Lyric poetry

[billy]

i see the sonnet being lyrical now you mention it. and your explanation of it being relative to many readers in many ways makes my lack of knowledge on the matter that much less. dylan's poem is one of my faves. for me it's sometimes hard to know good ambiguity from bad ambiguity. i don't need all the i's dotted etc but i do need some of them dotted. below we know it's his father, he tells us so, we don't need names i agree, or the cause of death but without that one line the poem for me becomes to ambiguous, with it and the ambiguity within the poem is perfect.

Leanne, could you post one or two of your faves as examples?

That's a tall order

All sonnets, for example, are lyric poems.  It's the thought that's important, the emotions or philosophy, not the plot.  There IS no plot, even if "things happen".  It is more about how we think about the things that happen, or how they affect us, than the things themselves.

Villanelles, rondeaux, rondelets... all lyric poems.  Take Dylan Thomas' gorgeous "Do not go gentle into that good night":

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Does it matter what they're dying of?  Does it matter what words were spoken?  Does it matter what his relationship was with his father, and whether or not they had argued last week over dinner?  It does not need a description of the setting, or the names of their grandchildren, or why those who had died had been rebellious in death.  These are things for the reader to apply to his/her own situation, his/her own experiences.  It *should* be different for each reader, it should mean different things, and it really shouldn't be explained or it closes the meaning down to one possible answer only.