Lyric Poetry
The word lyric, according to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary, means “spenserian”. In other words, the lyric is “spenserian” in the sense that it is “writing” in verse, or in a form of verse that is sung. Literature of lyric poetry includes but is not limited to, literature of song–the lyrics of which are sung to fit the tune or rhythm of the music. Such literary forms as lyric and song lyric are very closely related, though each has its own characteristics, and even the most seasoned lyricists recognize the value of collaboration between lyric and song lyricists.
Lyric poetry, in contrast, is a relatively short poem whose content, unlike that of song lyric, is usually focused on a single speaker. The poet who composes a lyric often gives vent to his or her feelings in a single line or at the most in a few words, expressing the emotion with which the poet associates the object of his expression. Lyric poetry has, generally, more than one meter, and the poem may sometimes be called a “tale”.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (famous, perhaps, for his “ays”, “ways”, and “yea’s”) was the first American poet to use the cumulative forms of the verb, “to be”, “and be.” He used “ay” in his famous “unes” (or eight-line poem) on the subject of love. Wordsworth’s “ays” to “I,” “you,” and “thyself” in his “Odyssey” also belongs to this genre. Milton dedicated one of his “Paradise Lost” poems to the “singing of the bird in the beholder” (a theme he pursued in his “Paradise Lost” and “Master and Man of Corning”). William Shakespeare used the concept of Lyric verses in his “Titus Andronicus.”