Foundation of Literature Second Meeting

Welcome to the world of art and beauty..

Outline • What is literature?

• Why you learn literature

• The history of English literature

• The Division of literature

Definitions • Literature (from Latin litterae (plural); letter) is the art of written works

• Literally translated, the word literature means "acquaintance with letters" (as in the "arts and letters").

• The two major classification of literature are poetry and prose.

English Literature

• English literature is the literature written in the

English language, including literature composed in English by

writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish,

James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Dylan Thomas was

Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad, and

Vladimir Nabokov was Russian, but all are considered important writers in the

history of English literature.

Why?

What we study literature for?• Improving our knowledge

• Improving our vocabulary

• Improving our pronunciation

• Improving the 4 Language Skills

• Improving Grammar Structure

• Appreciating the Literary works

• Having entertainment

• Learning the culture of other nations

• Learning how to analyze the literary works

• Building our character

POETRY PROSE PLAY or DRAMA

• What?

• Terminologies

POETRY

• Poetry may or may not use rhyme, as ordinarily it does not in blank and free verse

• It expresses a strong emotion or a lofty thought compressed and intense utterance.

• The main purpose of poetry is to provide pleasure and delight.

• It appeals to the emotion and imagination.

• Poetry may be described as rhythmic imaginative language expressing invention, thought, imagination, taste, passion, and insight of the human soul.

• William Wordsworth describes it as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

• Poem

• Poetry

• Poet

Terminologies

Division of Poem

The Outline• Lyric

• Sonnet

• Ballad

• Ode

• Narrative

• Epic

• Limerick

• Elegy

• Nonsense

• Epigram

• Satire

• Nursery Rhyme

• Some useful terms

Lyric • Lyric has no particular form. It is usually fairy short written in the simple

language and has an easy moving an well define rhythm.

• e.g. To daffodils (Herrick)

Sonnet • A sonnet is poem of 14 lines. Each line has 5 regular beats. There are two main

types:

1. The Italian type with the rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde (the rime of the last six lines can vary)

e.g. Sonnet by Milton

2. The English type with rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef

e.g. The sonnet of Shakespeare

Ballad• The traditional ballad was usually sung. It is written in short stanza and usually

tell a simple story of blighted love, battle, death or supernatural.

Ode • Poem which is addressed to a person or thing, or written for someone special.

e.g. Ode to duty (wordsworth)

Narrative • Poem that tells a story. Balald are often a particular type of ballad. Many

narrative poem are quite long.

e.g. the boss of the shearing sheeds

Epic • Is long narrative poem built up usually around the adventure of central hero.

Nursery Rhymes • Verse customarily told or sung to small children. Though the oral tradition

of nursery rhymes is ancient, the largest number date from the 16th, 17th, and (most frequently) 18th centuries. Apparently most rhymes were originally composed for adults, many as popular ballads and songs. The earliest known published collection is Tommy Thumb's (Pretty) Song Book (1744), including “Little Tom Tucker,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” and “Who Killed Cock Robin?” The most influential collection was Mother Goose's Melody (1781), including “Jack and Jill,” “Ding Dong Bell,” and “Hush-a-bye Baby on the Tree Top.”

Hot-cross buns! Hot-cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny, Hot-cross buns!

If you have no daughters, Give them to your sons;

One a penny, two a penny, Hot-cross buns!

Today’s Division

• Limerick

• Elegy

• Nonsense

• Epigram

• Satire

• Some useful terms

Limerick • A limerick is a short humorous poem invented by Edward Lear. It has five lines , second

and fifth having three beats and the third and fourth two. The rhyme scheme is aabba.

• A limerick is a humorous poem consisting of five lines. The first, second, and fifth lines must have seven to ten syllables while rhyming and having the same verbal rhythm. The third and fourth lines only have to have five to seven syllables, and have to rhyme with each other and have the same rhythm.

e.g.

Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a gong,Who bumped at it all day long;But they called out, 'O law!You're a horrid old bore!'So they smashed that Old Man with a gong

Limerick Friend Allen Steble (20/04/1987) Value your true and closest friendsWhen theyre down help them to mendTheir trust do not betrayTheir help do not delayStick with them to the very end

Elegy • A poem of mourning written on the death of the person

e.g. :

Requiem

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894 / Edinburgh / Scotland)

Under the wide and starry skyDig the grave and let me lie.Glad did I live and gladly die,And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me;"Here he lies where he longed to be,Home is the sailor, home from sea,And the hunter home from the hill."

Nonsense

• Poem that does not make any logical senses when read. It is enjoyed for its sounds, rhythm, sense of fun and for its pure non sense.

• Nonsense verse is a form of light, often rhythmical verse, often for children, depicting peculiar characters in amusing and fantastical situations. It is whimsical and humorous in tone and tends to employ fanciful phrases and meaningless made-up words.

• Limericks are probably the best known form of nonsense verse, although they tend nowadays to be used for bawdy or straightforwardly humorous, rather than nonsensical, effect.

e.g.

In some cases, the humor of nonsense verse is based on the incompatibility of phrases which make grammatical sense but semantic nonsense at least in certain interpretations

Other nonsense verse makes use of nonsense words—words without a clear meaning or any meaning at all.

Other nonsense verse uses muddled or ambiguous grammar as well as invented words

The following poem makes even more extreme use of word incompatibility by pairing a number of polar opposites such as morning/night, paralyzed/walking, dry/drowned, lie/true, in conjunction with lesser incompatibilities such as swords/shot and rubber/wall.

e.g.

One bright morning in the middle of the night,Two dead boys got up to fight.Back-to-back they faced one another,Drew their swords and shot each other.One was blind and the other couldn't see,So they chose a dummy for a referee.A blind man went to see fair play,A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"A deaf policeman heard the noise,And came and killed those two dead boys.A paralyzed donkey walking by,Kicked the copper in the eye,Sent him through a rubber wall,Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.(If you don't believe this lie is true,Ask the blind man -- he saw it too!)

Epigram

• A short, witty, and often satirical poem, an epigram is usually between 2 and 6 lines long although it can be a little longer.

e.g.

Epigram For Wall Street

Edgar Allan Poe (19 January 1809 - 7 October 1849 / Boston)

I'll tell you a plan for gaining wealth,Better than banking, trade or leases — Take a bank note and fold it up, And then you will find your money in creases! This wonderful plan, without danger or loss, Keeps your cash in your hands, where nothing can trouble it; And every time that you fold it across, 'Tis as plain as the light of the day that you double it!

Satire • A sarcastic poem that attack people or institutions such as organized religion,

political parties. etc.

Some useful terms a. Blank verse: verse without rime which usually has regular five beats rhythm.

b. Heroic couplet: two rhyming lines with five beats rhythm. The sense is usually complete within the couplet. Much pope’s poetry and that of others eighteen century poets was written in heroic couplet.

c. Stanza: a group of lines generally with set rime scheme, that serve as the pattern for longer poem

Acrostic Poem

Rain drops drip drop on my shoesAnd more drops fall, in ones and twosI think of all my friends insideNot me, I think, I shall not hideStormy weather makes me runTo puddles outside, so much funOn rainy days, I'll always beRunning around for all to seeMud and splashes cover me!