Lessons 20–21 · 2 lessons · Q. Yo‘ldoshev, V. Qodirov, J. Yo‘ldoshbekov. Literature: textbook for Grade 9 of general secondary schools. Revised and expanded 4th edition. “O‘zbekiston” NMIU, Tashkent, 2019
21
About lyric poetry
Textbook: pp. 109–110
GoalKnow the features, poetic form and genres of the lyric kind and analyse one couplet by “what – how” it says.
Lyric is one of the three kinds of literature; the term comes from the Greek “lyre” (an instrument) because in antiquity poems were sung to the lyre. Unlike epic and drama, lyric depicts not reality but feelings and experiences in a person’s inner world, though these feelings arise from social, political or natural events. Lyrical works are mostly written in verse form – metrical, rhymed, divided into stanzas; in Uzbek poetry barmoq, aruz and free metres are widely used. For poetic purposes inversion, a changed order of sentence parts, is often used. From the early twentieth century poems in prose also appeared. Genres of classical lyric: ghazal, rubai, tuyuq, masnavi, murabba, muxammas, tarji’band; other peoples have sonnet, ode, elegy, octave, haiku and others. In judging a poem, what is said and how it is said both matter.
Worked examples
Example: what is said in Bobur’s couplet beginning “Keltursa yuz baloni...”? The lover welcomes even the calamities that come from the faithless beloved, since pain from a loved one is dear. How is it said? The word “yuz” has two meanings (hundred and face) – tajnis and iham; the verb comes at the start – inversion.
Example: a modern poem may be written in free metre, whereas a ghazal rests on aruz metre with rhyme and radif. Even if the form differs, the depiction of inner feeling remains the main mark of lyric.
Class activity
Choose a couplet from a favourite poem and fill the columns “what is said” and “how it is said”. Find at least one device (simile, personification, exaggeration, repetition and so on).
Practice
1
What is meant by lyric and where does the term come from?
The literary kind depicting feelings and experiences in the inner world; from the Greek word “lyre”.
2
State three features of lyrical works.
Verse form, depiction of inner feeling and (often) inversion.