What types of poetry are there?
Narrative
There are different types of narrative poems. Examples of narrative
poems include ballads and epics. Regardless of the differences in structure,
rhyme, and rhythm, narrative poems tell stories, so they have a plot,
some characters, a setting, and a theme.
The musical nature of the ballads helped story tellers remember and
tell the stories of their communities. Many ballads, most of which are
anonymous, tell about dramatic events such as murder, war, revenge, love,
and jealousy. The stories often included elements of magic or superstition.
Dialogue is a key element in most ballads. The traditional ballad has
four line stanzas with a rhyme scheme of AABB. Parts of the ballad are
repeated to give it its musical quality. The following poem is part of
a narrative poem. Notice the use of a slightly different rhyme scheme.
| “La
Belle Dame Sans Merci” (Excerpt) |
|
| John Keats |
|
Ah, what
can au thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering;
The sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing. |
A
B
C
B |
Ah, what
can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done. |
A
B
C
B |
Credits and Copyright
Together with the editors, the Department of English (University of
Toronto), and the University of Toronto Press, the following individuals
share copyright for the work that went into this edition: Screen Design
(Electronic Edition): Sian MeikIe (University of Toronto Library) Scanning:
Shanne Leung (Centre for Computing in the Humanities)
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