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RE: "Behind Great Minds" (poem) >>> A Tribute to Those Who Teach Our Children
Great verse - made me smile. Is that lyrical poetry? It sounded lyrical to me.
Writing a personal poem for a teacher is a fantastic way to thank them.
@nicktravers,
Hi Nick.
Is it Lyrical Poetry? It depends on how precise, or pedantic, you want to be.
The problem is that the definition of "Lyrical Poetry" has changed throughout the Ages. The Greeks invented the term. For them it was a poem written to be sung with a lyre. I do not own a lyre. :-) Generally, Greek lyrical poems were written in the 1st person and expressed personal feelings and emotions. Ancient Greek poetry rarely, if ever, used rhyming, relying instead upon meter as the primary organizational structure of a poem. So by that definition, my poem would not be a lyrical poem.
The Romans copied the Greeks, but stopping the singing and threw out the lyre.
In Medieval Europe, the singing re-appeared but was now accompanied by prancing about, as lyrical poetry came to mean poems that could be sung by troubadours. Rhyme scheme, by this time, had become the dominant ornament of poetry, a feature copied from Arabic poetry. Thematically, lyric poems could be about anything although lovey-dovey courtly love stuff was a genre favorite.
The 20th Century post-modern era (which originated as an expression of far-Left political ideology, essentially Marxism) was not kind to lyrical poetry or classical art in general. Order, form and "a right-way-of-doing-things" became anathema. It all became about experimenting. So, today, if anyone calling himself/herself a poet says it's a poem, it's a poem ... including a single word on a page. Even of it's spelt wrong. Apparently, there's no such thing as bad art. If you think something is bad art, it's just not "accessible to you."
Personally, I beg to differ.
Today, the term "lyrical poetry" seems to be used to describe any poem with a regular meter, rhythm and rhyme scheme ... like the "lyrics" of a song. The subject matter and person-tense don't seem to matter. So, according to modern definition, my poem is a Lyrical Poem - falling under a category of poetry now termed "New Formalism" ... a "newness" that I suspect would surprise the ghosts of Chaucer and Shakespeare. They called it "Verse."
So lets see if I got this right: Lyrical doesn't mean what it used to mean, or what it meant before that, and certainly not what the Greeks meant by the word. So glad I asked!
@nicktravers,
Nick, don't be a smarty pants. Of course ... it's that simple.
You think I didn't know?
But after I'd gotten half way through ... I had sunk costs. I'd invested too much effort to turn back. In for a penny ... :-)
You're a novelist ... don't even try to tell me you haven't done the same. If you do ... I will require the contact information of your editor.
I know exactly what you mean. Your reply was very informative and much appreciated.