INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY FORMS

Dr M. Fahmy Raiyah

WHAT IS LITERATURE? Literature is an art whose medium is language.

• compare with other arts. The Two Uses of Language:

• The Informative (practical)• The Literary (aesthetic)

The Purpose of Literature:• To delight and to entertain

- Utilitarian vs. aesthetic Form and Content Why do we study literature in the English department?

Utilitarian vs. aesthetic

The practical use of language

The aesthetic use of language

The two aspects of art and literature

Literature in the English class

POETRY

POETRYPoetry is a form of literature that has a special form on the page, employs certain sound devices, like rhyme and meter, and expresses the personal experience of the poet about its subject.

The poet uses language not to convey information, but to express his feelings in a beautiful way. In other words, language is used in poetry to create a sense of beauty.

IMAGERY

ImageryThe representation of sense experiences through

languageImagery is descriptions in words that make us imagine or form mental pictures in our minds.

Images are expressions that appeal to the different senses of sight, hearing, touch, or smell.

Imagery allows the poet to express the abstract in terms of the concrete. Example:• When the writer describes a garden, the green lawn, the colorful

flowers, the singing birds, and the murmuring waterfalls, we read the description and imagine the colors, the sounds, and the smell in our minds.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Figurative Language

• Metaphor

• Simile • Personification

• Symbol

• Hyperbole

MetaphorMetaphor is a comparison between two unrelated things that share a common quality.

Examples of metaphor:• Life is a journey.• She is a peacock. • He has a heart of stone.• The Sweet taste of Success.• Laughter is the best medicine.• a heated argument.• The World is a Stage.• A storm of sorrows

SimileSimile is a comparison using the

words like or as

Examples of similes:• Life is like a box of chocolates.• The child is as beautiful as a flower.• He lifted his head as proud as a deer.• The road was as flat as a board.• He is as busy as a bee• He is as brave as a lion.• She slept like a baby

PersonificationGiving human qualities to an

inanimate objectExample:The moon smiled down on us.

Examples of personification:• Victory has a hundred fathers but defeat is an

orphan.• The meadows awakened with the sound of the

frogs.• The moon climbed the sky in her silver shoes.• Opportunity knocked at her door.• Success was calling my name.

Symbol

A word or object that has its own meaning and represents another word,

object or idea Example:• The heart is a symbol of love.• The dove is a symbol of peace• The journey or voyage can be a symbol of life.• The apple can be a symbol of temptation.

HyperboleExaggeration that is often used for emphasis

Examples:• I’ve told you a million times.• I have a million things to do.• I had a ton of homework.• I am so hungry I could eat a horse.• That was the easiest question in the world.• My mom is going to kill me.• His smile was a mile wide.

SOUND DEVICES

Sound DevicesSound devices or sound techniques include the following:

• Alliteration• Assonance• Consonance• Onomatopoeia• Rhyme• Repetition• Refrain

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds

• “She sells seashells at the sea shore”

Examples of alliteration:• Mike’s microphone is making much noise.• Sara’s seven sisters slept soundly in the sand.• Dan’s dog is drinking dirty water.

CONSONANCEConsonance is the repetition of

consonant sound anywhere in the words.

In alliteration the repeated consonant sounds are the beginning of words.

Examples of Consonance:

Bring stringShort sweetfirst lastdoor odourstand insteadPass silently

ASSONANCERepeated VOWEL sounds in a line or

lines of poetry

LakeFateBaseFade All share the long “a” sound.

Examples of assonance:time mindfree easyhigh skydoor four

RHYMEWords sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant

sounds.

Example:LAMP & STAMP

Share the short “a” vowel soundShare the combined “mp” consonant sound

Other examples: bee, tree - day, play - see, thee

INTERNAL RHYME

A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line

Example: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

From “The Raven ”by Edgar Allan Poe

END RHYME

A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line

Example:Hector the CollectorCollected bits of string.Collected dolls with broken headsAnd rusty bells that would not ring.

NEAR RHYME

Example: ROSE - LOSE

Different vowel sounds (long “o” and “oo” sound)Share the same consonant sound

When the vowel sound is different but the last consonant

sound is the same.

Rhyme Scheme

Heavy is my heart, ADark are thine eyes BThou and I must part AEre the sun rise B

The rhyme scheme is ABAB

Example:

Continuous as the stars that shine A

And twinkle on the milky way, BThey stretched in never-ending line AAlong the margin of a bay: BTen thousand saw I at a glance, C Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. C

OnomatopoeiaA word whose sound imitates its meaning

Examples of onomatopoeia

• The bee buzzed by my ear.

• The clock ticked down the final hour.

• The engine purred while awaiting the green light.

RepetitionA word or phrase repeated within a line or

stanza

Example: “gazed and gazed”

RefrainThe repetition of one or more phrases or lines at certain intervals, usually at the

end of each stanza

POETRY FORMS

THE EXAMPLE WILLIAM H. DAVIESHERE'S an example from A Butterfly; That on a rough, hard rock Happy can lie; Friendless and all alone 5On this unsweetened stone.

Now let my bed be hard, No care take I; I'll make my joy like this Small Butterfly; 10Whose happy heart has power To make a stone a flower.

Stanza

Couplet

POETRY FORM• FORM: the appearance of the words on the page• LINE: a group of words together on one line of the poem• STANZA: a group of lines arranged together

Example:A word is deadWhen it is said,

Some say.

I say it justBegins to live

That day.

Stanza

A unit of lines grouped togetherSimilar to a paragraph in prose

Couplet

Two lines that rhyme together usually at the end of a stanza or poem

POEMS

MY HEART LEAPS UPWILLIAM WORDSWORTH

William Wordsworth(1770-1850)

MY HEART LEAPS UPMY heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began, So is it now I am a man, So be it when I shall grow old Or let me die! The child is father of the man: And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.

ParaphraseMy heart jumps with joy at the sight of the

beautiful rainbow in the sky. In my childhood, I used to feel the same way, and as an adult, I'm still a lover nature, who can still be moved by the same sight. I hope that I will continue to feel the same way towards nature. Since the grown-up is the outcome of his upbringing as a child and of his experiences as a young person, I'm sure that my love of nature as a child will make me a perpetual lover of nature. I hope all my days will be connected by the same string: love of nature.

Theme

Love of nature

“THE DAFFODILS”WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.

First Stanza:The poet remembers when he was once wandering all alone, like a cloud that floats high above, in a landscape of valleys and hills and suddenly came across a field of daffodil flowers on the shore of a lake, beneath the trees.

Second Stanza:The poet then says that the daffodils were so many that they seemed to be endless. They are as numerous as the twinkling stars that are packed in the Milky Way. They were tossing their heads in a merry dance.

Third Stanza:The waves in the lake were also dancing, but the flowers exceeded them in glee. The poet says that he no longer feels lonely in this happy company. He cannot help but be happy like the daffodils. The poet says that he was lost in the scene for such a long period of time. He kept gazing upon the daffodils to fill his heart with their beauty. Unable to raise his eyes from them, he could not realize by them the great gift he has received with this vision

Fourth Stanza:In the fourth stanza, the poet takes us to the future, long after the vision of daffodils. He describes his habitual action of sitting on the couch, feeling nothing or sad. Then, the memory of the daffodils flash into his mind’s eye, transporting him to the beautiful natural scene that once caused him to be so happy. In his solitude, the poet recalls that beautiful memory and re-experiences the same happiness again, dancing with daffodils.

FORM

Stanza Form:The poem consists of four six-line stanzas. Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC Meter:Iambic pentameter

FIGURES OF SPEECH• I wandered lonely as a cloud: simile• I saw a crowd: personification • Fluttering and dancing in the breeze: personification• Continuous as the stars that shine: simile• They stretched in never-ending line: hyperbole• Tossing their heads in sprightly dance: personification

• The waves beside them danced: personification• They flash upon that inward eye: personification• And dances with the daffodils: personification

THEMENature as man’s companion, healer, and comforter

THE EAGLEWILLIAM WORDSWORTH

THE EAGLEALFRED TENNYSON

Alfred Tennyson(1809-1892)

THE EAGLEHe clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.

He clasps1 the crag2 with crooked3hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring'd with the azure4 world, he stands.1. grasps tightly 2. rugged cliff or rock 3. bent or twisted 4. blue

The wrinkled5 sea beneath6 him crawls; 7

He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt8 he falls.

5. has small lines or folds like the skin of aged people 6. under7. moves on hands and knees 8. a flash of lightening accompanied by

thunder

Figures of speech (Metaphor – Simile – Personification) contribute to the imagery of the poem:

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,

Paraphrase The eagle is sitting on top of the mountain

rocks, holding the rocks with his talons that look like crooked hands. He is so high in the sky that he seems close to the sun, circled with the blue sky all around him.

From far above, the eagle sees the sea crawling slowly. In contrast to the slow movement of the sea, the eagle falls to the ground very swiftly and powerfully like a thunderbolt.

Theme The poem is about power and freedom. The

eagle is an example of the two qualities.

THE EXAMPLEWILLIAM H. DAVIES

William H. Davies(1870-1940)

THE EXAMPLEHERE'S an example from

A Butterfly; That on a rough, hard rock Happy can lie; Friendless and all alone On this unsweetened stone.

Now let my bed be hard, No care take I; I'll make my joy like this Small Butterfly; Whose happy heart has power To make a stone a flower.

Paraphrase This is a great lesson that a small butterfly has taught

me. That small insect can be happy although she lies on a rough rock all alone and without any friends. She is happy in spite of the harsh surroundings and the difficult circumstances she finds herself in.

Like her, man too can be happy, regardless of the tough external conditions of his life. Happiness springs from the heart; it is not the result of outward circumstances. Like the butterfly that can turn the unfavourable conditions of her life to her advantage, I too will be able to enjoy my life against all odds.

Theme Happiness is the theme of this poem. According to the

poem, man makes his own happiness, which springs from his heart, not from the circumstances of his life.

Langston Hughes(1902-1967)

DREAMSHold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.

ParaphraseStick to your dreams because if you lose

them, life will be like a broken-winged bird that is unable to fly. If you let go of your goals and don't work hard to achieve them, your life will not be complete.

Stick to your dreams because if you lose them, life will be like a dead land where nothing grows. Life without dreams is a wasted life, equivalent to death.

ThemeThe importance of setting goals and working

hard to realize them.

FICTION

Elements of fiction:I.PLOTII.SETTINGIII.CHARACTRSIV.POINT OF VIEWV.THEME

I. PLOTPlot is the author’s arrangement of events in the story. It has a beginning, middle and an end. More specifically, the plot follows the Freytag pyramid:

Narrative StagesThe narrative stages or stages of the plot are as

follows:

• Exposition: The start of the story, the situation before the action starts

• Rising Action: The series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead to the climax

• Climax / Turning Point: The most intense moment – either mentally or in action – the reader wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved or not?

• Falling Action: The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. (The events between the climax and the resolution)

• Denouement (Resolution): The conclusion, the untangling of events in the story

Types of PlotEvents in a story can be presented in a variety of

orders:• The chronological order: some stories begin

with what happens first, following the regular time development of events to end.

• Some stories begin at the end then lead up to why and how things developed as they did.

• Some stories begin in the middle of things.

Flashback

This is a technique in which the author interrupts the plot of the story to tell an incident of an earlier time (goes back in time; like giving the reader a memory). 

Foreshadowing

This is a writers’ technique in which the author provides clues or hints as to what is going to happen later in the story. 

Conflict

Conflict is the struggle between two forces in a story. The plot revolves

around this conflict.

Types of Conflict

1. Physical Conflict: Between a character and nature or the physical world.

2. Social Conflict: Between characters or between the character and his or her society.

3. Internal Conflict (Psychological Conflict): Between different attitudes of beliefs in the character’s mind.

II. SETTINGThe setting is the place and time of the story. It also includes the circumstances of the story, like the weather conditions, the social class, etc.

III. CHARACTERS

The people (or animals, things, etc. presented as people) in a literary

work.

TYPES OF CHARACTERS

Characters can be classified in different ways:

• Major and minor characters• Round and Flat characters• Dynamic and Static characters• Protagonist and Antagonist

ROUND AND FLAT CHARACTERS• Round Characters are complex

convincing, and true to life characters. They are described in more detail, having many different and sometimes even contradictory personality traits.

• Flat Characters are stereotyped, shallow, and often symbolic. They have only one or two personality traits

DYNAMIC AND STATIC CHARACTERS:

• Dynamic Characters undergo some type of change or development in the story, often because of something that happens to them.

• Static Characters do not change in the course of the story.

Characterization

Characterization refers to the methods used by the writer to create his or her characters.

METHODS OF CHARACTERIZATION:Characters are revealed to us by means of the following techniques or some of them.

• Physical appearance • Names• What the narrator tells us about them• What other characters say about them

IV. POINT OF VIEWThe angle or perspective from

which the story is told (Who tells the story)

• The point of view is divided into two main types:

- First person point of view - Third person point of view

First Person Point of View

The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the characters, using the first person pronoun “I”.

The first person narrator can either be participant or nonparticipant in the action

Third Person Point of View

The story is told using a narrator who uses third person pronouns such as “he”,

“she”, “his”, “her”, “they” etc.

Third Person Point of View can be broken up into

three different types:• Omniscient• Limited Omniscient• Objective

Omniscient Point of View: The narrator has the power to show the reader what is happening in the minds of the characters, their feelings and their thinking.

Limited Omniscient Point of View: The narrator shows us inside the mind of one character.

Objective Point of view: The story is told as if from a camera that follows the characters. Only what is said and done is recorded.

V. THEMETheme is the central idea or central message of the story. It usually contains some insight into the human condition – telling something about humans and life.

OTHER TECHNIQUESIRONY

• Verbal Irony::  This is the contrast between what is said and what is meant.

• Dramatic Irony:  This is the contrast between what the character thinks to be true and what we (the readers) know to be true.  Sometimes as we read we are placed in the position of knowing more than what one character knows.  Because we know something the character does not, we read to discover how the character will react when he or she learns the truth of the situation. 

• Situational Irony:  It is the contrast between what happens and what was expected to happen. 

SYMBOLISMA symbol represents an idea, quality, or

concept larger than itself.

• A journey can symbolize life

• Water may represent cleanliness and renewal

• A lion can bea symbol of

courage.

• A red rosecan represent

love.