Quick Definition: poem that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings; ADJ.
lyric (
lĭr'ĭk)
adj.- Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form.
- Relating to or constituting a poem in this category, such as a sonnet or an ode.
- Of or relating to a writer of poems in this category.
- Lyrical.
- Music.
- Having a singing voice of light volume and modest range.
- Of, relating to, or being musical drama, especially opera: the lyric stage.
- Having a pleasing succession of sounds; melodious.
- Of or relating to the lyre or harp.
- Appropriate for accompaniment by the lyre.
n.- A lyric poem.
- Music. The words of a song. Often used in the plural.
[French lyrique, of a lyre, from Old French, from Latin lyricus, from Greek lurikos, from lura, lyre.]
lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to refer to any short poem that expresses a personal emotion, be it a sonnet, ode, song, or elegy. In early Greek poetry a distinction was made between the choral song and the monody sung by an individual. The monody was developed by Sappho and Alcaeus in the 6th cent.
B.C., the choral lyric by Pindar later. Latin lyrics were written in the 1st cent.
B.C. by Catullus and Horace. In the Middle Ages the lyric form was common in Christian hymns, in folk songs, and in the songs of
troubadours. In the Renaissance and later, lyric poetry achieved its most finished form in the sonnets of Petrarch, Shakespeare, Spencer, and Sidney and in the short poems of Ronsard, Ben Jonson, John Donne, Herrick, and Milton. The romantic poets emphasized the expression of personal emotion and wrote innumerable lyrics. Among the best are those of Robert Burns, Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Lamartine, Hugo, Goethe, Heine, and Leopardi. American lyric poets of the 19th cent. include Emerson, Whitman, Longfellow, Lanier, and Emily Dickinson. Among lyric poets of the 20th cent. are W. B. Yeats, A. E. Housman, Rainer Maria Rilke, Federico Garca Lorca, W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Wallace Stevens, Elinor Wylie, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Lowell.
Bibliography
See J. M. Cohen, The Baroque Lyric (1963); C. D. Lewis, The Lyric Impulse (1965); J. Erskine, The Elizabethan Lyric (1967); P. Dronke, The Medieval Lyric (1968).
lyric
A kind of poetry, generally short, characterized by a musical use of language. Lyric poetry often involves the expression of intense personal emotion. The elegy, the ode, and the sonnet are forms of the lyric poem.
Lyric 1. The words to a song. 2. In a singing and melodious manner.
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words. The noun lyric has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1: the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number
Synonyms: words, language
Meaning #2: a short poem of songlike quality
Synonym: lyric poem
The verb lyric has one meaning:
Meaning #1: write lyrics for (a song)
The adjective lyric has 4 meanings:
Meaning #1: expressing deep personal emotion
Synonym: lyrical
Meaning #2: (music; of a singer or singing voice) being light in volume and modest in range
Antonym: dramatic (meaning #4)
Meaning #3: (music) relating to or being musical drama
Pertains to noun: opera (meaning #1)
Meaning #4: (poetry) lyric poetry
Pertains to noun: lyric (meaning #2)
lyrics
Lyrics are the words in songs. Lyrics can be written as the accompanying music is composed, or added afterwards. Sometimes, however, music is adapted to or written for a song or poem that has already been written. The meaning conveyed in lyrical verses can be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are so abstract as to be completely unintelligible. In such cases, there is a tendency to emphasize the form, articulation, meter, and symmetries of the expressions. There are many websites that feature lyrics to songs.
Etymology and usage
From the Greek, a lyric was originally a song sung with a lyre.
A lyric poem is one that expresses a subjective, personal point of view.
I would be the Lyric
Ever on the lip,
Rather than the Epic
Memory lets slip.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
The word lyric came to be used for the words of a popular song; this meaning was recorded in 1876 [1]. The plural lyrics was used only in referring to the words of multiple songs; to refer to the words of a single song as its lyrics instead of its lyric was considered erroneous. Even so, such usage became increasingly common (probably because of the association between lyrics and the plural form words), and is predominant in modern usage. Use of the singular form lyric is still grammatically acceptable; it is still considered erroneous to refer to an individual word in a song as a lyric.
Academic study
Lyrics can be studied from an academic perspective. For example, some lyrics can be considered a form of social commentary. Lyrics often contain political, social and economic themes as well as aesthetic elements, and so can connote messages which are culturally significant. Lyrics can also be analyzed with respect to the sense of unity (or lack of unity) it has with its supporting music. Analysis based on tonality and contrast are particular examples.
Chinese lyrics (詞) are Chinese poems written in the set metrical and tonal pattern of a particular song.
See also
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations for: Lyric Nederlands (Dutch)
lyrisch, als een lied, om gezongen te worden, uit te voeren op lier, melodisch, licht van toon (stem), lyriek, literatuur van gevoelsontroering, potische stijl, lyrisch gedichtje, (mv) woorden van popliedje
Franais (French)
lyrisme, lyrique
Deutsch (German)
n. - Lyrik, lyrisch
adj. - Lyrik, lyrisch
ή (Greek)
n. ί ύ, ό ί ή ύ adj. ό
Italiano (Italian)
lirica, lirico
Portugus (Portuguese)
n. - lrica (f)
adj. - lrico
Русский (Russian)
лирическое стихотворение, лирический, восторженный
Espaol (Spanish)
adj. - lrico
n. - poema lrico, poesa lrica
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - lyrisk dikt, (sng)text
adj. - lyrisk
中国话 (Simplified Chinese)
adj. - 抒情的
n. - 抒情诗, 歌词
中國話 (Traditional Chinese)
adj. - 抒情的
n. - 抒情詩, 歌詞
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 叙情詩, 歌詞
adj. - 叙情の, 叙情的な, 歌の
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) قصيدة من الشعر الغنائي, بصيغه الجمع كلمات أغنيه شعبيه (صفه) قيثاري, غنائي, صالح للغناء على أنغام القيثارة أو للتلحين والغناء, معبر عن أفكار الشاعر وعواطفه الخاصه, عاطفي أو حماسي إلى حد الإفراط
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - שיר של ביטוי-רגשות
n. - שיר של ביטוי-רגשות, שיר לירי, ליריקה, של הלירה (כלי-נגינה)
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