Today, March 21, the International poetry day but do you know how it all started? Did you know that before only poetry was considered to be that literary formation in which in addition to being written in verse, there was rhyme? Today we can enjoy many different types of poetry, but as with many other things, it was not always that way.
Analyzing poetry
Poetry is literature in verse and has a series of characteristics that differentiate it notably from common and colloquial language. Its characteristics are as follows:
- La graphic layout and breaks: Poetry is written in a series of units called verses. Each of these verses occupies an independent line, and at the end of each verse, there is a pause that must be made when reading it
- El rhythm: Musicality plays a fundamental role in poetry. We will call this rhythm. This musical sensation in the verse is based on the repetition of various elements that constitute the meter of poetry. The most notable are: measure of verses, accent and rhyme.
Measure of verses
Poets often make sure the lines in their poems have a certain number of syllables. The repetition of this syllable system creates a certain rhythmic composition that brings some musicality to the text when it is read.
The accent
The reiteration of the phonic accent on the same syllables in each verse also creates a rhythmic impression. It does not need to be repeated in each and every verse for musicality to occur.
Rhyme
We call rhyme the repetition of sounds at the end of two or more verses. If this reiteration affects all sounds from the last stressed vowel of the verse, the rhyme is consonant. If it affects only the vowels and not the consonants, the rhyme is assonant.
On the other hand, what are those letters that are placed next to each verse? Those letters are put when we are going to analyze the metric system that a poem has and it will only be put in the verses that rhyme. The letter is lowercase when the verse has 8 fewer syllables. Therefore, it will be capitalized when it has 9 or more syllables. In those verses that do not rhyme, a line will be put.
Most current poems have free rhyme but formerly all or almost all the poems that were written rhymed in some of their verses. This added a further degree of difficulty to literary creation, since the poet had to find rhyming words and adapt them to his composition.
Recommended poetry books
On World Poetry Day we want to take the opportunity to recommend some books of poetry that you may like. Currently, they are not valued as much as novels and other prose writings, but neither is their quality inferior nor is their creation easier ...
- Any book of poems that you can read from Mario Benedetti, Pablo Neruda, Becquer, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Federico Garcia Lorca, Cesar Vallejo, Gabriela Mistral o Jaime Gil de Viedma, they are super recommended by us. They are classics so it is good to get lost at some point in life.
- "Love and disgust" de Miss Bebi: If you are young and you like poetry, you may like this book a lot. It is edited by Frida editions and has 202 pages. Topics such as feminism, youth, prejudices, etc., are accommodated between verse and verse.
- "The sad story about your body over mine" de Marwan: This is a book that talks about "affective territories" and "social territories", the desire to improve and carnal desire, the difficulty of having truth and understanding between two, and by extension, the sadly distant social justice . A highly recommended book if you want to enjoy good and current poetry.
- "The silence of the beasts" de Unai Velasco: The author has obtained the National Prize for Young Poetry and about him, the jury said the following: "An innovative book, which bets on a critical poetry in which irony is not at odds with avant-garde notes and with solid cultural and literary references".
Selection of two poems
It is difficult to write an article dedicated to World Poetry Day and not write the odd poetry as such. I leave you with two that I love:
Was it possible that I didn't know you
close to me, lost in the stares?
My eyes ached from waiting.
You passed.
If appearing then
you would have revealed to me
the true country in which you lived!
But you passed
like a destroyed God.
Alone, later, out of the black arose
Your look.
(Jaime Gil de Biedma)
They knock down giants from the forests to make a sleeper,
they knock down instincts like flowers,
wishes like stars
to make only a man with his stigma of man.
That they also tear down empires of one night,
monarchies of a kiss,
it does not mean anything;
that knock down the eyes, knock down the hands like statues
empty.
But this love closed to see only its form,
its shape among the scarlet mists,
wants to impose life, like autumn ascending so many
leaves
towards the last sky,
where stars
their lips give other stars,
where my eyes, these eyes,
they wake up in another.
(Louis Cernuda)