Traditional Lyric Poetry: Origins, Structure, and Styles

Traditional Lyric Poetry

Lirica tradicional - the traditional lyric. Anonymous compose songs that are transmitted orally and the theme is the feeling of love. The oral poetry becomes poetry when it is transmitted by traditional collectivity. The first manifestations of the traditional lyric seem to be in the X or XI century. Poetry is of anonymous author, but the community endorses and transmits it to subsequent generations.

Structure

Traditional lyric-based rhythmic structures and pararelismo choruses.

Themes

Love, perhaps more abundant from a female perspective than male.

Style

Simple and condensed. Short poems are intense and emotional.

Metrics

Minor art verses of different measures of rhyme and assonance. The rate is usually based on the chorus and parallelism.

Lyrical Educated

It is a poetry of known authorship which is transmitted through writing, a poem that appears later, more elaborated than the traditional lyrical. The first cultured lyric was Provençal in the twelfth century. He who writes the lyrics and the music is the troubadour.

Mozarabic or Andalusian Lyrical: the jarchas

The jarchas are short poems written in Mozarabic language dealing with the love theme from a female perspective. From the XI century, they are the oldest examples of the traditional Hispanic lyric. The muwassaha is a composition that had to end with a short little poem that was not from the original author. The theme is female love (sorrow for the absence of the beloved). The girl in love, mother, or sisters appear confident. The jarchas poems are very brief, 3, 4, or 5 eight-syllable verses. Exclamations or question marks abound.

Galaicoportuguesa: The Lyrical Ballads

There are three types of ballads:

• Lyric-traditional: the songs of a friend. From the XII century, they were not collected until the XIII century. Theme: love, the friend is the beloved. It manifests the complaint of an enamored girl. Parallel structure.
• Cultured: The Lyrical ballads of love and songs of mockery. In the love songs, the author laments being unrequited by his lady. The mocking songs are satirical poems directed against other poets and courtiers.

Alfonso X the Wise wrote the Canticles of the Virgin Mary.