LYRIC POEMS

1. LYRIC POEMS By: Kylynn, Maddy, Darryn, Lucas S., Yuri

2. What are lyric poems? • In modern days the word lyric brings to mind words to a song • Lyric poems are not limited to just the words of a song • Lyrics poems can be a poem such as haiku, limericks, ballads or sonnets

3. HISTORY • Lyric poems comes from ancient Greece where the Greeks would recite stanzas accompanied by a stringed instrument called a lyre. • Some major lyric poets included Horace, Ovid, Catullus • Besides Greece other countries that wrote lyric poems were Rome, India, China, and Japan

4. WRITING A LYRIC POEM • When writing a lyric poem keep in mind it should be short and convey intense feeling and should be something you feel strongly about • Don’t include the name of your theme inside of your poem. For example, if you poem is about love, don’t use the word “ love” in your poem. Find different ways to communicate your theme • Not all poems have to rhyme! • Make sure to edit your poem multiple times to produce a great poem. • They don’t tell a specific story!

5. EXAMPLES London by William Blake I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice; in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse "I Hear America singing" by Walt Whitman I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics--each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat--the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench--the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter's song--the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother--or of the young wife at work--or of the girl sewing or washing--Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day--At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs

6. EXAMPLE CONTINUED… James DeFord Italian Sonnet by James DeFord, written in 1997: Turn back the heart you've turned away Give back your kissing breath Leave not my love as you have left The broken hearts of yesterday But wait, be still, don't lose this way Affection now, for what you guess May be something more, could be less Accept my love, live for today. William Shakespeare Another good example is this part of Sonnet Number 18, written by William Shakespeare: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.