Andizhan state institute of foreign languages

Poetic genre: elements of poetry

If we want to analyse a poem, we first need to identify its elements, starting with the bigger picture before moving on to the smaller details.
The main poetic elements include:

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  Genre
  
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  Form
  
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  Sound and sound effects
  
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  Poetic devices
  
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  Themes
  

Genre is one of the broadest poetic elements, which is why it is at the top of our list. A poem's genre depends on the other poetic elements and how they come together in the poem.
If a poem explores themes of heroism, is told from a third-person perspective, follows a formal structure, and is very, very long, then it is likely an epic poem, one of the oldest genres in poetry.

Poetry genre definition

Getting comfortable with genre is vital to honing your poetry analysis skills. Here is a simple definition to get us started:
Genre: a label used to group works of art or literature that have similar features.
Genre was introduced as a way of classifying works of ancient Greek literature. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE) identified poetic genres in Poetics (c. 350 BCE), including lyric poetry and epic poetry.
Lyric poetry: a genre of poetry that is emotional, expressive, and has a musical quality.
Today, genre remains the primary way of identifying different types of literature. Think of how difficult it would be to find your way around a library that wasn't organised by genre!
Having a solid understanding of genre is helpful when analysing poetry because it gives you starting points for what to look for.
If you already know that a poem is a lyric poem, you know that it will contain poetic elements that give it a musical quality.
We can use genre to:

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  Predict certain features in a poem
  
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  Draw comparisons and contrasts between different poems
  
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  Understand the context in which the poem was written
  
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  Interpret meanings in poetry
  

Remember! The accepted features of genres can change over time, and the boundaries between genres are not always clear. Poems can share features with one or multiple genres, challenge genre traditions, or even defy traditional genre conventions altogether.

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Fig. 1 - Understanding genre can help us find, write, and analyse works of poetry.

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