent of the prose sentence.

Various numbers of lines may be grouped together through rhyme and other means to form a stanza, which is the poetic equivalent of a paragraph in prose.

One of the most common closed forms in English is blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, which represents the adaptation and fusion of sentences to poetic form.

The couplet contains two rhyming lines and is the shortest distinct closed form.

Usually, the heroic couplet expresses a complete idea and is grammatically self-sufficient. It thrives on the rhetorical strategies of parallelism and antithesis.

Usually, the heroic couplet expresses a complete idea and is grammatically self-sufficient. It thrives on the rhetorical strategies of parallelism and antithesis.

A three-line stanza is called a tercet or triplet.

A three-line stanza is called a tercet or triplet.

The first tercet variation is terza rima, in which stanzas are interlocked through a pattern that requires the center termination in one tercet to be rhymed twice in the next: aba bcb cdc ded, and so on.

The most complex variation of the tercet pattern is the villanelle, a nineteen-line form containing five tercets, rhymed aba, and concluded by four lines.

The most common and adaptable stanzaic building block is the four-line quatrain.

The sonnet, consisting of fourteen lines, is one of the most popular and durable closed poetic forms.

As a form, the Petrarchan sonnet is in iambic pentameter, and it contains two quatrains (the octave) and two tercets (the sestet).

As a form, the Petrarchan sonnet is in iambic pentameter, and it contains two quatrains (the octave) and two tercets (the sestet).

The song or lyric is a stanzaic form that was originally designed to be sung to a repeating melody, although few lyrics today are written specifically for music.

The ode is a more variable stanzaic form than the lyric, with varying line lengths and intricate rhyme schemes.

The elegy ("lament," or "mournful song") has had a long and rich history in other languages extending back to ancient times, and it has defined a number of topics, but for our purposes it is a poem of lamentation.

Milton also composed this poem as a pastoral, that is, a poem describing rural lives and concerns, with direct allegorical implications for the lives of city dwellers.

The ballad, which fuses narrative description with dramatic dialogue, originated in folk literature and is one of the oldest closed forms in English poetry.

The haiku originated in Japan, where it has been a favorite genre for hundreds of years.

One of these, the epigram, is a short and witty poem that usually makes a humorous or satiric point. Epigrams are two to four lines long and are often written in couplets.

Humorous and sometimes irreverent epitaphs, brief poems composed to mark the death of someone, can also be epigrams.

Another popular type is the limerick, a five-line form popularized by the English artist and humorist Edward Lear (1812-1888). Like the epigram, limericks are comic, their humor being reinforced by falling rhymes.

The clerihew, a two-couplet form invented in the late nineteenth century by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), is related to the epigram.

A final illustration of closed-form humor is the double dactyl, devised in the 1960s by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal. The form is related to the epigram, limerick, and clerihew, and it has rules that govern the meter, line length, and specific topic material.

Poetry of this type was once termed free verse (from the French vers libre) to signify its liberation from regular metrics and its embrace of spoken rhythms.

Symbolism refers to the use of symbols in works of art and in all other forms of expression.

As we note in Chapter 7, a symbol has meaning in and of itself, but it is also understood to represent something else, like the flag for the country or the school song for the school.

Many symbols, wherever they are used, possess a ready-made, clearly agreed upon meaning. These are cultural or universal symbols.

Many symbols, wherever they are used, possess a ready-made, clearly agreed upon meaning. These are cultural or universal symbols.

Symbols that are not widely or universally recognized are termed contextual, private, or authorial symbols.

Symbols that are not widely or universally recognized are termed contextual, private, or authorial symbols.

Symbols that are not widely or universally recognized are termed contextual, private, or authorial symbols.

Just as symbolism enriches meaning, so too does allusion that takes the form of (1) unacknowledged brief quotations from other works and (2) references to historical events and any aspect of human culture—art, music, literature, and so on.