Lyric: A lyric is a fairly short poem which is the expression of strong feelings (thoughts, or perceptions) of a single speaker in a meditative manner. The lyric was originally (in Greek poetry) the kind of poem which was to be set to the lyre (bina); hence the word lyric. But even today, the word still retains the sense that lyric poems are musical. In fact, the word is also used in music to denote "lines of a song". The term ‘lyric’ includes any types of poems with the very general qualities of being personal and emotional in expression, being meditative, and being musical; so sonnets, elegies, and metaphysical poems, romantic poems and even ballads and odes may be ‘lyrical’. So, the word ‘lyric’ is related to expression and not form. Most lyrics are meditation in loneliness by the poet, but lyric can also be dramatic if it is addressed to a specific person. For example, John Donne's "Canonization" is also a lyric (in expression) though it is also dramatic due to its use of ‘monologue’. And though the lyric is spoken by an "I", it need not be the poet himself: we should understand the lyric in terms of an imaginary speaker/character. Love is a common topic for poems with lyrical manner of expression, but death and other emotionally engaging subjects can also be the subjects of a lyrical poem. And romantic poems which are personal poems with spontaneous kind of expression are also usually lyrics. The poem "Break, Break, Break" is also a typical lyric because it is the personal and emotional expression of the poet's feelings in the form of a meditation (partly dramatic due to its direct address to the cliffs), and it is also musical.
NB: There are many lyrics among the 30 poems in this course, like: My Mistress's Eyes…; Canonization; Tyger; I Wandered Lonely; Break, Break, Break; The Mother, etc. If you are asked to write on a certain poem as a lyric, remember the elements of the lyric and discuss whichever element of lyric that you find in the given poem.

Allegory: Allegory is a parallel story. If a single word or expression has an abstract and general meaning, it is called a symbol; but if the whole ‘story’ of a drama, story or poem has a symbolic meaning throughout, it is called an allegory. Read More...

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated consonants normally occur at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Read More...

Allusion: An allusion in a literary text is a reference to a personal place or event or to another literary work or passage. It does not have clear identification, that is, it does not tell directly what it stands for. Read More...

Animation: Animation is giving life to non-living objects. If a poet treats a lifeless concrete thing as having life, awareness, will-power, thought, emotion, etc, that is called animation. For example, if a poet says, "The moon is ‘smiling’ at me", he animates the moon. Read More...

Ballad:originally a kind of folk song; also sung with music; now recorded in writing, and also regarded as literature/ poetry. Read More...

Blank verse: Blank verse refers to the poetic lines that use iambic pentameter without rhyming. Read More...

Classical Poetry:The classical or neo-classical poets of the eighteenth century had had made poetry more social than personal, more intellectual than emotional and imaginative, more rule-based than spontaneous. Read More...

Conceit: The conceit is a striking metaphor. It is so original and unconventional that it not only strikes the reader into attention, but sometimes shocks them, being even objectionable or absurd at first. Read More...

Denotation: It refers to the literal meaning of words. Words or sentences in a literary work may have clear or hidden meaning. Read More...

Elegy: The elegy was originally the form of poetry on the subject of sadness, especially ‘complaints about love’. Read More...

Epic: One the oldest of the poetic forms, the epic is a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style, dealing with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Read More...

Epic Simile: The epic simile is a figurative device first popularized by Homer in his epics. It is a comparison that may be as long as a dozen lines. Read More...

Heroic couplet: Heroic couplet is a pair of lines with iambic pentameter; the lines must also rhyme together. Read More...

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter means ‘five iambic feet in a line’. ‘Iambic’ means a unit of rhythm with two syllables where the first is not stressed (U) and the second is stressed (S). Read More...

Image: An image is considered to be a picture created in the mind by words. Generally images are divided as visual images and abstract images. Read More...

Irony: Irony is an indirect way of criticizing things, and it can be done in several ways. The word ‘Irony’ comes from its Greek root ‘Eiron’, a dramatic character who spoke in ‘understatement’, pretending to be less intelligent. Read More...