Types of Poetry

1. Types of Poetry

2. Most people recognize a poem when they see it. Poems usually come in lines instead of sentences and present ideas in stanzas instead of paragraphs. There are exceptions to every rule, however, and poems come in many varieties.

3. Narrative Poems Simply put, narrative poems tell stories. Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere . . . For example, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” tells of a famous incident that took place during the American Revolution.

4. Ballads A ballad is a song or songlike poem that also tells a story. The story is often about love, betrayal, or death. Ballads usually have a regular, steady rhythm, a simple rhyme pattern, and a refrain, all of which make them easy to memorize.

5. Epics Epics are long narrative poems, originally passed down by word of mouth, that tell about heroes who embody the values of the culture recounting the tale. Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. from “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer “Casey at the Bat” is a humorous poem that imitates the epic form.

6. Lyric Poems Lyric poems usually do not tell a story. Instead, they express personal thoughts and feelings of the poet or the speaker (the poem’s narrator). The old man must have stopped our car two dozen times to climb out and gather into his hands the small toads blinded by our lights and leaping, live drops of rain. from “Birdfoot’s Grampa” by Joseph Bruchac “Birdfoot’s Grampa” expresses feelings about people and nature.

7. Sonnets A sonnet is a specific type of lyric poem. A sonnet is always fourteen lines long and usually has a particular type of meter. I reached the Alps: the soul within me burned    Italia, my Italia, at thy name:    And when from out the mountain’s heart I came  And saw the land for which my life had yearned,  I laughed as one who some great prize had earned: And musing on the story of thy fame    I watched the day, till marked with wounds of flame  The turquoise sky to burnished gold was turned,  The pine-trees waved as waves a woman’s hair, And in the orchards every twining spray Was breaking into flakes of blossoming foam:  But when I knew that far away at Rome    In evil bonds a second Peter lay, I wept to see the land so very fair. “Sonnet on Approaching Italy” by Oscar Wilde

8. Odes Odes are long, lyric poems that were traditionally written to celebrate a famous person or a lofty idea. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;  Conspiring with him how to load and bless  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;  To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; from “To Autumn” by John Keats Today, many odes are written to celebrate ordinary things.

9. Elegies An elegy is a poem of mourning, usually for someone who has died. O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;  The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,  While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:  But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red,          Where on the deck my Captain lies,            Fallen cold and dead. from “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman For example, Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy for the slain president Abraham Lincoln.

10. Free Verse Poems Free verse poems do not follow a regular meter or rhyme scheme. They do include other elements of poetry, such as rhythm, imagery, figures of speech, and alliteration. I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;  Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;  The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; from “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman