Characterization in Poetry Notes
Characterization is a method that a writer uses to reveal a character’s personality. Characters in poetry
may be revealed using their actions, words or thoughts or other characters’ words or thoughts. They may
also be revealed using imagery or a poignant type of figurative language, such as a particular metaphor
or analogy. Because poetry is a more distilled form of art than prose, characterization through imagery,
metaphors and other types of concentrated language are much more common.
Types of Characterization
The poet, just like a prose writer, chooses the best way to present and introduce his characters.
Character presentation can be divided into two types: direct presentation and indirect presentation.
Characters who are described by the writer, the narrator or other characters in the poem are presented
directly, while those whose traits are revealed by their actions and speech are presented indirectly.
Characters
Characters in poetry appear in a variety of ways. As in prose, the protagonist is the main character of the
poem, though not necessarily the hero, and the antagonist is the protagonist’s opponent. Certain poems,
such as long epic poems, may also have secondary characters whose actions are in opposition to the
protagonist’s actions. These characters may simply be secondary or auxiliary characters or foil
characters, characters who serve as alternative examples of the protagonist.
Speaker or Persona
Occasionally, a poem will have a speaker or a persona. A persona appears in first person, using the
pronoun “I.” The speaker of the poem is never the writer, but a fictional character, which the writer
sometimes uses as an alter ego or a mask. Personas are quite common in poetry that is written in first
person, and in lyrical poetry, and they are used to distinguish the writer of the poem from the character in
the poem.
Classification of Characters
Characters in poetry can be classified as flat or round and as developing or static. Flat characters are
characters who fulfill some basic function and have only a few developed traits. Round characters are
fully developed, three-dimensional characters. Dynamic characters are those who change throughout the
poem, while static characters are those who tend to remain unchanged throughout the poem.
How Characterization Appears in Poetry
Unlike in prose, where is there room for the writer to use long description and complex interactions to
reveal a character, characterization in poetry is often focused and concentrated in a few lines or an image
or in an inventive use of figurative language, such as a poignant metaphor. The writer may use meter,
rhyme, imagery, action or even setting to reveal something about a particular character. For instance, a
poem may distill an important moment in a character’s life into a single metaphor and then expand upon
that metaphor in order to show the character’s evolution.