Poetry In Open Form example essay topic

LITERATURE I. FICTION A. What fiction is Fiction (from the Latin fiction, "a shaping, a counterfeiting") is a name for stories not entirely factual, but at least partially shaped, made up, imagined. It is true that in some fiction, such as historical novel, a writer draws upon factual information in presenting scenes, events, and characters. But the factual information in a historical novel, unlike that in a history book, is of secondary importance. Fiction as we know it today is considered to be a relatively new genre compared to poetry and drama. The tradition of fiction started with myth and legend and allegory. But the fictional characters in these imaginary worlds were mostly one-dimensional abstractions, personified as Love, Greed, War, or even Faith.

The evolution from allegory to novel (and short story), from the sermon about an abstraction in human guise to the story of the individual whose personal experience might have universal application, took a long time. B. Fable and tale Modern literary fiction in English has been dominated by two forms: the novel and the short story. The two have many elements in common. Perhaps we will be able to define the short story more meaningfully -- -for it has traits more essential than just a particular length -- -if first, for comparison, we consider some related varieties of fiction: the fable and the tale. Ancient forms whose origins date back to the time of word-of-mouth storytelling, the fable and the tale are relatively simple in structure; in them we can plainly see elements also found in the short story (and in novel).

1. Fable Fable is a brief story that sets forth some pointed statement of truth. For in fable everything leads directly to the moral, or message, sometimes stated at the end. The characters in a fable may be talking animals, inanimate objects, or people and supernatural beings. Whoever they may be, these characters are merely sketched, not greatly developed.

2. Tale The name tale (from the Old English talk, "speech") is sometimes applied to any story, whether short or long, true or fictitious. Tale being a more evocative name than story, writers sometimes call their stories "tales" as if to imply something handed down from the past. But defined in a more limited sense, a tale is a story, usually short, that sets forth strange and wonderful events in more or less bare summary, without detailed character-drawing. "Tale" is pretty much synonymous with "yarn", for it implies a story in which goal is revelation of the marvelous rather than revelation of character. Plot Plot is the arrangement of events in a story, or the structure of the action.

The action in a plot is usually progressive because one force acts upon another. Plot begins with an exposition: the opening portion that sets the scene (if any), introduces the main characters, tells us what happened before the story opened, and provides any other background information that we need in order to understand and care about the events to follow. D. The short story In a short story, a form more realistic than the tale and of modern origin, the writer usually presents the main events in greater fullness. A short story is more than just a sequence of happenings. Some literary short stories, unlike commercial fiction in which the main interest is in physical action or conflict, tell of an epiphany: some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character's life, or view of life, is greatly altered. Other short stories tell of a character initiated into experience or maturity. The fable and the tale are ancient forms; the short story is of more recent origin. E. Point of view critical issue in any short story is its point of view.

The importance of point of view may easily be overlooked, but the choice of the narrator influences the total structure of the story. There are basically three points of view: 1. The narrator presents the story in the first person, directly through a character. He tells his own story or one in which he has participated as a minor character. The story sounds "real" because of the personal pronoun I. This type of narrator describes characters' thoughts and feelings through his own personal perspective and observation. Often he offers opinions, interpretations, and conclusions and reveals prejudices.

2. The third-person or dramatic point of view involves a narrator who is a detached observer. He generally make no judgments; he relates the story as though he were watching the events and telling us about them. This type of narrator usually becomes aware of the event and action along with the reader and is probably more objective than the first-person narrator. 3. in the totally omniscient point of view the narrator is god-like; he knows everything about the characters and events of the story. He knows the thoughts, feelings, desires, and motives of the people in the narrative, as well as their pasts, presents, and futures. The perspective is not limited to one character; the narrator gets into the consciousness of all.

The omniscient narrator often intrudes with comments, judgments, and opinions. 4. The narrator in a story can by only partially omniscient; that is, he can know all about only one character and tell the story through that character's eyes, thoughts, observations, emotions. And perspective. He perceives the other characters as being outside the main character; all action, reaction, events, and situations are interpreted by one individual alone. F. Character Character is presumably an imagined person who inhabits a story -- -although that simple definition may admit to a few exceptions. Character can be developed through dialogue, as you have seen, and also through action.

Characterization can also be developed through the character's thoughts and by authorial comment. Characterization presents human beings, their thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, mental states -- -indeed all of the aspects that make up a person. The character must be consistent to be believable. Once the author has established a basic personality, all the action in the story must be congruent to it. G. Setting The setting of a story means its time and place. In a short story, setting may figure as more than mere background or underpinning. It can make things happen.

It can prompt characters to act, bring them to realizations, or cause them to reveal their most natures. The idea of setting includes the physical environment of a story: a house, a street, a city, a landscape, a region. Besides place, setting may crucially the time of the story -- -hour, year, or century. It might matter greatly that a story takes place at dawn, or on the day of the first moon landing. Besides time and place, setting may also include the weather which in some stories may be crucial. H. Style Style is that special quality that makes a writer's work unmistakably his own. The particular way a writer uses the various elements of fiction makes for his own unique trademark.

The style, the tone, and the use of rhetorical devices such as symbolism and figurative language are very personal to each author. The tone of a work reflects both the author's attitude toward his subject and his attitude toward the reader. An author's style is his particular characteristic way of writing, and it involves all of the elements of writing, such as sentence structure, diction, tone, and use of figurative language. An author's style, then, is the unique way in which he says what he has to say through the use of various techniques and the skillful use of the various elements of fiction. I. Theme The theme of a story is whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals. In some stories the theme is unmistakable. In literary fiction, a theme is seldom so obvious.

That is, a theme need not be a moral or a message; it may be what the happenings add up to, what the story is about. These are generally four different themes in literature: man against God, man against society, man against nature, and man against himself. Plot and theme interact; each play a part in shaping and defining the other. The theme of a story may be any subject the author feels strongly about. J. Symbol Symbol is a thing that suggests more than its literal meaning.

Symbols generally do not "stand for" any one meaning, nor for anything absolutely definite. Basically there are four types of symbols: 1. The literary symbol - certain images to evoke certain ideas. 2. A natural symbol - one that represents a quality naturally associated with it. 3.

Conventional symbols - those that have become familiar to everyone. 4. Private symbols - those that are significant to the author in a private way, and, unless he explains them, their meanings are anyone's guess. Symbolism adds a richness of suggestion and provides different levels of meaning by expressing abstract concepts through the use of concrete objects. II. POETRY.

What poetry is Poetry is a rhythmical (and usually regular) pattern expressing deeply felt emotion or experience or imagination. The greatest poetry is that which expresses emotion and experience and imagination.) when a piece is rhythmical and re 2 gula r in form, but lacks the power of emotion, experience, and imagination, it is not poetry but verse. A poem usually will make some sense and give some pleasure, but it may not yield everything at once. Sometimes it only hints at meaning still to come if we will keep after it. Poetry is not to be galloped over like the daily news: a poem differs from most prose in that it is to be read slowly, carefully, and attentively. B. Prose and poetry 1. The first distinction is that prose has little or no regular rhythm, while poetry is basically rhythmical.

The movement of prose is so irregular as to make it almost impossible to diagram, whereas the beat of poetry is so pronounced that we cannot fail to follow the measure. 2. The second differences concerns shape and structure. In prose there is no particular pattern; in poetry the pattern is definite. The unit of prose is the paragraph; the unit of poetry is the stanza. The accents and pauses in prose are hard to determine, whereas the line-divisions in poetry make the writer sharpen his phrases, and the pattern itself compels tightness and condensation.

Poetry has sometimes been defined as the best (and fewest) words in the best (and shortest) order. 3. The third difference concerns the pitch and tone of voice. Prose is usually quieter and less moving, whereas poetry is sharper in accent and tenser in tone. Prose rambles and makes its points leisurely or scientifically; but poetry concentrates on the dramatic moments and high lights, and is, therefore, far more intense. 4.

A fourth difference comes from the kind of idea, the quality of thought that is conveyed. Prose is most effective when it is giving information while poetry is most effective when it expresses emotions. This does not mean that the poet avoids the use of facts. 5.

The last and possibly the most important distinction is the difference between observation and imagination. Prose states; poetry suggests. C. Appreciating Poetry Poetry is one kind of writing that can catch such emotions and ideas and give them form. A poet's purpose is different from other kinds of writers'. A poem is not just the work and joy of the poet. The reader must participate.

The ear must hear the poem's "music". The eye must see how the poem looks on the page. The mind must find images and meaning in the poem. D. Sound Rhyme ac curs when stressed vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u) and the consonants after them sound the same in two or more words. When rhyming words are at the ends of lines, they called end rhymes. End rhymes often fall into a repeating pattern called a rhyme scheme. We can show the rhyme scheme of a poem by giving a different letter of the alphabet to each and rhyme.

Rhythm is the order of stressed and unstressed syllables. A rhythm is produced by a series of recurrences: the returns and departures of the seasons, the repetitions of an engine's stroke, the beats of the heart. A rhythm may be produced by the recurrence of a sound, but rhythm and sound are not identical. In poetry, several kinds of recurrent sound are possible, including rime, alliteration, and assonance.

But most of the time when we speak of the rhythm of a poem we mean the recurrence of stresses and pause in it. A stress (or accent) is a greater amount of force given to one syllable in speaking than is given to another. Unstressed (or slack) syllables also can direct our attention to what the poet means. E. Form The form of a poem is its organization of sounds, images, and ideas and the way the words are placed on the page. There is 2 types of forms: 1. Closed form Poems with a closed form follow traditional rules of rhythm, rhyme, number of syllables, number of lines, and so on. On a page, poems in closed form tend to look regular and symmetrical, often falling into stanzas that indicate groups of rimes.

Most poetry of the past is in closed form, exhibiting at least a pattern of rime or meter, but since the early 1960's most American poets have preferred forms that stay open. Closed form gives some poems a valuable advantage: it makes them more easily memorable. 2. Open form Writing in open form, a poet seeks to discover a fresh and individual arrangement for words in every poem. Such a poem, generally speaking, has neither a rime scheme nor a basic meter informing the whole of it. Poetry in open form used to be called free verse, suggesting a kind of verse liberated from the shackles of rime and meter.

Open form poetry usually has no meter to lend it rhythm.. DRAMA. What drama is Unlike a short story or a novel, a play is a work of storytelling in which actors represent the characters. In another sense, a play is more than actors and audience. Like a short story or a poem, a play is a work of art made of words. Drama means "action" or "deed" (from the Greek dr an, "to do").

We use drama as a synonym for plays, but the word has several meanings. Sometimes it refers to one play; or to the work of a playwright, or dramatist; or perhaps to a body of plays written in a particular time or place. B. Tragedy By tragedy, generally, we mean a play that portrays a conflict between human beings and some superior, overwhelming force. It ends sorrowfully and disastrously, and this outcome seems inevitable. Many of our ideas of tragedy go back to ancient Athens; the plays of the Greek dramatists Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides exemplify the art of tragedy. C. Comedy Comedy, from the Greek ko mos, "a revel", is thought to have originated in festivities to celebrate spring, ritual performances in praise of Dionysus, god of fertility and wine. In drama, comedy may be broadly defined as whatever makes us laugh. A comedy may be a name for one entire play -- -as in a comic character or a comic situation.

Comedy is often divided into two varieties - "high" and "low". High comedy relies more on wit and wordplay than on physical action for its humor. Low comedy explores the opposite extreme of humor. It places greater emphasis on physical action and visual gags, and its verbal jokes do not require much intellect to appreciate. Low comedy does not avoid derisive humor; rather it revels in making fun of whatever will get a good laugh. Drunkenness, stupidity, lust, senility, trickery, insult, and clumsiness are inexhaustible staples for this style of comedy.

Although it is all too easy for critics to dismiss low comedy, like high comedy it also serves a valuable purpose in satirizing human failings. Derisive humor is basic to satiric comedy, in which human weakness or folly is ridiculed from a vantage point of supposedly enlightened superiority. Satiric comedy may be coolly malicious and gently biting, but it tends to be critical people, their manners, and their morals. Romantic comedy, another traditional sort of comedy, is subtler. Its main characters are generally lovers, and its plot unfolds their ultimately successful strivings to be united. Unlike satiric comedy, romantic comedy portrays its characters not with withering contempt but with kindly indulgence.