Lyrical Poetry: Subgenres and Characteristics

Lyrical Poetry

Lyrical poetry integrates all those literary texts in which the author delves into individual feelings, ideas, and passions. These poems do not have a historical or story line.

Subgenres:

• Anthem: Composed to be sung, anthems usually express collective feelings.
• Ode: Of a certain length, odes address lofty and abstract concepts. They are divided into stanzas or similar parts.
• Elegy: A lament or epitaph, elegies express feelings of hurt over the loss of someone, because of misfortune or calamity, or memories of a bygone past and an extinct civilization.
• Eclogue: A long poem in which the characters are shepherds who discuss their love affairs.
• Lyrics: A love poem, more or less extensive, originally troubadour, sometimes accompanied by music.
• Madrigal: Similar to lyrics but much shorter.
• Letrilla: A type of poem divided into short lines and symmetrical stanzas with a chorus.

Satire and Other Forms

• Satire: A poem intended to censor or criticize negative attitudes and ingrained vices, all in a festive, humorous, or entertaining tone.
• Mockery: Cruel and merciless mockery of anyone, either for physical peculiarities or for moral flaws.
• Epigram: A very short poem composed around a mundane and unimportant idea.
• Anacreon: A short poem that extols some fact, object, or idea that is mundane and unimportant.
• Pain: Halfway between lyric and narrative, from a daily story, it follows a moral or didactic lesson, sometimes imbued with philosophy, other times with humor.
• Serranillos: A poem that reflects the encounter and dialogue between a traveler and a woman living in the bush, often dedicated to theft, who intercepts the unwary.
• Pastorel: Similar to the above, it describes the encounter between a knight and a shepherdess, where the former requires love from the latter, usually without being returned.
• Epistle: A poem in the form of a letter to someone real or imagined, where themes of high ethics are often dealt with, either to teach or to censor.
• Fable: A short, simple poem whose protagonists are animals that embody human vices and attitudes; it ends with a moral.