EN 1105 : 29.03.2014 Handout [Literature & Poetry]

Literature

• The word literature is derived from the Latin word litteraturae, which means ‘writings’. 
• Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature" is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.
• Literature is one of the fine arts. It is fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language.
• Matthew Arnold defines literature as “criticism of life”.
• World English dictionary states literature as ‘written material such as poetry, novels, essays, etc. especially works of imagination characterized by excellence of style and expression and by themes of general or enduring interest”. 

Why do we read literature?

•  Literature represents a language or a society: culture and tradition. 
•  Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience.
•  Literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it is universal, and it affects us.
•  Literature mirrors life. 

Poetry

•  Etymology: Greek poiesis meaning "making".
• Dr. Johnson calls poetry a ‘metrical composition’ and points out four elements of poetry- pleasure, truth, imagination and reason.
• Carlyle says poetry is a ‘musical thought’, and Shelley defines it as ‘the expression of imagination’.
• ‘Simply the most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach’ – Arnold
• ‘the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’ – Wordsworth
• ‘rhythmic creation of beauty’ – Edgar Allan Poe
• “the vehicle of feeling’- Edgar Allan Poe
• "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." - William Wordsworth
• Poetry can be divided into subjective and objective. 
• Subjective poetry or personal poetry is the poetry of self - delineation and self- expression. This type of poetry expressed the poet’s own feelings and thoughts.
• Objective poetry is expresses the world outside the poet.
• Lyric, sonnet, ode, elegy, ballad, epic, satire, and etc. come under the genre of poetry.

Poetry

• Etymology: Greek poiesis meaning "making".
• Dr. Johnson calls poetry a ‘metrical composition’ and points out four elements of poetry- pleasure, truth, imagination and reason.
• Carlyle says poetry is a ‘musical thought’, and Shelley defines it as ‘the expression of imagination’.
• ‘Simply the most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach’ – Arnold
• ‘the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’ – Wordsworth
• ‘rhythmic creation of beauty’ – Edgar Allan Poe
• “the vehicle of feeling’- Edgar Allan Poe
• "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." - William Wordsworth

Poetry can be divided into subjective and objective.

• Subjective poetry or personal poetry is the poetry of self - delineation and self- expression. This type of poetry expressed the poet’s own feelings and thoughts.
• Objective poetry is expresses the world outside the poet.
• Lyric, sonnet, ode, elegy, ballad, epic, satire, and etc. come under the genre of poetry.