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Ben Rowley
Ms. Enoch
ENC 1145
25 February 2015
Genre and Poetry
When English teachers try to introduce genre to their students, one of the hot topics to
analyze is poetry. Well what is poetry? Its hard to define because it is so broad of a topic. There
are too many different kinds of pieces with rules that go along with them. The best way I could
define poetry is writing formulated to a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in
language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound,
and rhythm. An easy way to classify poetry is by genre. A genre is a group of pieces that can be
categorized because of their similarities. From examining academic articles, I uncover the
creation and development of genre and subgenre through poetry.
Division of Genres
Genres can be divided and further subdivided as many times as it needs to be. The same
goes for poetry. We can look up some poems to read, but what if you only want to read haikus
about oppression? Genre allows us to group other similar works together, so we could further
divide the genre of poetry to haikus, and even to haikus about oppression. When discussing
genre in term of poetry, Trudier Harris explains, To illustrate the point, consider some of the
subdivisions within the genre of poetry; subgenera include the epic, heroic poetry, mock-heroic
poetry, lyrics, ballads, sonnets, dirges, threnodies, monodies, epigrams, epitaphs, verse epistles,
pastoral poetry (a pastoral poem can also be referred to as an eclogue, a bucolic, or an idyll), and
a host of others. Harris even forgets many other subgenres of poetry, but the amount he could

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easily name shows how far poetry has come as a genre. All of those examples can be grouped in
the mass genre of poetry, but the different writing styles of each can effectively allow poetry to
be divided into smaller groups that more accurately describe what they are. Sharron Gil adds to
this division of the genre of poetry. She argues a well written poem made for a child should also
be considered part of its own subgenre of poetry. A well written poem for children will have
different diction compared to a poem written for scholars. The definition Gil bases her reasoning
behind is, each word must be chosen with care, for both its sounds and meaning, since poetry is
a language in its most connotative and concentrative formPoetry does delight children, but it
also helps the develop new insights, new ways of sensing their world (623). Some of the
simplest worded poems have the strongest meaning. In the case of childrens poems, using
complex words with confusing connotations wouldnt be smart. Since we cant hold childrens
poetry to the same regulations as adult poetry, this would mean that we should divide the genre
of poetry, having childrens poetry be a subgenre to poetry. Then we could even further divide
the genre of childrens poetry into Harriss examples of different styled subgenres of childrens
poetry.
Harris creates his list on subgenres by the different styles of poetry as many people
would. Victoria Pineda implies that concrete poetry is not part of Harriss subgenres of poetry,
but rather its a historical kind of poetry because, it does not display the same external
characteristics with the corresponding kind, together with additional speculation of content.
(379). Pineda illustrates the problems associated with genre and concrete poetry specifically.
Concrete poetry are poems written to show a visual meaning as well as the figurative meaning all

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poetry has. This puts concrete poetry in the boat of being some kind of poetry, but she puts it in
no specific category. Pineda says concrete poetry is one of the first works of poetry, but she is
exempting concrete poetry from a subgenre of poetry because it created before the other
subgenres could be identified, and even before the genre of poetry itself could be identified.
However, concrete poetry is definitely a subgenre of poetry. The creation of a genre requires
many pieces of work to make the category. Even though concrete poetry can be described as a
historical kind of poetry, we can still categorize it as a subgenre of poetry because of its
differences from other types of poetry, and the amount of metatexts we can associate with it now.
To fully understand why concrete poetry is a subgenre, we need to look at the creation of genre.
Creation of Genre
The creation of genre is a process that doesnt happen overnight. Bitzer believed that
when someone responds to a rhetorical situation and others respond to the same situation
similarly, a genre is created (46). After this first response has been created, other writers have
some kind of guide to go off of if they wish to respond in the same way. This implies that before
there was poetry, someone wanted to express an idea in the form of literature differently than
people previously had. After the first poem has been created (even though not being
considered a poem yet) other poets could decide if they wanted to write something the same way.
When trying find the creation poetry we would have to look at some of the earliest responses to
this rhetorical situation. We can use Pinedas example of concrete poetry being some of the
earlier works. However, concrete poetry is not the first form of poetry, so we couldnt get
overzealous and say concrete poetry is responsible for the creation of poetry. Pineda also used

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Walter Mignolos definition of genre explaining how, a set of ideas linked to a particular label
and associated with a sufficient amount of metatexts (379). This implies that there is no genre
unless there is a sufficient set of metatexts. So a genre cant be created until there are enough
similar pieces to group it with them and only when they are looked back on, can classify them as
the same genre or subgenre. The key words being looked back on meaning a genre isnt
created until well after the first piece has been created.
Genre and subgenre
Sometimes the borders of genres and the subgenres of poetry are pushed. This is natural
as a genre develops. We cant have a strict set of rules limiting what is considered part of a
genre. There needs to be creativity to all pieces in a genre as well as be different enough from the
other works so its still interesting to the audience. One genre theorist, Devitts says, True,
genres often have formulaic features, but these features can change even as the nature of the
genre remains (Devitt, Writing, 48). Devitt also argues that genre is more than just filling in the
blank for a formula. We can take away similarities is pieces part of the same genre to get an idea
of what the genre consists of, but the similarities are bound to change as society changes and we
write for different purposes. As time goes on, and more and more works are added onto a
specific genre, there will eventually be enough diversity to create more subgenres. The reason
for genre is to simplify and better categorize mass amounts of work. Devitt also explains,
Genres develop, then, because they respond appropriately to situations that writers encounter
repeatedly (Generalizing 576). This implies genres are a direct effect of common writing

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situations. This makes sense, as there would be more pieces associated with the common writing
situations. With more of pieces of work, it would be easier to create genres and subgenres
considering most of these pieces are addressing the same problem. Genre is stretched when the
criteria is broadened or differently interpreted. This isnt a bad thing, but rather a way to force
a question. Should we keep this piece in this genre, does it fit better in another genre, or what
other genres could this fit in, what makes up this genre? Asking these questions are how genres
evolve, and constantly stay relevant to us in our fast changing society.
The genre of poetry is such a large concept, its easier to analyze in smaller segments.
Thankfully we can divide a poetry into as many subgenres as we need. When we group pieces
into genres, we look for similarities between them, and try to establish guidelines for what else
would be considered part of this genre/subgenre. Its tough to say that genres having formulating
features limit the creativity of the genre. Most writers arent genre-focused when creating their
work, meaning they probably dont have the formula on their mind when they are planning what
they will write about. They already have a plan on what they will write, and after their piece is
published, it can be categorized into a genre.

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Works Cited
Harris, Trudier. "Genre." The Journal of American Folklore 108.430, Common Ground:
Keywords for the Study of Expressive Culture (1995): 509-27. Print.
Pineda, Victoria. "Speaking about Genre: The Case of Concrete Poetry." New Literary History
26.2 (1995): 379-93. Print.
Sharon Ruth Gill. "The Forgotten Genre of Children's Poetry." The Reading Teacher 60.7 (2007):
622-5. Print.
Bitzer, Lloyd F. The Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy and Rhetoric 1.1 (1968): 114. Print
Devitt, Amy J. Generalizing About Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept. College
Composition and Communication 44.4 (1993): 57386. Print.