poetry

Narrative poetry

Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story. In its broadest sense, it includes epic

poetry; some would reserve the name narrative poetry for works on a smaller scale

and generally with more direct appeal to human interest than the epic.

Narrative poetry is among the oldest, and perhaps the oldest, genre of poetry. Many

scholars of Homer, from Quintus Smyrnaeus forward, have concluded that his tales of

the Iliad and Odyssey were composed from compilations of shorter narrative poems

that related individual episodes, and which were more suitable for an evening's

entertainment. Much of narrative poetry is performance poetry and has its source in an

oral tradition: the Scots and English ballads, the tales of Robin Hood, of Iskandar, and

various Baltic and Slavic heroic poems all were originally intended for recitation,

There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as

"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it

makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas

defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails

twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."

Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people.During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets

like John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and of course Shakespeare gave us enough to fill

textbooks, lecture halls, and universities.Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition

of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down.

One may use prose to narrate, describe, argue, or define. There are equally numerous

EARLY AMERICAN POETRY

Poetic tradition in America followed that in Britain for nearly 200 years. The Puritan

poets like Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor likened their work to the British

metaphysical poets, and followed in the footsteps of Milton, Spenser and Donne in

their

poems. Their poetry was highly didactic, mostly for use in teaching Puritan ethics.

The

first published American poet Bradstreet broke from it in some way, merely because

she

was female, and it was considered that she should devote herself to home and family.

In

The Prologue (1650), Bradstreet writes “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who

says my hand a needle better fits,/ *than+ A poet’s pen.…” Bradstreet’s instincts were

to

love that world more than the promised world of Puritan theology. Thus, her poetry

is

energized by the struggle to overcome the love for the world of nature (Miller and

Tang poetry

Name:

Class:

Student number:

2 Contents

 An overview of Tang poetry

 The development of Tang poetry

1.Beginning Tang

2.Flourishing Tang

3.Middle Tang

te Tang

5.Tang Poetry After the Fall of the Tang Dynasty

 Characteristics of Tang Poetry

 The importance of Tang Poetry

Tang poetry refers to poetry written in or about China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 - June 4, 907,

including the 690-705 reign of Wu Zetian) and follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age

of Chinese poetry. According to a compilation, the Quantangshi, created under the Kangxi emperor of the 3 Qing Dynasty, there were almost 50,000 Tang poems written by over 2,200 authors. During the Tang

Dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were

required to master poetry for the civil service examinations, but the art was theoretically available to