POETRY – A NATURAL SYMPHONY OF MUSIC

Music in its essence dispenses with words completely, and tunes, help in imparting its true and deep feelings. An artist’s vision gains his expression through sound – which is his medium of expression. Then there is pitch, tone, its rise and fall which are some of the other important elements that a musician successfully uses to create the magic. But when we try to compare literature with music we have to say that literature, particularly in its poetic form, is certainly endowed with not only tonic quality of its own but has signification of words as well. The poet while composing a poem very skillfully blends the two harmonies – i.e. – the harmony of words with that of the meaning of words. For even those who are tone-deaf, the thought or feeling that is conveyed in words are certain to excite them. The most vital element of poetry is its sound that is rhythm. The basic difference between music and literature is that, music may stir a vague emotional disturbance but poetry does not merely provide sense but sensibility to the emotional response. Although poetry itself is a melodious expression of thoughts and emotions, but the most melodious forms in English poetry are the lyrics, the odes, the sonnets and the ballads. These capture images vividly and in an original, refreshing way simultaneously interweave with the most vital element of sound that is rhythm coupled with a particular meter. The most famous of the lyricists are Sir Philip Sydney, Edmund Spencer, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. William Shakespeare popularized the sonnet form. Lyric, originally of ancient Greek origin, was basically a small song of single emotion or thought sung in the accompaniment of a stringed musical instrument called lyre, cithara or barbitos. Later with the passage of time, lyric though was not dependent on or was sung in the accompaniment of musical instrument but continued to adhere to a regular meter, based either on number of syllables or on stress. Some other lyricists were John Donne, Robert Burns, Gray and Goldsmith