Lyric
Lyric is a collection of verses and choruses, making up a complete song, or a short and non-narrative poem. A lyric uses a single speaker, who expresses personal emotions or thoughts. Lyrical poems, which are often popular for their musical quality and rhythm, are pleasing to the ear, and are easily put to music.
The term lyric originates from the Greek word “lyre,” which is an instrument used by the Grecians to play when reading a poem.
Lyrical poets demonstrate specific moods and emotions through words. Such moods express a range of emotions, from extreme to nebulous, about life, love, death, or other experiences of life.
Types of Lyric
There are several types of lyric used in poems such as given below:
- Elegy
An elegy is a mournful, sad, or melancholic poem or a song that expresses sorrow for someone who has bee lost, or died. Originally, it followed a structure using a meter alternating six foot and five foot lines. However, modern elegies do not follow such a pattern, though the mood of the poem remains the same.
- Ode
An ode is a lyric poem that expresses intense feelings, such as love, respect, or praise for someone or something. Like an elegy, an ode does not follow any strict format or structure, though it uses refrains or repeated lines. It is usually longer than other lyrical forms, and focuses on positive moods of life.
- Sonnet
A sonnet uses fourteen lines, and follows iambic pentameter with five pairs of accented and unaccented syllables. The structure of a sonnet, with predetermined syllables and rhyme scheme, makes it flow off the tongues of readers in way similar way to a on song on the radio.
- Dramatic Monologue
A dramatic monologue has theatrical quality, which means that the poem portrays a solitary speaker communing with the audience, without any dialogue coming from other characters. Usually, the speaker talks to a specific person in the poem.
- Occasional Poetry
Poets write occasional poetry for specific occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, victories, and dedications, such as John Dryden’s “Annus Mirabilis,” and Edmund Spencer’s “Epithalamion.”
Function
A lyrical poet addresses his audience directly by portraying their state of mind or emotions. That is why a lyrical poem expresses personal emotions of the poet. The themes of lyrical poems are also emotional and lofty, enabling the readers to look into the life of things deeply. That is why such poems have universal appeal, because readers can relate their feelings with the poem.