"Oral
poetry" refers to those forms of poetry which are composed during
delivery; instead of being written and memorized, they are put together from memorized
component-parts during the performance, according to the requirements of meter
and the circumstances of the situation. The story-line may be well known to the
audience.
The hip-hop version of oral poetry is freestyling.
That a traditional poem (such as the Odyssee) was orally composed is revealed
by the many "formulaic" (i.e., pre-fab) parts; formulaic parts have
known metric features and can easily be fitted into a line.
Quotes from R.Finnegan, Oral Poetry:
'The need for the "next" line is upon [the poet] even before he utters
the final syllable of a line' (Lord 1968: 54). So the singer builds patterns of
sequences of lines added to each other in a series of parallel sentences."
(63)
'Homeric epithets' are often combined with other formulaic phrasesrepeated
word groupswhich have the right metrical qualities to fit the first part
of the line. So a whole line can be rapidly and easily constructed by the oral
poet, built from a ready-made diction. On other occasions, other combinations
are possible from similar metrical units, to give the necessary sense. Thus, 'in
composing, [the poet] will do no more than put together for his needs phrases
which he has often heard or used himself, and which, grouping themselves in accordance
with a fixed pattern of thought, come naturally to make the sentence and the verse'
(Parry 1930: 77; Finnegan, p.59)
This formulaic style [proves] ... that the Homeric poems were orally composed.
It was the need of the oral poet ... for fluent and uninterrupted delivery throughout
a lengthy performance that made the formulaic style both necessary and suitable.
The peot had a store of ready-made diction already tailored to suit the metrical
constraints of the hexameter line. By manipulating formulaic elements from this
storythe 'building blocks'he could construct a poem based on traditional
material which was still his own unique and personal composition. The poet had
at his disposal this series of traditional patterns built up over the years ....,
but he was not passively dominated by them: he used them to create his own poems
as he performed them. (60) Again, parallelism or rhythmic and grammatical repetition
is central to this mode of composing poetry, The singer has to compose a series
of lines, one after the other.