Defining the Word "Form"
Most basically – yes, anything that has a particular shape has a form, which means the most basic element of form is its shape. To put in simpler words, if it has a shape, it has a form.
All the forms have some shape – they have an appearance. We will later on discuss what other important elements are there besides having a shape. But for now, let us talk about Form having a shape.
What primarily is Form all about?
Primarily, it is about Shape.
If an object has a shape it either means that it has a form of its own. It also means that it has been bestowed with a form of something else. I will explain later that what I actually mean by “having a form of its own” and "bestowed with a form of something else".
[ Don't worry if you are unable to catch the meanings of "form" - continue reading and I assure that by the end of this article you will be ready to deliver a lecture on the word "form". ]
The object that has a form can either be a Shaped object or a Shaping object. Either it has acquired the shape of something, or it gives its own shape to other things – like a Frame does. A frame, when used on a picture, the frame actually renders the picture outline / borders into its own shape. So, if the frame has flowers on it, the outline of the picture will also seem to have flowery borders (if you didn't get the example, don't worry - it will be explained in just a few seconds).
What we are going to study today is the different aspects/characteristics of Form in different Scenarios. Consider the following example given below in the Figure 1.
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| Figure 1 |
Let’s experiment a little now, in order to see what results we will get after the experiment:
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| Figure 2 |
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| Figure 3 |
As I said before, we are conducting an experiment and will log the results, so let’s check the results. We have made following observations in the experiment:All the three types of the content have acquired the shape of the glass. That’s good.
- All the three types of the content have acquired the shape of the glass in their own personal capacity, to a specific degree of accuracy and our satisfaction. That’s bad.
- Water is perfectly glass-shaped
- Snow-particles are almost glass-shaped
- Ice-cubes are least glass-shaped.
- Whatever gets inside the glass, it will appear a little distorted because of the material of the glass! You need to do an extra effort in order to see the true nature of the thing inside it.
- The structure of the content is extremely important as you have noticed that liquid adopts the shape more easily than cubes or snow. This is because a glass cannot shape hard objects into its own shape, which means glass is selective in welcoming the content, every form is unique and specialized; likewise, ice-cubes are solid and cannot me shaped by fragile frames.
- Every frame has its limits and liberties.
- Every content does not fit in every form.
- Every content may get fitted somehow, but it’s grace might get sacrificed
- There must be harmony and chemistry between the form and content.
Now, if we begin an exchange of simple questions about this demonstration we will get the following dialogue about it:
You:
What is a shape?Me:
Shape is just the physical appearance of a thing. Anything, that has a specific structure or a specific appearance, it will be having a shape.
You:
How Shape is different from Frame?Me:
Well, all frames have a shape, but all shapes cannot be called frames. A Frame is an object that is used to impose its shape (appearance) on other objects.You:
What is the use of a Frame?Me:
A frame is used to decorate something or to impose its form over something.
You:
Ok. I completely understood what is Frame and what is Shape, and I have even developed mental pictures of them too in my mind… but Form is still confusing – they mean the same thing after all, don’t they? I think you did not explain the word Form much efficiently.Me:
Relax. There is absolutely nothing to worry about if you do not literally and completely understand the meanings of these words. It is just to introduce to you that new feeling of curiosity when we will actually talk in great detail about all these things later on. This dissection of meanings is made just to tell you that how we are going to deal with this issue in the future, and what frame of mind you need to have ;)
So, just RELAX.
EASE yourself!
Okay?
Relax your mind.
Now, coming back to your question, that whether nor not these words Shape, Frame and Form have the same meanings.
No, these three words are three different things, no matter how closely they are related to each other they will always remain different. You see, in your school you might have always been reading these words under the same meanings. But, as you excelled in your studies, the meanings also excelled.
If anything has a (universally acknowledged) specific outline, appearance or structure and if that specific appearance can be used as a reference, it means that that thing has a shape of its own. Not a borrowed shape from other object, not acquired from anything else – but its own distinct shape. Of course, Amoebas also have a shape – but it cannot be used as a reference – it keeps on changing all the time. We use static shapes for reference.
For example, the shape of the mountains, the shape of the earth, the shape of a vase that is stylistically cylindrical, the shape of the heart that we normally use in our personal written communications ;)
And if we use these shapes for the purpose of shaping other things we will refer to it as a Frame. A heart is just a shape. But we can make it a frame by using it like this:
Or when we use it like this:
So now the shape of the heart has become a frame.Now, the content has been perfectly framed into a specific shape. What shall we do now? Now we need to know the different aspects of the used frame and also science of the process of framing, and that how this frame has been constructed itself, and how does this frame make an intimate connection with the content it is going to shape – how this unity is achieved? And the moment we look at a frame with these questions in mind, we have already given the frame a status of a Form. In everyday usage, Form and Frame mean the same thing; however, when Philologists (those who study language) get in contact with any kind of a text, they use these two words in different ways. In order to understand what is a FORM we shall now use the examples we actually need to understand.
We have 14 words, which if re-arranged in a specific shape will give interesting results
is, room, in, the, empty, is, there, a, except, heavy, nothing, there, orange, ball
And upon pouring these words in different frames we should have their relative shapes/appearance. We have these frames available:
- Poetry
- Prose
The room is empty.
There is nothing
in there, except a
heavy orange ball.
Prose
The room is empty. There is nothing in there, except a heavy orange ball.
If you look at this example, we have not added or removed another word into the sentence. The content is same, the thought is same, the subject is same, the story is same – everything is same in both of the frames, except their Appearance!
If you notice - upon pouring these words into our beautiful, stylistic frame of Poetry, we got a unique appearance of words on the white space. They are using less space, have abrupt ending on the single line of the page. In this frame, words are maneuvering the white space more tactically than Prose. Whenever, something is written in the frame of poetry, you will notice that certain sentences will abruptly end and continue in the second or third line, whereas in the prose you have to write until the line of the page ends. This can be seen in the given examples also. The two sentences have ended in FOUR lines in Poetry, and in prose they took just one line of this page!
Angry You:
Why do you made this discrimination of lines, eh? I think, it does not make any difference as this difference has nothing to do with the explanation of the word Form! You didn’t explain what the word “Form” means.Happy Me:
Well, whether it makes a difference or not, I am not getting into that right now. What I am going to prove from this little discrimination between the two frames is that poetry allows greater flexibility in writing than prose! There is a little interference of grammar in poetry as compared to Prose. Prose is like an old man walking with a grammar stick in hand, whereas poetry is like a god: all hidden yet exposed; all mystery yet simple.
Consider this variation of poetry:
Empty is the room. Nothing in there except there is a heavy orange ball
If you compare this variation with the original one you will notice that in this variation grammar’s sanctity has been brutally ravished. That is because Poetry does not need any grammar to walk – it floats like a boat! It plays with grammar. You see, in poetry the more we divert from grammar, the more beautiful it becomes. Whereas, in prose this can be a serious crime.
Angry You: Wait! We should stop right here! What are we studying? What are we doing?
Happy Me: Dear, we are looking into the liberties and restrictions of the frames. And the moment we start looking at a frame in this manner it no longer remains a frame – it becomes a Form.
Curious You: Oh! Does that mean that our way of looking decides the meaning of these words: Form, Frame and Shape?
Happy Me: Well, we do that with every word, don’t we?
Actually, our requirements, needs and doubts make us look at everything with a new perspective. And in return, every perspective has a new answer to offer for our doubts.
- When we were saying that a glass shapes the object into its own shape – the glass was a frame
- When we were saying that a glass makes the object look distorted – the glass and the distorted object then became a Form.
- When we were saying that we have 14 words, which if re-arranged in a specific shape will give interesting results – we were talking about the form.
- When we were saying that poetry allows greater flexibility in writing than prose – we were talking about the frame as a form. Because we are now investigating the nature, the tradition, the rules, the intellectual-crypto ethos of the frame, we were discovering various aspects of the frames, now the frame is not just a shaping-object, it is now a complete science of shaping.
Key
Outline = Shape
Shape + Properties = Frame
Frame & Frame Properties + Content & Content Properties = Form
The Form is the unity of the frame and the content that has been framed. This means that a frame with all of its properties, liberties, restrictions, behaviour etc is in deep bondage with the content. It is due to the content we came to know about the features of the form. It is due to the special arrangement of words on the page we got familiarized with the concept of poetry. A frame can be identified by a mere glance; the form is identified by reading and research. Form is a deeper analysis of the text, whereas frame has no or least connection with the analysis thing.
Frame’s job is to make connection with the appearance of the content
Form’s job is to make connection with the nature and essence of the content
Frame does not mind what kind of content it has to deal with – it will simply frame it and make it look like itself, no matter how ugly it look. Form is extremely sensitive to the content it has to deal with – it is therefore very carefully chosen by the artists that which content should be framed in which form - a decision a true artist makes just by realizing the essence of his content and form; a connection a trained-critic identifies just by noticing the same thing.
When I say Identify the Frame of this content:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
You say, “It is poetry.”
I ask, “How can you say that?”
Anyone can guess that by just looking at it! Just look at the sentences - this is how poetry is written on page. The appearance of the text tells me that it’s a poem.
And when I say, "Identify the Form of this content.”
You will say, “Oh, well, now let me take a deeper look, and of course an analytical look at the text. Great - I can notice some unique patterns within the arrangement of words, endings of the lines, connections among the words, rhythm is also quite classical and traditional. What about its rhyme and meter? Let's see. – OH MY! That’s a Sonnet - a Shakespearean Sonnet!”
I ask again, “How can you say that?”
You say “It is a typical English or Shakespearean sonnet. It consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet, and has the characteristic rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg. The poem carries the meaning of an Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet.”
So, here you go!
You have identified the form.
When we say, this paragraph has been written in the form of poetry or this paragraph has been written in the poetic form, we mean that the paragraph is abiding by all or few of the properties and liberties of the genre of Poetry. As you have seen, identifying the frame didn’t give us much information about the content, but when we tried to identify the form we indulged ourselves in a higher-level of analysis. We identified patterns, rhythm, rhyme, meter, and finally gave our result.
Frame is same for all the languages – almost all the languages have a frame of poetry and a frame of prose. Whereas, Form is unique and special to different languages: Sonnet is unique to English Poetry however can be adopted by any other language, Ghazal is unique to Urdu and Hindi Poetries however can be adopted by any other language.
Realizing the fact that Frame has no greater utility in studying literature, therefore, from today we will focus more on Form.
We have forms, when we have rules.
Forms of Poetry
We have following most famous forms of poetry in English:- Ballad
- Sonnet
- Heroic Verse
- Rhyme Royal
- Couplet
- Stanza
- Ode
- Elegy
- Qasida
- Ghazal
Rest of them can be seen at Wikipedia.
There is a website that tries to explain with definitions from different sources. You may find this website helpful: http://www.pitt.edu/~agtaylor/ala/form-mss.htm. If you are easily confused with multiple views, don’t visit this website as it may contradict with what I just explained. But, if you are open to new ideas – add this one into your list too.
Forms of Novel
Trying to find the forms of the Novel is equivalent to finding rules of writing the Novel. There are no set-defined rules for the Novel. It is a genre that is so flexible that it can engulf in it any other genre with greatest possible ease. It neither has a fixed frame even. If we say that Novel is Prose, that’s not quite true. We have poetic novels as well. And by the way, we have Narrative Poems as well. So, genres are mixing and creating new ones, new forms are on screen. Sometimes, it is very difficult to decide whether a text is poetic or prosaic as it abides by both Prose and Poetry rules together. I am saying rules, though incorrectly because literature has no rules it has traditions, yet I have no other word for it at the moment.
I invested majority of my time explaining the forms of poetry because novel is an open field, like an endless pasture, and you may wish to graze on it for as much time as you want, but poetry is still somehow restricted in rules and traditions so it was easier to explain.
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