Poetry Classification
Poems
Narrative
Tells a story
Lyric
Expresses a
poet’s feelings
Descriptive
An impersonal
word painting
Types of Narratives:

Epic – a long poem about the deeds of a
traditional or historical hero

Ballads – a story told in song
- often written in QUATRAINS (a
stanza of four lines)
Types of Lyrics:



Elegy – A tribute to the memory of
someone. The theme deals with death.
Ode – poem in praise of someone or
something
Sonnet – a 14 line poem with fixed rhyme
and meter
Types of Sonnets:

Shakespearian (English)
3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet
abab cdcd efef gg

Petrarchan (Italian)
Octave (8) and Sestet (6)
abbaabba cdecde (sestet may vary in rhyme)