Meaning & use
lyric poetry
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Meaning
noununcountable
Poetry in which the speaker expresses personal feelings or thoughts in a short, musical form, rather than telling a long story.
Grammar: No plural and usually no article: lyric poetry is often short.
Patterns
- write lyric poetry
- a collection of lyric poetry
Her favorite sonnet is an example of lyric poetry about lost love.
Students compared lyric poetry with epic poetry in class.
The poet is best known for his lyric poetry on nature and memory.
Common combinations
- write lyric poetry
- She began to write lyric poetry as a teenager.
- love lyric poetry
- Many Romantic poets are famous for love lyric poetry.
- a master of lyric poetry
- Critics called him a master of lyric poetry.
- Greek lyric poetry
- Ancient Greek lyric poetry was sung with a lyre.
- collection of lyric poetry
- He published a small collection of lyric poetry.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lyrical verse
- Lyrical verse is a looser phrase and can describe any song-like writing, whereas lyric poetry is the formal category.
- song poetry
- Song poetry stresses that a poem is meant to be sung, while lyric poetry may only sound musical on the page.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: lyric poetry or lyrics?
lyric poetry vs lyrics
Lyrics are the words of a song. Lyric poetry is a kind of poem, not necessarily set to music.
Practice
Which text is the best example of lyric poetry?
Choose one answer.
Lyric poetry expresses personal feeling in a short form. The long hero story would be epic poetry.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lyric poetry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.