Describe three major characteristics of the sub-genre that you chose and apply that knowledge to one of the poems in your sub-genre reader

There are a few main characteristics of an ancient lyrical poem. The easiest one to distinguish lyrical poetry is the fact that they sound like song lyrics. They have a sort of tempo that makes it possible to read in a song rhythm. The lyrical poems also talk a lot about emotion and expressing feelings. 

The poem I chose to use as an example is a poem by Mimnermus:

What is life, what is sweet, if it is missing golden Aphrodite?

Death would be better by far than to live with no time for

Amorous assignation and the gift of tenderness and bedrooms,

All of those things that give youth all of its coveted bloom,

Both for men and for women. But when there arrives the vexatiousness

of old age, even good looks alter to unsightliness

And the heart wears away under the endlessness of its anxieties:

There is no joy anymore then in the light of the sun:

In children there is found hate and in women there is found no respect.

So difficult has old age been made for us all by God!

This poem expresses a lot of anger. I interpreted it as being angry about how life changes as you get older. The author also clearly has strong feelings about death because in line two it says, "Death would be better by far." This is showing how strongly the author feels about. "the gift of tenderness and bedrooms," because the author would rather be dead that to not have time for those things. The main characteristics I had trouble finding in this poem was the lyrics because I couldn't find a rhyme pattern and that is normally what makes a poem sound kind of like a song.