Types of Poetry

There are basically three types of poetry; i.e. Lyrical Poetry, Epic Poetry and Dramatic Poetry. There is also a special type known as a Ballad.

Lyrical Poetry

"Lyric", derives from the word "lyre" which is a type of stringed instrument. It therefore refers to music. Lyrical Poetry used to be sung. (That is why the words of songs are often referred to as the "lyrics" of the song.) A lyric tends to be relatively short and often convey the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker.

Most of the poems we will discuss in this course falls within the category of lyrical poetry.

Epic / Narrative Poetry

An epic is a type of story. Epic Poetry, also known as Narrative Poetry, are basically "storytelling poems". They tend to be very long, often several hundred lines, and are usually divided into several sections.

In this course we will not be dicussing any epics.

Dramatic Poetry

Dramatic Poetry is poetry that includes drama, i.e. it is theatrical. This means that it can be performed like a play. Sometimes there are many "characters" that are in dialogue. If only one "character" is speaking, it is called a monologue.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is considered a dramatic poem. Can you explain why?

A Ballad

A ballad is a special type of lyric, that tells a story. A ballad is therefore a mixture of lyrical and epic poetry.

Would you say that Edgar Allan Poe's "Eldorado" is a lyric or ballad?

Narrators and Narrative Layers

A narrator (sometimes called a speaker), is basically the “voice” that speaks in a text. The word “narrator” comes from “narrate”, which means to tell a narrative; i.e. to tell a story. The narrator of the poem is therefore the “persona” or “entity” that tells the “story”.

Take for example the poem “Eldorado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Who is telling the “story” of the knight in search of Eldorado? Is it the author (Edgar Allen Poe) that is telling this story? It might be, but it is not necessarily. Rather, Poe created another “voice”, i.e. the narrator, to speak on his behalf.

Also, the narrator in this poem is not the only speaker. There are two other speakers as well, namely the knight and the “pilgrim shadow”.

The following diagram shows a depiction of the three basic narrative layers, each with a pair of entities, namely the (1) author and (2) reader, the (3) narrator and (4) addressee, and (5) character 1 and (6) character 2.

(Diagram from the English Department of TTU)

Exercise:

Use the poem “Eldorado” and replace these entities in the diagram with their proxies. For example, replace character 1 with “the knight”.

...ooOoo...

When trying to understand a poem it helps to identify the speakers, as well as identify who they are speaking to. Ask yourself: Who is the author? When the author wrote this poem, did he have a specific audience/reader in mind? Who is the narrator? Who is the narrator’s audience; i.e. who are the narrator's addressees? Who are the speakers (i.e. characters)?

Sound & Sense (p. 11) gives 21 points and questions that you can use to understand and evaluate a poem.