Problems with the Lyric as a Genre or Set of Related Genres

FAIN: FB-12638-75

Albert E. Elmore
Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden-Sydney, VA 23901-5657)

To find categories (genres or smaller classifications) which will account for observed differences among particular poets and poems. One example—the genre or category of "song" is used very loosely in literary criticism: can it be defined more precisely? Another example —do the traditional classification of lyrics by occasion (ode, epithalamium, elegy) tell one very much about the revolutionary practices of a lyrist like Donne? A long overview would be taken before narrowing the study to a particular period or poet.