Narrative Poetry — Definition and Examples
What is a narrative poem?
A narrative poem is storytelling written in verse. The poet includes many elements of a story, including a plot, setting, characters, and conflict in combination with rhyme, rhythm, and poetic devices.
Initially an oral tradition used as a means to record history, narrative poems follow a specific rhyme and rhythm, making them easier to remember. Contemporary poets continue to use the form to incorporate verse into storytelling.
Ancient and famous narrative poems like Beowulf and Homer’s The Iliad may have been sung.
Characteristics of narrative poetry
Narrative poems typically include the following elements:
Narrator: Typically, the narrator of a narrative poem is not the author. Instead, the speaker is part of the story and narrates exactly what takes place.
Story: Narrative poems contain many of the same traits found in short stories and novels. These elements include the following:
Exposition: Identifies the setting and characters involved in the plot
Characterization: Details characters with developed traits
Conflict: Introduces and resolves either an internal (man vs. self) or external (man vs. man, society, nature) conflict
Dialogue: Incorporates conversations between two or more characters
Structure: While narrative poems do have specific rhyme schemes and metrical patterns (series of stressed and unstressed syllables), there is no universal pattern that poets must follow. Modern narrative poems do not always follow a specific rhyme or rhythm, as it is not necessary to memorize the works.
Types of narrative poetry
There are four main types of narrative poems: ballad, epic, idyll, and lay.
Ballad: A ballad recounts the dramatic events of a hero’s story. It contains multiple four-line stanzas with an ABAB rhyme scheme and alternates between four and three sets of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Example: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Epic: Epic poetry traditionally details a hero's journey. Epic poems can be similar to the length of a novel and usually showcase a hero as he protects his people.
Example: The Odyssey by Homer
Idyll: Idyll poetry includes shorter poems that revolve around the pastoral, which focuses on an idealized version of rural life. These poems focus on simplicity and showcase an appreciation of nature.
Example: “Idylls of the King” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Lay: Lay poetry consists of short poems that focus on lively stories of adventure, romance, and chivalry. Much focus was placed on medieval romance and courtly love, including Arthurian tales (about King Arthur’s court).
Example: parts of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Narrative poem examples
The following poems highlight each of the four types of narrative poetry:
Ballad: Excerpt from “The Hunting of the Snark” by Lewis Carroll
Fit the First
The Landing
"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.
"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true."
The crew was complete: it included a Boots—
A maker of Bonnets and Hoods—
A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes—
And a Broker, to value their goods.
A Billiard-marker, whose skill was immense,
Might perhaps have won more than his share—
But a Banker, engaged at enormous expense,
Had the whole of their cash in his care.
There was also a Beaver, that paced on the deck,
Or would sit making lace in the bow:
And had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck,
Though none of the sailors knew how.
Epic: Excerpt from “The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot
I. The Burial of the Dead
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
Idyll: Excerpt from “The Passing of Arthur” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
That story which the bold Sir Bedivere,
First made and latest left of all the knights,
Told, when the man was no more than a voice
In the white winter of his age, to those
With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds.
For on their march to westward, Bedivere,
Who slowly paced among the slumbering host,
Heard in his tent the moanings of the King:
"I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.
O me! for why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world,
But had not force to shape it as he would,
Till the High God behold it from beyond,
And enter it, and make it beautiful?
Or else as if the world were wholly fair,
But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,
And have not power to see it as it is:
Perchance, because we see not to the close;--
For I, being simple, thought to work His will,
And have but stricken with the sword in vain;
And all whereon I leaned in wife and friend
Is traitor to my peace, and all my realm
Reels back into the beast, and is no more.
My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death:
Nay--God my Christ--I pass but shall not die."
Lay: Excerpt from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
1
I CELEBRATE myself;
And what I assume you shall assume;
For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my Soul;
I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes—the shelves are crowded with
perfumes;
I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it;
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
The atmosphere is not a perfume—it has no taste of the distillation—it
is odorless;
It is for my mouth forever—I am in love with it;
I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked;
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
Narrative vs. lyric poetry
The following chart details the differences between narrative and lyrical poems:
| Narrative | Lyrical | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | tells a story through a speaker | conveys the poet’s emotions and feelings |
| Structure | dialogue, plot-like | song-like, musical |
| Length | long | short |
| Types | epics, ballads, idylls, lays | elegies, odes, sonnets |