Types of Poems

Ballad ● Songlike poem that tells a story ● Often a sad story of betrayal, death, or loss ● Usually have a regular steady rhythm, a simple rhyme pattern, and a refrain ● Easier to memorize ● Maiden-Savin’ Sam (pg 644)

Epic ● Long narrative poem about the many deeds of a great hero ● Closely connected to a particular culture ● The hero of an epic embodies the important values of the society that he comes from (so far all heros of Epic poetry have been MALE!) ● Excerpt from Beowulf (pg 648)

Narrative Poem ● Poem that tells a story ● A series of related events ● Paul Revere’s Ride (pg 629)

Lyric Poem ● A poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings of the speaker

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Ode ● A long lyric poem ● Usually praising some subject ● Written in dignified language ● Ode to Thanks (pg 658)

Sonnet ● 14 lines ● A type of lyric poem ● Follows strict rules of structure, meter, and rhyme ● On the Grasshopper and the Cricket (pg 663)

Elegy ● A poem of mourning ● Mostly about someone who has died ● O Captain! My Captain! (pg 66)

Free Verse ● Does not mean without form or structure ● Do not follow a regular rhyme scheme or meter ● Poets have to rely on their own sense of balance and measure ● I Hear America Singing (pg. 671) ● I, Too (pg 672)