What is Verse? What is Prose?
I am trying to style my blog this week to give some examples of my understanding of the definitions of "Verse" and "Prose" found in the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Both Verse and Prose are names given to the forms of how we organize the written word.
Basically, Verse is composed of lines or stanzas of poetry that most often do not extend to the right margin of a page, whereas, Prose is composed of sentences that do extend most often to the right margin of a page. The usual picture that comes to mind when we hear the word "prose", is that of writing that is organized as in a novel. There is also, however, a prose form called "prose poem", which I will write about and give of an example of at the end of this blog.
Words give voice to thought. Using words to simply fill a void, whether spoken or written, may relieve some anxiety on the part of the person doing it, but it can be terribly exhausting for the receiver when not executed well.
Words are too important not to be taken seriously, because words alter the history of our world by having the ability not only to alter the speaker or writer of the words, but also, the receiver of words. This thought gives me much to ponder.
I begin with VERSE which can be a line of poetry, a poem, or poetry as distinct from Prose.
1)Poetry as distinct from Prose.
Example:
On Passing the New Menin Gate [p 1209 Norton]
By Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate,*
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate, -
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?
Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.
Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride
"Their name liveth for ever," the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.
*54,889 names of men killed in World War I are
engraved on the gate.
There are three main categories of VERSE as follows:
LYRIC VERSE
Basically, Verse is composed of lines or stanzas of poetry that most often do not extend to the right margin of a page, whereas, Prose is composed of sentences that do extend most often to the right margin of a page. The usual picture that comes to mind when we hear the word "prose", is that of writing that is organized as in a novel. There is also, however, a prose form called "prose poem", which I will write about and give of an example of at the end of this blog.
Words give voice to thought. Using words to simply fill a void, whether spoken or written, may relieve some anxiety on the part of the person doing it, but it can be terribly exhausting for the receiver when not executed well.
Words are too important not to be taken seriously, because words alter the history of our world by having the ability not only to alter the speaker or writer of the words, but also, the receiver of words. This thought gives me much to ponder.
I begin with VERSE which can be a line of poetry, a poem, or poetry as distinct from Prose.
1)
The term is usually more neutral than 'poetry', indicating that the technical requirements of Rhythm and Metre are present, while poetic merit may or may not be. It is almost always reserved for metrical compositions, the looser non-metrical category of Free Verse being a special case.
Example of Free Verse:
A Noiseless Patient Spider
By: Walt Whitman [p 301 Broadview]
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you, O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Free Verse is a kind of poetry that does not conform to any regular Metre:
the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of Rhyme - if any. Instead, it uses more flexible Cadence (the rising and falling rhythm of speech or rhythmic groupings), sometimes supported by Anaphora (repetition of the same word or phrase, usually at the beginnings of a line) and other devices of repetition.
Free Verse is now the most widely practised verse form in English.
Free verse should not be confused with Blank Verse, which does observe a regular metre in its unrhymed lines.
Example of Blank Verse:
Tears, Idle Tears [p 898 Norton]
By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Example of Free Verse:
A Noiseless Patient Spider
By: Walt Whitman [p 301 Broadview]
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you, O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Free Verse is a kind of poetry that does not conform to any regular Metre:
the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of Rhyme - if any. Instead, it uses more flexible Cadence (the rising and falling rhythm of speech or rhythmic groupings), sometimes supported by Anaphora (repetition of the same word or phrase, usually at the beginnings of a line) and other devices of repetition.
Free Verse is now the most widely practised verse form in English.
Free verse should not be confused with Blank Verse, which does observe a regular metre in its unrhymed lines.
Example of Blank Verse:
Tears, Idle Tears [p 898 Norton]
By: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a snail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summers dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
2) a line of poetry; or, in common usage, a Stanza,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summers dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
2) a line of poetry; or, in common usage, a Stanza,
especially of a hymn or song.
Strictly, the term should refer to a line rather than a stanza,
although the battle to retain this distinction seems to have been lost.
To avoid confusion, it is preferable to call a line a line and a stanza a stanza.
Example: Hymn
Morning has broken (an old Gaelic Melody)
Morning has broken
Like the first morning;
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing,
Praise for the morning,
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!
Sweet the rain's new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dew fall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight;
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God's recreation
Of the new day!
3) a poem - a composition written in metrical feet
that forms rhythmical lines
Strictly, the term should refer to a line rather than a stanza,
although the battle to retain this distinction seems to have been lost.
To avoid confusion, it is preferable to call a line a line and a stanza a stanza.
Example: Hymn
Morning has broken (an old Gaelic Melody)
Morning has broken
Like the first morning;
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing,
Praise for the morning,
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!
Sweet the rain's new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dew fall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight;
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God's recreation
Of the new day!
3) a poem - a composition written in metrical feet
that forms rhythmical lines
Example:
On Passing the New Menin Gate [p 1209 Norton]
By Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate,*
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate, -
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?
Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.
Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride
"Their name liveth for ever," the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.
*54,889 names of men killed in World War I are
engraved on the gate.
There are three main categories of VERSE as follows:
LYRIC VERSE
(of which all of the above examples given fall into this category)
In the modern sense, a lyric is any fairly short poem
expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation
of a single speaker
(who may sometimes be an invented character, not the poet).
In ancient Greece, a lyric was a song for accompaniment
on the lyre, and could be a choral lyric sung by a group,
such as a Dirge
(a song of lamentation in mourning for someone's death)
of Hymn (a song in praise of a divine or venerated being).
Sometimes the word "Hymn", is given to a poem
that is on an elevated level.
An example would be "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (Shelley).
The modern sense, current since the Renaissance,
often suggests a song-like quality in the poems to which is refers.
Lyric poetry is the most extensive category of verse,
especially after the decline - since the 19th century in the West -
of the other principal kinds: Narrative and Dramatic verse.
Lyrics may be composed in almost any metre
and on almost every subject, although the most usual
emotions presented are those of love and grief.
Among the common lyric forms are the Sonnet, Ode, Elegy, Haiku, and the more personal kinds of Hymn.
NARRATIVE VERSE
-tells a story (Ballads, Epics and Verse Romances).
-the narrative poem was the original way sagas were passed down from generation to
generation.
DRAMATIC VERSE
-occurs in a dramatic work, such as a play
Example:
King Lear
By: William Shakespeare
Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear:
Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful.
Into her womb convey sterility,
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of your,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child. Away, away!
Lear 1.4.267
In the modern sense, a lyric is any fairly short poem
expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation
of a single speaker
(who may sometimes be an invented character, not the poet).
In ancient Greece, a lyric was a song for accompaniment
on the lyre, and could be a choral lyric sung by a group,
such as a Dirge
(a song of lamentation in mourning for someone's death)
of Hymn (a song in praise of a divine or venerated being).
Sometimes the word "Hymn", is given to a poem
that is on an elevated level.
An example would be "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (Shelley).
The modern sense, current since the Renaissance,
often suggests a song-like quality in the poems to which is refers.
Lyric poetry is the most extensive category of verse,
especially after the decline - since the 19th century in the West -
of the other principal kinds: Narrative and Dramatic verse.
Lyrics may be composed in almost any metre
and on almost every subject, although the most usual
emotions presented are those of love and grief.
Among the common lyric forms are the Sonnet, Ode, Elegy, Haiku, and the more personal kinds of Hymn.
NARRATIVE VERSE
-tells a story (Ballads, Epics and Verse Romances).
-the narrative poem was the original way sagas were passed down from generation to
generation.
DRAMATIC VERSE
-occurs in a dramatic work, such as a play
Example:
King Lear
By: William Shakespeare
Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear:
Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful.
Into her womb convey sterility,
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of your,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child. Away, away!
Lear 1.4.267
PROSE
Prose is the form of written language that is not organized according to the formal patterns of Verse. Although it will have some sort of rhythm and some devices of repetition and balance, these are not governed by a regularly sustained formal arrangement. Some uses of the term include spoken language as well, but it is usually more helpful to maintain a distinction between written prose and everyday speech.
Example:
from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Beginning Chapter XXXIV
FOR some days after that evening, Mr. Heathcliff shunned meeting us at meals, yet he would not consent formally to exclude Hareton and Cathy. He had an aversion to yielding so completely to his feelings, choosing rather to absent himself, and eating once in twenty-four hours seemed sufficient sustenance for him. One night, after the family were in bed, I heard him go downstairs and out at the front door. I did not hear him re-enter, and in the morning I found he was still away. We were in April then. The weather was sweet and warm, the grass as green as showers and sun could make it, and the two dwarf apple-trees near the southern wall in full bloom. After breakfast Catherine insisted on my bringing a chair and sitting with my work under the fir-trees at the end of the house; and she beguiled Hareton, who had perfectly recovered from his accident, to dig and arrange her little garden, which was shifted to that corner by the influence of Joseph's complaint. I was comfortably revelling in the spring fragrance around, and the beautiful soft blue overhead, when my young lady, who had run down near the gate to procure some primrose roots for a border, returned only half laden, and informed us that Mr. Heathcliff was coming in. "And he spoke to me," she added, with a perplexed countenance.
PROSE POEM
A prose poem is a short composition that employs the rhymic cadences and other devices of Free Verse, but which is printed wholly or partly in the format of prose (with a right-hand margin instead of regular line-breaks). This Genre (note it is called a Genre) emerged in France during the 19th-century. A prose poem is a self-contained work usually similar to a lyric, whereas poetic prose may occur intermittently within a longer prose work.
Example: Prose Poem
From Mercian Hymns
By: Geoffrey Hill [p1722 Norton]
VI
The princes of Mercia were badget and raven. Thrall
to their freedom, I dug and hoarded. Orchards
fruited above clefts. I drank from honeycomb of
chill sandstone.
(leave space)
"A boy at odds in the house, lonely among brothers."
But I, who had none, fostered a strangeness, gave
myself to unattainable toys.
(leave space)
Candles of gnarled resin, apple-branches, the tacky
mistletoe. "Look" they said and again "look." But
I ran slowly, the landscape flowed away, back to
its source.
(leave space)
In the schoolyard, in the cloakrooms, the children
boasted their scars of dried snot; wrists and
knees garnished with impetigo.
(leave space)
Note: I am having a problem getting the lines to single space and to indent where I want them to in order to appear as they have in the anthologies. In addition, although I have studied the definitions and tried to show examples based on what I have read, I would appreciate knowing if I have misunderstood. Thank you! maggie
posted by maggiesong at 1:15 PM
2 Comments:
I've enjoyed reading your blog today. For me, poetry is defined by the poems I admire and enjoy reading.
I've enjoyed reading your blog today. For me, poetry is defined by the poems I admire and enjoy reading.
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