Lyrical Essay

Definition:
Lyrical Essay is a literary hybrid that combines elements of poetry, essay and memoir. The
lyric essay is a relatively new form of creative nonfiction.
Senecan Review:
John D’Agata and Deborah Tall published a definition of the lyric essay in the Seneca
Review in 1997:
“ The lyric essay takes from the prose poem in its density and shapeliness , it’s distillation of
ideas and musicality of language.”
Helen Vendler says of the lyric poem,
“ It depends on gaps… It is suggestive rather than exhaustive.”
It might move by association, leaping from one path of thought to another by way of
imagery, or connotation, advancing by juxtaposition etc.
The lyric essay combines the autobiographical information of a personal essay with the
figurative language and form of poetry. In the lyric essay, the rules of both poetry and prose
become suggestions, because the form of the essay is constantly changing.
According to Senecan Review, lyrical essay has following characteristics:
The lyric essay partakes of the essay in its weight, in its overt desire to engage with facts, melding its
allegiance to the actual with its passion for imaginative form.
The lyric essay does not expound. It may merely mention.
The lyric essay, generally, is short, concise and punchy like a prose poem. But it may meander, making
use of other genres when they serve its purpose: recombinant, it samples the techniques of fiction,
drama, journalism, song, and film.
The lyric essay often accretes by fragments, taking shape mosaically – its import visible only when one
stands back and sees it whole.
The lyric essay stalks its subject like quarry but is never content to merely explain or confess. It
elucidates through the dance of its own delving.
The lyric essay sets off on an uncharted course through interlocking webs of idea, circumstance, and
language – a pursuit with no foreknown conclusion, an arrival that might still leave the writer
questioning.
The lyric essay is ruminative; it leaves pieces of experience undigested and tacit, inviting the reader’s
participatory interpretation.
• The lyric essay’s voice is often more reticent, almost coy, aware of the compliment it pays the
reader by dint of understatement.
 “ Lyric essay” is that it’s a genre that combines essay and poetry. Lyric essays are prose but
written in manner that might remind you of reading a poem. Lyric essays have what we call “
poetic” prose. This kind of prose draws attention to its use of language. Lyric essays set out to
create certain effects with words, often, although not necessarily, aiming to create beauty. They
are often condensed in the way poetry is communicating depth and complexity in few words.
Sometimes readers take time to fully absorb what the writer is trying to say. They may be more
suggestive than argumentative and communicate multiple meanings, maybe even contradictory
ones.
Lyric essay Example:
Now, take this excerpt from a lyric essay, “Life Code” by J. A. Knight:
“The dream goes like this: blue room of water. God light from above. Child’s fist, foot, curve, face,
the arc of an eye, the symmetry of circles… and then an opening of this body—which surprised
her—a movement so clean and assured and then the push towards the light like a frog or a fish.”

Here, Knight’s prose is a sort of experience—a way of exploring the dream through language as
shifting and ethereal as dreams themselves. Where the personal essay transcribes experiences, the
lyric essay creates them.
• Star Stuff by Jessica Franken from Senecan Review.
• Halls of Fame by John D’Agata.
• Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine.
Features of lyrical Essay:
•The writer crafts sentences that have rhythm, like a prose poem. Paces and stressed
syllables determine a rhythm . Iambic pentameter is the most common type of rhythm.
•The writer creates lyrical prose that sounds musical by using alliteration, assonance and
internal rhyme.
•The writer constructs the essay with fragments of detail.
•The essay is often inclusive. Instead the writer focuses on evoking emotion in the reader, and
the reader must draw his or her conclusions.
Lyric essays also blend the techniques of prose and poetry. Here are some general differences
between the two:
• Lyric essays tend to be longer. A prose poem is rarely more than a page. Some lyric essays
are longer than 20 pages.
• Lyric essays tend to be more experimental. One paragraph might be in prose, the next,
poetry. The lyric essay might play more with forms like lists, dreams, public signs, or other
types of media and text.
• Prose poems are often more stream-of-conscious. The prose poet often charts the flow of their
consciousness on the page. Lyric essayists can do this, too, but there’s often a broader narrative
organizing the piece, even if it’s not explicitly stated or recognizable
• Writing style
• • A friendly and conversational tone as the objective of the lyrical essay is to create
emotional tone.
• • Word choice is fresh and original, short rather than long , familiar instead of unfamiliar
words.
• • Lyrical language is simple and entertaining includes use of alliteration and assonance and
rhythm.
• • Use of variety of sentence patterns, such as the balanced sentence, the cumulative sentence
and periodic sentence.
• • Use of first person and sharing of personal thoughts and feelings and reflections.
• It is subjective in nature as it has very little arguments. It does not include logic because it has
imaginative elements.
Form of lyrical essay
These essays are unique in their form. Two forms are existing:
• Found form • Invented from.
Found form
It borrows the form of an external frame, such as footnotes, indexes or letters ( epistolary
form) to bring about the meaning of the essay.
Invented form
It can take any shape and organization which the writer creates to further communicate
the essay.