LITERARY FORMS

LITERARY FORMS

SATIRE
Satire is a work of art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement , contempt, scorn, or indignation. It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end in itself, while satire derides i.e. it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt that exists outside the work itself. That butt may be an individual, or a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation or even mankind.

 Satire may be classified as follows:

 i. Formal satire: In it the satiric persona speaks out in the first person. This ‘I’may address either the reader or else a character within the work itself.

 ii. Horatian satire: In it, the speaker manifests the character of an urbane, witty and tolerant man of the world, who is moved more often to worry amusement than to indignation at the spectacle of human folly, pretentiousness, and hypocrisy, and who uses a relaxed and informal language to evoke from readers a wry smile at human failings and absurdities.

 iii. Juvenalian Satire: In it, the character of the speaker is that of a serious moralist who uses a dignified and public style of utterance to decry modes of voice and error which are no less dangerous because they are ridiculous, and who undertakes to evoke from readers contempt, moral indignation, or an unillusioned sadness at the aberrations of humanity.

 iv. Indirect Satire: It is cast in some other literary form than that of direct address to the reader. Fictional narrative is an example. In it the objects of the satire are characters who make themselves and their opinions ridiculous by what they think, say or do. One type of indirect satire is Menippean satire, modeled on Greek form developed by the Cynic philosopher Menippus. It is sometimes called Varronian satire, after a Roman imitator, Varro.

LYRIC
A lyric is any short poem uttered by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind
or a process of perception, thought and feeling. Although the lyric is uttered in the first
person, the “I” in the poem need not be the poet who wrote it. Some lyrics such as John
Milton’s sonnet “when I consider how my light is spent” and S. T. Coleridge’s “Frost at
Midnight” the references to the known circumstances of the author’s life make it clear that
we are to read the poem as a personal expression. Even in such personal lyrics, both the
character and the utterance of the speaker may be formalized and altered by the author in a
way that is conducive to the desired artistic effect.
ODE
An Ode is a long lyric poem, serious in subject, dignified in style and elaborate in
structure. It is generally rhymed and often written in the form of an address, in varies or
irregular meter. The Pindaric ode, named after the Greek poet Pindar were written in triads,
composed of two stanzas called “strophe ‘and “antistrophe”, followed by an epode,
different in shape. E.g. Thomas Gray’s “The Progress of Poesy” and the “Bard”. Horatian
Ode named after the Latin poet Horace was generally monostrophic and composed of many
stanzas, all of the same shape. e.g. Collin’s “Ode to Simplicity” The English Ode or
Irregular Ode was introduced in 1656 by Abraham Cowley. He imitated the Pindaric style
and matter but disregarded the strophic triad and allowed each stanza to find its own pattern
of varying line length, number of lines and rhyme scheme. Shelley’s “Ode to the West
Wind” is an example of this type of ode.
ELEGY
In Greek and Roman times, elegy denoted any poem written in elegiac
meter(alternating hexameter and pentameter lines). In its limited and present usage, the
term elegy means a formal and sustained lament in verse for the death of a particular
person, usually ending in a consolation. Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “In Memorium” (1850),
on the death of Arthur Hallam, and W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” are
examples. Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is different from these
personal lament in that it is a somber meditation on mortality.
The dirge is also a versified expression of grief on the occasion of a particular’s
person’s death. But differs from the elegy in that it is short, is less formal and is usually
represented as a text to be sung. Threnody is now used as an equivalent for dirge and
monody for an elegy or dirge which is presented as the utterance of a single person. John
Milton’s “Lycidas” written on the occasion of the death of his learned friend Edward King
and Mathew Arnold’s “Thyrsis” written on the occasion of the death of A.H. Clough are
monodies

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