Both prayer and poetry.....
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/jap-ji-sahib/15305-understanding-japji-sahib-pauri-8-11-a.html

By communion with the Word - first saintly status - then with more communion with the word, encounter with the sacred bull (Satgur) - and then with even more communion, the heavens are revealed - and then with even more communion, the cycle of life and death is ended for us--- and then with even more communion, the gursikh lives in perpetual ecstasy.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=15305

In its poetic form, these verses form a composition so that the words move the listener forward to a series of awakenings. The meanings of the words are understood in relation to the direction that the prayer is designed to take us.