Lyrical genre: structure, elements, types of poems

O genderlyrical originated in Ancient Greece, time when the poetic manifestation was presented to the public orally, corner-shaped, which was accompanied by a musical instrument called a lyre. Its manifestation in the form of a chant lasts until the end of the Middle Ages, moment from which the lyrical genre starts to have the written word as its main means of composition and dissemination.

That paper record contributed for more and more poets to experiment more sophisticated forms of composition, such as the use of metrics, the construction of rhymes, the vocabulary selection and the placement of words in the graphic space. These characteristics, however, alone, do not define the lyrical genre, which also has as its main feature the manifestation of subjectivity.

Read too: Epic – long narrative poem that tells about heroic deeds

Characteristics of the lyrical genre

• I lyrical

As one of the main characteristics of the lyrical genre is the manifestation of subjectivity, that is, the manifestation of aspects linked to the interiority of a subject, the lyrical self is given to the

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voice that expresses itself in the poem. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the lyrical self does not necessarily correspond to the poet's voice, after all, he can materialize in his poem a lyrical self distinct from his biographical self.

the portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, for example, became famous for heteronyms that he created, which made his work express poetic voices different from his personality. Thus, it is possible for a poet with a male identity to create in his poem a lyrical self with an identity female, or vice versa, just as an adult poet can express the poetic voice of a child or a being inanimate. Furthermore, there are poems in which the poet tries his best to erase any subjective mark. Look at the examples:

The clock

around man's life
there are certain glass boxes,
inside which, as in a cage,
you hear an animal throb.

Whether they are cages is not right;
closer are to the cages
at least by size
and square in shape.

Sometimes such cages
they hang on the walls;
other times, more private,
they go in a pocket, on one wrist.

But where is it: the cage
will it be bird or bird:
palpitation is winged,
the jumping she keeps;

and singing bird,
not feather bird:
because of them a song is emitted
of such continuity.

NETO, João Cabral de Melo. complete work. São Paulo: Ediouro, 2003.

In this poem by João Cabral de Melo Neto, there is a attempt to erase the lyrical self, since there are no signs of subjectivity throughout his verses and stanzas. O predominance of description of the clock object, compared to cages and cages, contributes to it being the center of poetic expression, leaving no space for human subjective impressions to be manifested.

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Guinea pig

when i was six years old
I got a guinea pig.
What a heartache it gave me
Because the pet just wanted to be under the stove!

I took him to the living room
To the prettiest, cleanest places,
He didn't like:
I wanted to be under the stove.
I didn't care for any of my tenderness…

"My guinea pig was my first girlfriend."

FLAG, Manuel. Complete poetry and prose. São Paulo: Nova Aguilar, 1977.

In this poem by Manuel Bandeira, the lyrical self is observed as a male voice that recalls the love he had for his little pet: a guinea pig. The verbs in the first person of the speech and you pronouns “I”, “mine” and “mine” evidence a well-marked lyrical self subjectively.

fish dialogue

nara has an aquarium
round in the center of the table
instead of a fruit bowl
or a lamp
nara likes to watch
to the fish conversation.
another day they complained
of heat and nara
went to the shower
cool off at dawn
it's a bad habit
the red fish said
sleep with wet hair

SANTANNA, Alice. Folding. Rio de Janeiro: 7 Letters, 2008.

In this poem by Alice Sant'Anna, there is a I lyrical in third person, a sort of narrator, describing aspects of the routine of a woman named Nara. O unusual it happens when this poetic voice assigns the domain of speech to the fish, which manifests itself subjectively when criticizing the fact that its owner sleeps with wet hair. This style of poem in which the lyrical self it departs from its traditional conception has become a constant in contemporary poetic productions.

• Verses/metrification

Verse is the name given to a succession of syllables or phonemes that form a rhythmic and melodic unit corresponding to a line of the poem. Metrification or metric, in turn, is the name given to the measure of a verse, which is defined fur number of poetic syllables.

To determine the measure of a verse, the verse is divided into poetic syllables, a procedure that is called scansion. In this procedure, which is different from the grammatical syllabic division, unstressed vowels are grouped into a single syllable, with the syllables counting up to the last stressed syllable.

See too: Luís Vaz de Camões – considered the greatest poet of the Portuguese language

• Stanzas

Stanza is the name given to the verse grouping in a poem. As the number of verses in each stanza can vary, depending on the amount, the stanzas can be named as follows:

Couplet: two verses
Triplet: three verses
Quartet or Court: four verses
Quintille: five verses
Sextet or sextile: six verses
Seventh or septil: seven verses
Eighth: eight verses
Ninth: nine verses
From above: ten verses

• Rhymes

name yourself rime the musical resource based on sound similarity of situated words or at the end or inside the verses. Interpolated (ABBA), alternate (ABAB) and paired (AABB) rhymes are those composed at the end of the verses.

• Language

In the lyrical genre, the connotative language, that is, when the words used are in your figurative meaning, in its poetic sense. Thus, the poet tends to change the meaning of words crystallized in everyday life to give them a broader meaning. The reader, in turn, sees himself in the movement of reading and interpretation, as someone who needs to decode the words present in the poem beyond their denotative sense, using the context in which each word appears as an aid.

In the lyrical genre, the use of figures of speech, such as alliteration (consonant repetition), assonance (vowel repetition) and the parallelism (repetition of phrases and prayers), contributes to the reach of poetic language.

Also access: Parnassianism - literary movement that produced only poetry

Types of poems

Sonnet: fixed form consisting of two stanzas with four lines and two stanzas with three lines.
Ballad: poem consisting of three stanzas with eight lines and a stanza with four lines.
Rondo: poem consisting of only four-line stanzas, or four-line stanzas combined with eight-line stanzas.
haiku: Japanese poem composed of three lines, the first line having five poetic syllables, the second having seven, and the third having five.
Ode: of Greek origin, it designates an enthusiastic poem of exaltation, meaning the same as “song”. It is generally structured in four-line stanzas. Its theme is related to nature.
Anthem: poem intended to glorify the motherland or praise religious entities. Structure similar to the ode.
Eclogue: poem that presents dialogue on pastoral and bucolic themes.
Idyll: short poem of bucolic, pastoral character. It differs from the eclogue in that it does not present dialogue.
Elegy: poem about sad events or someone's death.
Satire: poem that censors human defects, showing the ridiculousness of a given situation.
Villancete: poem consisting only of a stanza of four lines, or stanzas of four lines combined with stanzas of eight lines.
Epithalamus: poem composed in honor of someone's nuptials.

To the sound of the musical instrument lyre, the Greek poets sang their poems, which gave rise to the lyrical genre.

solved exercises

Question 1 - (UFU)

love is a link
between the blue
and the yellow

LEMINSKI, Paulo. vie en close.5. ed. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1994. p.126.

Based on the reading of the poem, check the statement that NO applies to Paulo Leminski's poetry contained in La vie in close.

a) Note the use of haiku, taken from the Japanese literary tradition, showing the taste for the short poem.

b) Note the predominance of the syntagmatic over the paradigmatic axis, giving the poem a more discursive character.

c) The preference for puns and wordplay stands out, marked by effects of surprise and condensation.

d) It is noteworthy, in relation to the verbal sign, the exploration of signifiers, seen in relative autonomy as to the meanings.

Resolution

Alternative B. The poem does not have a discursive character, since the syntagmatic, syntactic axis does not predominate over the paradigmatic (that is, over the poetic form, which prioritizes the rhythmic and the metaphorical). This is evidenced by the fact that verbal signs (words) are explored in their signifier (that is, in their sound form itself), and they they are relatively autonomous with regard to meaning (the sense that they are attributed to them), as the definition of love is the least relevant in the poem.

Question 2 - (UFU) In general, the lyric is seen as the genre that is characterized by expressing feelings and intimate ideas of a poetic subject. Lyrical poetry would then be marked above all by subjectivity, privileging the inner world over the outer world.

Check the alternative where the poem fragment DOES NOT have a lyrical self corresponding to what was described.

a) “World wide world world,/ if I was called Raimundo/ it would be a rhyme, it would not be a solution./ World wide world world,/ wider is my heart.” (ANDRADE, Carlos Drummond de. some poetry)

b) “The paper/where to write/the verse is mineral; [...] Finally, it is mineral/ any book:/ that the written word is mineral, the cold nature/ of the written word.” (MELO NETO, João Cabral de. composition psychology)

c) "Where was it / what now / I miss / what I don't know / not even the name anymore / what was so dear before / [...] surrounded by my skin / made by myself?" (FREITAS FILHO, Armando. Long life)

d) “Nobody dreams the same dream twice/ [...] Neither loves the same woman twice. [...] We are still not used to the world / Being born is too long.” (MENDES, Murilo. In: The four elements)