English Lyric Tradition

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Based on your reading so far what are the key characteristics of the English Lyric Tradition? Lyric poetry evolved from the Romantic Era. Customarily, they are poems used to express the feelings of the poet. They tend to have specific rhyming schemes and often, but not always, are set to a particular rhythm or beat. The tradition presents a combination of themes and techniques which throughout time have proved constant in all lyrical poetry. The first essential characteristic to all lyric poetry is there is always a personal voice (the speaker) expressing a personal (the speaker’s) opinion. Many of these poems are also have a rather lyre sound with a rhymitic, lyrical quality. This is shown for example, in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 c 1600. The sonnet is not only quite short but also has a rhyme scheme “day, may.. fade, shade .. see, thee” and both o these give the sonnet a certain musical quality. Robert Herrick’s “To the virgins”, also when read out, seem to quite rhythmitic sound and also gives it a musical quality. Another fundamental theme to lyrical poetry is the theme of nature. In Robert Herrick’s lyric poem “To the virgins to make much of time”, the poet uses nature, as an extended theme to express the speaker’s seemingly imperative views. The title of the poem seems to be the poet urging virgins to not waste time in life and perhaps to be more promiscuous. As the poem is addressing virgins, this may lead us to believe that sexual pleasures are key in this. Herrick speaks of the sun, temperature and roses as extended metaphors to express the speaker’s opinion. In the same way that Herrick has done this, lyrical poets tend to use aspects of nature as extended metaphors throughout their poems to voice the speaker’s feelings. In Herrick’s poem, the roses symbolise sensuality and a fulfilment of earthly pleasures. Like the rosebuds, the
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