We explain what a poem is and what its differences are with poetry. Also, the parts that compose it and some examples.
What is a poem?
A poem is a literary composition of the lyric genre, usually of short length, consisting of the description subjective of an emotional, existential state or of some experience. To do this, it uses a metaphorical language, abundant in tropes and linguistic turns and imaginary licenses, more akin to lyrical and singing than to narration.
Although there may also be them in prose, the poems are composed mostly in verse, without this meaning that they adhere to the structures of the rhyme and classical metrics, which imposed a specific number of syllables per verse. At present this literary genre is extremely free in terms of forms, so that a poem can be divided into stanzas, in chants, or simply flow as poetic prose or prose poetry.
The books of poems are called poetry books and can consist of anthologies, compilations by an author or a single long poem. Poetry is conventionally classified into subgenres, the main four of which are:
- Anthems. Lyrical songs that express exalted emotions, of celebration regarding a specific topic. For example:Hymns to the night by Novalis.
- Odes. Similar to hymns, but dedicated to a theme, object, or person specifically, whose virtues or beauty are proclaimed in the poem. For example: "Ode to a Greek Urn" by John Keats.
- Elegys. These are poems of lamentation, in which something lost is said goodbye or cried: illusion, love, life, etc. For example: "Elegy to the impossible memory" by Jorge Luis Borges.
- Satires. The satires are burlesque compositions, which express indignation or contempt towards certain subjects or people, sometimes for educational purposes. For example:Praise of folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Poem and poetry
The terms poem and poetry are often used as synonyms, although they are not.On the one hand, a poem is a text, a writing, and therefore a finished work that we can read, that has an author and has a moment of publication. Instead, poetry is a literary genre, that is, one of the areas in which the literature it is subdivided, and therefore an idea, a concept. Poetry has no author, but is the conceptual category of all poems written and published in literature.
That said, it should be clarified that it is possible to find the term "poetry" used to refer to a poem, as synonyms, when it is preceded by a Article indeterminate (una / unas): “Julián wrote me a poem” is equivalent to “Julián wrote me a poem”.
Parts of a poem
Poems can vary greatly in their structure and composition, but they usually consist of a textual body made up of verses. A verse is equivalent to a line of text, which is arbitrarily interrupted to emphasize a certain musicality or certain rhythm on the reading, unlike prose, which is continuous.
The verses compose stanzas: sets of verses separated by blank spaces, equivalent to the paragraphs of prose. And finally, the total of the stanzas make up a song, which would become the "acts" or "chapters" of the poem.
Finally, if any, the songs integrate the poem in its entirety.
Love Poems
Some famous love poems are:
- "Eternal love" by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
The sun may cloud forever;
The sea can dry up in an instant;
The axis of the earth may be broken
Like a weak crystal.
Everything will happen! May death
Cover me with his funereal crepe;
But it can never be turned off in me
The flame of your love.
- “Kisses” (fragment) by Gabriela Mistral
There are kisses that they pronounce by themselves
the condemning love sentence,
there are kisses that are given with the look
there are kisses that are given with memory.
There are silent kisses, noble kisses
there are enigmatic kisses, sincere
there are kisses that only souls give each other
There are kisses forbidden, true.
- "Ode to love" (fragment) by Pablo Neruda
Love, let's do the math.
At my age
it's not possible
deceive or deceive us.
I was a thief of roads,
maybe,
I do not regret.
A minute deep
a broken magnolia
for my teeth
and the moonlight
matchmaker.
Friendship poems
Some anonymous poems by friendship are:
- "Friendship" (fragment)
And, that in the sweetness of friendship
there is room for laughter, and,
for shared pleasures.
Because in the dew of the little things,
the heart finds its tomorrow,
and, take its freshness.
- "Some friendships last forever"
Sometimes you find in life
a special friendship:
that someone who when entering your life
it changes her completely.
That someone who makes you laugh incessantly;
that someone who makes you believe that in the world
there are really good things.
That someone who convinces you
that there is a ready door
for you to open it.
That is an eternal friendship.
- "Friend"
Your friend is the answer to your needs.
It is your field, which you sow with love,
and you reap with gratitude.
And it is your table,
and the fire of your home.
Some of the most famous exhibitors of the poetic genre were: Homer, Greek poet of the 8th century BC, author of well-known epic poems of great literary value such as the Iliad and the Odyssey; Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (16th century Spanish), also a prose writer; Mario Benedetti, the most current poet (20th century), creator of a wide collection of poems and also prose; and the English William Shakespeare and William Wordsworth, among others.