Posts Tagged ‘poems’
Poems, unique among all literature, were for many centuries specifically meant to be learned by heart. They were meant to be memorized and then recited aloud. This is called the oral tradition of poetry — which in essence means holding literature in the mind and heart, and then reciting it. Thus we find in the oral tradition […]
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The Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374) did not invent the Petrarchan sonnet. It was perhaps first used by Dante (1265-1321) and then later by many of Dante’s contemporaries and imitators. But Petrarch’s excellence with the form — especially when celebrating his beloved Laura — made the form much more widely known, so that even into the […]
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Lyrics without music are like a clam without a shell. Songs lyrics are called melic — a word that means the lyrics are intended to be sung. Indeed, the word melic comes from the Greek word melos, meaning “song.” It’s no surprise, therefore, that no matter how much one might enjoy a song, the overwhelming […]
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(c)Ray Harvey 2011