Types of Poetry
Narrative
• Poetry which tells a story
– Ie. Epics, ballads, dramatic monologues, myths,
legends, fables
Lyric
• A usually short, personal poem expressing the
poet’s emotions and thoughts rather than
telling a story. Its distinguishing
characteristics are emotion, subjectivity,
melodiousness, imagination, description, and
sometimes meditation.
– Ie. Elegy, ode, and sonnet are forms of lyric poetry
Allegory
• An extended narrative in prose or verse in
which characters, events, and settings
represent abstract qualities and in which the
writer intends a second meaning to be read
beneath the surface of the story
– Ie. Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Ballad
• A simple, fairly short narrative, representing a
single dramatic episode, originally designed to
be sung
Blank Verse
• Unrhymed iambic pentameter
– Shakespeare’s plays are written in blank verse
Didactic
• Literature that teaches a lesson
– Ie. Fables
Dramatic Monologue
• A poem in which a single character, overheard
speaking to a silent listener, reveals a dramatic
situation
– Ie. Mother to Son
Elegy
• A poem of sorrow or mourning for the dead ;
also a reflective poem in a solemn or
sorrowful mood
– Ie. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Epic
• A long narrative poem in lofty style, set in a
remote time and place, dealing with heroic
characters and deeds important in the legends
and history of a nation or race
– Ie. Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
Eulogy
• A formal composition or speech written in
high praise of someone (living or dead)
– Ie. Often given at funerals
Euphemism
• A “nicer” or politer way of saying something
– Ie. Passed away instead of dead
Fable
• A brief narrative, with characters that are
often animals, illustrating an explicitly stated
moral truth
– Ie. The Ant and the Grasshopper
– Ie. Animal Farm
Free Verse
• A poem with irregular meter and no rhyme
scheme
– Ie. The Shark
Haiku
• A lyric poem, originating in Japan. It captures
the essence of the moment in a simple image,
written in present tense, usually arranged in
three lines of five, seven and five syllables
Legend
• A story, part fact and part fiction, about the
life and deeds of a saint, folk hero, or historical
figure, that is handed down from generation
to generation, and is popularly accepted as
true
– Ie. Robin Hood
Myth
• An anonymous narrative, originating in the
primitive folklore of a race or nation, that
explains the origin of life, religious beliefs, and
the forces of nature as some kind of
supernatural occurrence, or that recounts the
deeds of traditional super heroes.
Ode
• A long and elaborate lyric poem, usually
dignified or exalted in tone and often written
to praise someone or something or to mark an
important occasion
– Ie. Ode to a Nightingale
– Ie. Ode to the West Wind
Parody
• Mocking the style or topic of another poet by
writing a poem in similar style
– Ie. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love
• The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd is a parody of this
poem as it takes the same form and answers the
shepherd’s pleas
Rhetoric
• The art of persuasion in speaking or writing
– Ie. An essay
Satire
• Ridicule of an idea, a person, or type of
person, or even mankind, designed to try to
improve it
– Ie. Gulliver’s Travels
Sonnet
• See previous notes