American Division Literature [ 12 ]

12- ] English Division Literature .

Poetry .

Poems Set To Music .

1-] Hymns [ Religious Songs ] :

Hymns have appeared in both rhymed and unrhymed qualitative verse , as well as in prose .

2-] Songs: Lyric poems meant to be sung . Songs are typically short and emotional on topics that range from love to hatred , dancing to mourning , work to play .

Some works labelled as songs , however , can not actually be sung , such as “ The Love  Song of J . Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot .

Folk Songs : are those of unknown authorship .

3-] Ballads :  Narrative songs that may be sung or simply recited . The ballad tradition can be found worldwide .

Characteristics of the ballad :

1-] Theme :  Courage or love . 2-] Little description or characterization .                3-] Incremental repetition  [ repetition of words , lines or phrases for effect ] .

Form of Ballad

The ballad stanza : usually iambic foot in four lines [ quatrain  ] with an aab  rhyme scheme [ sometimes based on approximate rhyme or assonance and consonance ].                                                                                                               --Lines 1 and 3 have four accented syllables : lines 2 and 4 have three accented syllables .                                                                                                                 

- Use of refrain [ repetition of words , phrases or lines at intervals ] .

- Sometimes has a concluding or  summary stanza .

- Stock descriptive phrases .

Types of Ballad

1-] Popular ballad : A narrative folk song .

2-] Broad side ballad :  A song . Topic : A current event , well known person or debated issue . Tune : Well known . Printed on one side of a sheet of paper .

3-] Literary ballad : An imitation of the popular ballad , but written by a poet.

For an example of the literary ballad , read these first four stanzas of Coleridge’s “ The Rime of The Ancient Mariner , Part 1”.

                        It is an ancient Mariner .

Because anonymous folk ballads are part of our oral tradition , the same ballad can surface from different regions , times or peoples in different forms . An example is the 17^th century “ Barbara Allen” versions / The Cowboy’s Lament” – “ The Dying Cowboy” [ 19^th century ] .

4-] Chansons :  Simple poems meant to be sung .

5-] Epithalamium poems :  Songs written to celebrate a marriage .                   [ Edmund  Spenser ]

6-] Madrigals : Love poems meant to be sung a cappella [ without instrumental accompanimet ] by five or six singers , their voices blending and weaving and out of the melody .

Ex .Take, O! Take Those Lips Away [ William Shakespeare ]

7-] Rhapsody : Once referring to epic poetry that is sung , now rhapsody refers to very emotional poems or any sequence of literary expressions that have arbitrarily joined together .

8-] Serenades :  Evening songs . 

9-] Aubades :  Early morning songs such as Shakespeare’s “ Kark , Hark , the Lark” .

10-] Jingles :  The short , easy-to-sing songs used to sell products . Notable jingles on television include songs to sell toothpaste and hamburgers .