Literature Appreciation: English Lyrics

[Music] when we read lyric poetry we are experiencing some of the moods and emotions that the poet has set down for us in musical language in any collection of lyric poems we find expressions that range through many different emotions here is one expressing the poet's yearning for his homeland all to be in England now that April's there and whoever wakes in England sees some morning unaware that the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf round the elm tree ball are in tiny leaf while the chaffinch sings on the orchard ball in England now perhaps this is not the exact scene in England that Robert Browning had in mind when he wrote his beautiful lyric but this poem and other English lyrics reflect the country of England where much of our best lyric poetry was written but what is lyric poetry is it different from other poetry the earliest poetry in England as in most countries was narrative poetry that is story poetry about kings and castles and epic deeds of English history one of the best-known narrative poems is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the tales a group of medieval pilgrims tells stories in poetic form in medieval times narrative poetry was a popular form of literature closely related to narrative poetry was dramatic poetry a kind of narrative poetry set to action Shakespeare's plays are among the finest examples of dramatic poetry in some of the plays we find another form of poetry simple songs [Music] such songs were among the earliest lyric poets among Shakespeare's lyrics are many that have appeal even today it was a lover and his last for the hey and a ho and a hey nonny know that or the green cornfield impasse in the springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing a ding a ding ding sweet lovers love the spring such lyric songs are part of lyric poetry among modern poets the lyric songs of Alfred Houseman are famous for their interpretation of the Shropshire country of England that is the land of lost content I see it shining plain the happy highways where I went and cannot come again in husbands simple lyrics we share the poet's experiences when I was 1 in 20 I heard a wise man say give crowns and pounds and guineas but not your heart away give pearls away and rubies but keep your fancy free but I was one and 20 no use to talk to me life love the passing of time these are some of the broad concepts expressed in lyric poetry sometimes the subject-matter of a poem is very specific in a quiet garden Thomas More may have found the rose for his lyric rose thou art the sweetest flower that ever drunked the amber shower there are many lyric poems that have been inspired by specific scenes Alfred Tennyson's poem the brook was inspired by a stream in Lincolnshire where the poet lived Tennyson makes the brook speak in simple lyrical language I make a sudden Sally and Sparkle out among the fern to bicker down a valley and yet beneath these delightful word pictures the poem has a deeper meaning for men may come and men may go but I go on forever for the poet Shelley a cloud was the specific inspiration for one of his most famous lyrics I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers from the Seas and the streams I bear light shade for the leaves when laid in their noonday dreams I'm the daughter of earth and water and the nursling of the sky I passed through the pores of the ocean and Shores I change but I cannot die a flower a brook a cloud these are a few of the specific things that have inspired lyric poets of England the power and grandeur of lyric poetry reach full expression in the sonnets and ODEs of John Keats Keats found beauty in almost everything he experienced the song of a nightingale in a garden filled him with thoughts that are among the loftiest ever expressed in poetry to keith's the bird was a symbol of beauty away away for I will fly to the knot chariot and by Bacchus and his parts but under viewless wings of policy throughout the poem keith's gives us image after image of beauty the immortal beauty which the nightingale symbolized for him but the inspirations of lyric poetry are as varied as life itself here in the midst of a great city of London William Wordsworth was inspired to write his son it called composed upon Westminster Bridge dull would he be of soul he declared who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty the city now doth like a garment where the beauty of the morning silent there Wordsworth goes on to describe the city its towers and domes and the emotion he feels when looking at all this near saw never felt a calm so deep the river glided that his own sweet will dear God the very houses seemed asleep and all that mighty heart his lying still almost every emotion of human life has been expressed in lyric poetry even the somber theme of death has inspired some of the greatest English poems here in Stoke poaches Thomas Gray wrote his famous elegy about a country churchyard the poet tells his thoughts as he wanders here reflecting on the people who have gone before him each in his narrow cell forever laid the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep Gray describes the evening scene the curfew Tolls the knell of parting day the lowing herd whines slowly or the Lee the ploughman homeward floods his weary way and leaves the world to darkness and to me similar thoughts of human fate and of eternity are expressed in Matthew Arnold's beautiful elegy called Dover Beach the sea is calm tonight the tide is full the moon lies fair upon the strengths the cliffs of England stand glimmering and vast out in the tranquil Bay listen you hear the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling at their return up a high strand begin and cease and then again begin to Matthew Arnold this vision symbolized the sea of faith faith retreating to the breath of the night wind down the vast ages Dreier and naked shingles of the world the world of lyric poetry is rich in beauty in grandeur in lofty emotions out of England out of English scenes and English life have come many of our greatest lyric poems poems created by English authors who took impressions from the path they roamed from the flowers they loved from the places they knew these poets have given us a wide range of experiences they have written about ideas and impressions about memories and dreams about love and laughter about all the things that are part of life and part of lyric poetry [Music]