Romantic-Era Poetic Forms

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ROMANTIC-ERA POETIC FORMS Lyric poetry: A brief, emotive poem written in first person; it emphasizes sound and pictorial imagery rather than narrative or dramatic movement. Ode (odal hymn): A long, stately lyric poem in stanzas of varied metrical patterns. The poem represents divine creative power separate from the poet, but which the poet seeks to possess. Elegy: A poem on mourning or lamentation (usually about a death). Mock Heroic: This form of poetry was popular during Dryden, Swift and Pope’s era (just prior to the Romantic era) and is associated with satire and parody. Sonnet: A poem with 14 lines and a particular end-rhyme scheme. Various types include Spenserian, Petrarchan (Italian or Miltonic), Shakespearean (illegitimate English form). This form was used by women during the Romantic-Era to move away from logic and reason and more toward feeling and mood. Petrarchan (or Italian or Miltonic) Sonnet (considered “legitimate” form): Structure: 14 lines an octave (a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of 6 lines) rhyme scheme: abba abba cdecde Content: problem, situation or incident in octave resolution in sestet Example: see Mary Robinson’s sonnets Shakespearean (or English) Sonnet (considered “illegitimate” form): Structure: 14 lines 3 quatrains (a stanza of 4 lines; the most used stanzaic form in English poetry) ends with a rhyming couplet (a stanza of 2 lines) rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg Content: repetition-with-variation of a statement in each quatrain Epigrammatic1 turn at end of the final couplet Example: see Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets Sonnet Sequence: A series of sonnets are linked together by exploring the varied aspects of a relationship between lovers, or else by indicating a development in the relationship that constitutes a kind of implicit plot (Abrams 300). 1Neat & witty statements in prose or poetry (Abrams 84)..

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"The Clam-Digger: Capitol Island": a Robinson Sonnet Recovered
Colby Quarterly Volume 10 Issue 8 December Article 7 December 1974 "The Clam-Digger: Capitol Island": A Robinson Sonnet Recovered Richard Cary Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cq Recommended Citation Colby Library Quarterly, series 10, no.8, December 1974, p.505-512 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Quarterly by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. Cary: "The Clam-Digger: Capitol Island": A Robinson Sonnet Recovered Colby Library Quarterly 505 "THE CLAM-DIGGER: CAPITOL ISLAND": A ROBINSON SONNET RE,C'OVE,RED By RICHARD CARY n page 2 of The Reporter Monthly for April 26, 1890 ap O pears the following sonnet by Edwin Arlington Robinson not yet attributed to him in any bibliography or checklist. THE CLAM-DIGGER CAPITOL ISLAND There is a garden in a shallow cove Planted by Neptune centuries ago, Which Ocean covers with a thin, flat flow, Then falling, leaves the sun to gleam above Those oozy lives (which reasoning mortals love) Reposed in slimy silence far below The shell-strewn desert, while their virtues grow, And over them the doughty diggers rove. Then awful in his boots the King appears, With facile fork and basket at his side; Straight for the watery bound the master steers, Where giant holes lie scattered far and wide; And plays the devil with his bubbling dears All through the bounteous, ottoitic tide. R. In compiling his sturdy Bibliography 0/ Edwin Arlington Robinson (New Haven, 1936), Charles Beecher Hogan did record and reprint two other primigenial poems from this four page literary supplement of the Kennebec Reporter: "Thalia," March 29, 1890, as Robinson's first known publication of verse; "The Galley Race," May 31, 1890, as his second (at this point clearly to be reclassified third).
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