Lyric PoetryPoems, Poets, and how it relates to Beyonce

What is a lyric?

From the Greek word, lyra, meaning lyre, lyric poetry, refers to a short song accompanied by a musical instrument, almost always the lyre

Yep, you read that right.

Some of the LYRIC POETRY (either spoken or sung) was considered “mood music” for…um, well…you know.

Types of poetry

The lyric poets can be divided into two groups. There are those best known for MONODY and those best known for CHORAL COMPOSITION.

Monody

A style of composition dominated by a single melodic line.

A poem recited by one person or created for one voice.

Epithalamium, [Happy

Bridegroom]  by Sappho

Happy bridegroom, Hesper bringsAll desired and timely things.All whom morning sends to roam,Hesper loves to lead them home.

 Hesper: the evening star

 

Home return who him behold,Child to mother, sheep to fold,Bird to nest from wandering wide:Happy bridegroom, seek your bride.

Choral Composition

o Archaic choral lyric poetry was performed by choruses of both sexes at public religious festivals or major family functions

Lyric Genres

Hymn 

Sung to the accompaniment of a lyre by a chorus standing around the altar. As the ode to Apollo and dithyramb to Dionysus were developed, the hymn became limited to worship of other gods.

Hyporcheme

 The Hyporcheme was both a song and a dance. At least two forms of it are known. In one, a single person played and sang while the others danced. In the other, more usual form, "one or more musicians played, a selected number of the best dancers gave full plastic expression to the theme, while the larger body, which sang, accompanied the music with a sedate orchestic movement…. The dance was performed about the altar during the sacrifice of the victims.”

Paean

The paean was choral, accompanied by the lyre or flute. The term at first meant a song devoted to the worship of Apollo, then came to be used in other contexts. "It is as a song of thanksgiving and praise...that the paean is best attested in ancient literature. It was pre-eminently a song of joy....Apollo enjoined that the paean should be sung in the springtime at Delphi."

Enkomion

 

A praise poem in honor of men, as opposed to the hymn which was for the gods.

Epinikion 

A praise poem sung by a chorus in honor of a victor in an athletic contest.

The common form of accompaniment seems to have been a combination of wind and stringed instruments

Erotikon

 

Love poetry--sacred, profane, or both.

Threnos

Threnoi were funeral laments; examples of from the Homeric age can be found in the Iliad. The chorus wore black, and "a stately dance augmented the somberness of the occasion.”

Partheneion

Song sung by a chorus of maidens, with the accompaniment of flute music and dance.