PS- With the Green quote, that has the feeling of a short poem nested in a prose narrative because of the rhyme.
This is to say the metric and phonetic (auditory) qualities that elevate common prose to lyrical prose. Lyric refers to the musical qualities of language.Erato is the muse of lyric poetry, although in later accounts, Euterpe was also associated with this form. The word derives from the Ancient Greek musical instrument known as the lyre. Poetic imagery may be applied for the reasons Clayton mentions.Ī clue as to the use of "lyric" can be found in the etymology. Similarly, lyricism in prose writing is primarily a factor of impeccable metric structure which results in perfect "flow" for the reader. (One of the implications of this modern poem is that rhythm is the fundamental trait of poetry, over and above rhyme or even meaning.) The bulk of the poem is written in natural, modern English, rendered poetry not by rhyme, but by the rhythmic structure. If you're not familiar with it already, you may be interested in Eliot's Four Quartets. What unifies the three examples you've presented is the impeccable rhythm (meter) of the prose.Īs Paul Clayton notes, prose lyricism can extend to poetic techniques (sound patterns) such as alliteration, internal rhymes and near rhymes, among others.We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills we shall never surrender We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. Prose rhythm, at least as I think of it, has to do with how the natural stresses in a sentence support the meaning of that sentence. Rhythm has to do with where stresses fall in a sentence. Then again you could do all of these things in a biology textbook that was not lyrical at all.įinally, alternating short and long sentences is not rhythm. Of course, in expressing your emotions in beautiful and imaginative language you may very well use metaphors, make references to nature, and use rhythm. The prose in that book is a rhythmic as I can reasonably make it, but no part of it is in any way lyrical.) (I have been arguing with my editor recently about sentence rhythm in my forthcoming technical book. You can have prose that is lyrical but not rhythmic, and prose that is rhythmic but not lyrical. Thus you can have poetry that is lyrical and poetry that is not lyrical. Lyrical means expressing the writer's emotions in a beautiful or imaginative way. If anything the derivation probably goes the other way. The word lyrical does not mean "like a song lyric". Natural images are not essential to lyrical expression, though they have the benefit of being broadly appreciated and having nearly an intrinsic emotive quality. One might even argue that "show don't tell" is a step in the lyrical direction. (The use of subtly might be similar to telling a joke the lead up disguises the punchline and the punchline by itself is generally not funny but with the whole there is a powerful reaction.) Other forms of indirect expression can also provide a lyrical quality, perhaps primarily from subtly which can intensify the emotive effect. The use of imagery accomplishes both subtlety and compression. Songs generally have a compression and a subtlety of expression that is not typical of ordinary prose.
The rhythmic aspect includes not merely higher-level structure but also accentuation, syllabic pacing, repetition of sound patterns, and other mechanisms. Songs are inherently emotive and use rhythm and sound to convey a sense beyond the literal. I would like to hear other definitions, or to know whether I'm mistaken. Us together, and then about myself again." I never stopped to think of it as something that would makeĪ lasting impression, certainly never imagined that eighteen years When I was in the scene, I hardly paid itĪny mind.
The use of rhythm (alternating short sentences with long sentences): Slimy flesh, dozens of seeds." ― Haruki Murakami Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.ģ. May wind, swelling up like a piece of fruit, with a rough outer skin, "When I closed my eyes, the scent of the wind wafted up toward me. That if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking This is my definition of what makes a sentence lyrical: I've been thinking about this question for a while.
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