LITERATURE is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources (although, under circumstances unpublished sources

can be exempt). Literally translated, the word literature means "acquaintance with letters" (as in the "arts and letters"). The two major classification of literature are poetry and prose. It comes from the Latin word, Littera, which means "acquaintance with letters". POETRY is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. A poem is a composition written in verse (although verse has been equally used for epic and dramatic fiction). Poems rely heavily on imagery, precise word choice, and metaphor; they may take the form of measures consisting of patterns of stresses (metric feet) or of patterns of different-length syllables (as in classical prosody); and they may or may not utilize rhyme. One cannot readily characterize poetry precisely. Typically though, poetry as a form of literature makes some significant use of the formal properties of the words it uses the properties of the written or spoken form of the words, independent of their meaning. Meter depends on syllables and on rhythms of speech; rhyme and alliteration depend on the sounds of words. Later aestheticians identified three major genres: epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry. ELEMENTS OF POETRY Prosody is the study of the meter, rhythm, and intonation of a poem. Rhythm and meter are different, although closely related.[28] Meter is the definitive pattern established for a verse (such as iambic pentameter), while rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry. Thus, the meter of a line may be described as being "iambic", but a full description of the rhythm would require noting where the language causes one to pause or accelerate and how the meter interacts with other elements of the language. Prosody also may be used more specifically to refer to the scanning of poetic lines to show meter. RHYTHM Metrical rhythm generally involves precise arrangements of stresses or syllables into repeated patterns called feet within a line METER In the Western poetic tradition, meters are customarily grouped according to a characteristic metrical foot and the number of feet per line. Thus, "iambic pentameter" is a meter comprising five feet per line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the "iamb". iamb one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable trochee one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable

dactyl one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables anapest two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable spondee two stressed syllables together pyrrhic two unstressed syllables together (rare, usually used to end dactylic hexameter)

The number of metrical feet in a line are described in Greek terminology as follows: monometer - one foot dimeter two feet trimeter three feet tetrameter four feet pentameter five feet hexameter six feet heptameter seven feet octameter eight feet

RHYME, ALLITERATION AND ASSONANCE Rhyme, alliteration, assonance and consonance are ways of creating repetitive patterns of sound. They may be used as an independent structural element in a poem, to reinforce rhythmic patterns, or as an ornamental element.[51] Rhyme consists of identical ("hard-rhyme") or similar ("soft-rhyme") sounds placed at the ends of lines or at predictable locations within lines FORMS SONNET Among the most common forms of poetry through the ages is the sonnet, which by the 13th century was a poem of fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. A sonnet usually follows an a-b-a-b rhyme pattern. SESTINA The sestina has six stanzas, each comprising six unrhymed lines, in which the words at the end of the first stanzas lines reappear in a rolling pattern in the other stanzas. The poem then ends with a three-line stanza in which the words again appear, two on each line. HAIKU Generally written in a single vertical line, the haiku contains three sections totalling 17 onji (see above, at Tanka), structured in a 5-7-5 pattern.

GENRE NARRATIVE POETRY Narrative poetry is a genre of poetry that tells a story. Broadly it subsumes epic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often reserved for smaller works, generally with more appeal to human interest. EPIC POETRY Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form of narrative literature. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a heroic ormythological person or group of persons. Examples of epic poems are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the Nibelungenlied, Lus de Cames'Os Lusadas, the Cantar de Mio Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Valmiki's Ramayana, Ferdowsi's Shahnama, Nizami (or Nezami)'sKhamse (Five Books), and the Epic of King Gesar. DRAMATIC POETRY Dramatic poetry is drama written in verse to be spoken or sung, and appears in varying, sometimes related forms in many cultures. Verse drama may have developed out of earlier oral epics, such as the Sanskrit and Greek epics. SATIRICAL POETRY The punch of an insult delivered in verse can be many times more powerful and memorable than that of the same insult, spoken or written in prose. LYRIC POETRY Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlike epic poetry and dramatic poetry, does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a more personal nature. Rather than depicting characters and actions, it portrays the poet's own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions. While the genre's name, derived from "lyre", implies that it is intended to be sung, much lyric poetry is meant purely for reading. ELEGY An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term "elegy," which originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiac meter), commonly describes a poem of mourning. An elegy may also reflect something that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious. The elegy, as a reflection on a death, on a sorrow more generally, or on something mysterious BALLAD The poems that are on the subject matter of love and sung by the poet or group of singers as telling readers a story. ALLEGORY Allegory is the famous form of poetry and is loved by the readers because of its two symbolical meanings. One is the literal meaning and another is the deep meaning.

DRAMA Drama is the theatrical dialogue performed on stage, it consists of 5 acts. Tragedy, comedy and melodrama are the sub types of drama. e.g William Shakespeare, an Elizabethan dramatist composed the plays Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear that are famous because of its combination of tragedy and comedy. Problem play, farce, fantasy, monologue and comedy of manners are some kinds of drama. TRAGEDY It is a story of the major character who faces bad luck. Tragedy, elements of horrors and struggle usually concludes with the death of a person. The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer are the two famous Greek tragedies. COMEDY The lead character overcomes the conflicts and overall look of the comedy is full of laughter and the issues are handled very lightly. The elements used in the comedy are romanticism, exaggeration, surprises and a comic view of life. MELODRAMA The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions

PROSE is a literary piece that is written without metrical structure Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure(as in traditional poetry). While there are critical debates on the construction of prose, its simplicity and loosely defined structure has led to its adoption for the majority of spoken dialogue, factual discourse as well as topical and fictional writing. It is commonly used, for example, in literature,newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, broadcasting, film, history, philosophy, law and many other forms of communication. NOVEL A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The present English (and Spanish) word derives from the Italian novella for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the Latin novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new" NOVELLA

A novella (also called a short novel) is a written, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000.[1] Other definitions start as low as 10,000 words and run as high as 70,000 words. A novella has generally fewer conflicts than a novel, yet more complicated ones than a short story.[6] The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories. They have endings that are located at the brink of change.[6] Unlike novels, they are not divided into chapters, and are often intended to be read at a single sitting, as the short story, although white space is often used to divide the sections. They maintain, therefore, a single effect. ESSAYS An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. One definition is a "prose composition with a focused subject of discussion" or a "long, systematic discourse" SHORT STORY A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas. Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on one incident; has a single plot, a single setting, and a small number of characters; and covers a short period of time. The small commercial fiction, true or imaginary, smaller than a novel is known as short story. Short stories are well grouped into easy beginning, concrete theme, some dialogs and ends with resolution. They are oral and short-lived which have gossip, joke, fable, myth, parable, hearsay and legend. FABLE Fable is a short allegorical tale conveying a moral or a principle of behaviour. The characters are usually animals talking like human beings, but keeping their animal traits. Often the moral is appended in a form of a proverb. PARABLE Parable is a brief narrative (especially in the Bible) designed to illustrate a religious truth or teach a lesson LEGEND A legend (Latin, legenda, "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility", defined by a highly flexible set of parameters, which may include miracles that are perceived as actually having happened, within the specific tradition of indoctrination where the legend arises, and within which it may be transformed over time, in order to keep it fresh and vital, and realistic