Lyrical poetry is characterized by short poems that express personal feelings or reflections directed towards the reader. It originated as words sung to music. Narrative poetry reflects on moments in time through detailed narration of events from an observant perspective. Indie poetry aims to raise social awareness through unconventional traits, meaningful dialogue, and topics like social intimacy, metaphor, emotions, and introspection using experimental structures in a casual, conversational tone.

1. OVERVIEW OF FORM & STYLE
• Lyrical poetry (as most featured in Indie Poetry)
– Characterized by short or average poem length
– Often expresses the personal feelings or reflections of the
author
– Is directed towards the reader
– Originated from musical lyric where words were sung to the
tune of a lyre or other musical instrument around the time
of the 7th century
– See also, steps for poetry analysis handout for a more
detailed summary

2. OVERVIEW OF FORM & STYLE
• Narrative poetry (another common form)
– The author will usually reflect on a moment in time.
– Focuses on a single event in time, or a series of events
– The narration of any event unfolds slowly, particularly if
focusing on a single moment or happening, and is often
detailed.
– Written from the perspective of an observant speaker.

3. INDIE POETRY & SOCIAL
CONSCIOUSNESS
CONSIDERING POETRY'S POTENTIAL FOR
RAISING SOCIAL AWARENESS

4. WHAT IS INDIE POETRY?
• Indie poetry has an affinity for social awareness
and is written by musical performers that often
associate this term with their genre of music.
• The term “indie” rose out of the strong sense of
independence that these artists take when
creating their music-- which includes their lyrical
process, subject inspiration, & occasionally record
publication.
• Indie poetry demonstrates the ways in which
writing can be emotionally exploratory, and how
it can create a meaningful dialogue concerning
different aspects of social awareness.

5. COMMON QUALITIES OF INDIE POETRY
• Often has unconventional traits concerning sound
and structure.
• It can create meaningful dialogue within the
boundaries of a poem.
• Indie poetry is a creative outlet that justifies
incorporating social awareness into our lives, as it
expands upon it with unique, individualized content.

6. INDIE POETS WRITE CONCERNING
VARIOUS TOPICS RELEVANT TO SOCIAL
AWARENESS
• Social intimacy and disclosure
• Extended metaphor
• Confront both positive and negative
emotions
• Are confessional, dramatic, theoretical
• Bold and opinionated
• Introspective

7. STRUCTURE AND FORM
• These poems can be lyrically terse, or can dedicate
30 or more lines to narration.
• Some poets are very experimental in their use of
structure
• Visual and graphic poems
• Concrete poems
• Indie poems often exhibit a conversational tone

8. INDIE POETRY
• The writing styles of these artists are unconventional
and casual, and their word choice unexpected
and unusual as they present something tangible
and overall, very relative to the reader.
• Their poetry falls somewhere between lyrical and
narrative, but also creates an understandable
dialogue and willingness to identify with the reader.

9. ASSOCIATED TEXTS
• Balling, Rich. Revolution On Canvas: Poetry from The
Indie Music Scene. Grand Central Publishing,
2009.
• Perloff, Marjorie and Craig Dworkin. The Sound of
Poetry/The Poetry of Sound. University of
Chicago Press, 2009.
• Tenzer, Michael. Analytical Studies in World Musics.
Oxford University Press USA, 2006.