Epic, Lyric and Narrative Poetry

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

     While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

—from“The Raven,”by Edgar Allan Poe

• Narrative Poem

• Lyric Poem

Does this excerpt look like the beginning of a NARRATIVE poem?

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

—from “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now,” by A. E. Housman

• Yes, because it uses figurative language devices like alliteration.

• No, because it uses description to fully capture a moment in time.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere . . .

. . . He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch

Of the North-Church tower as a signal-light,—

 

—from “Paul Revere’s Ride,”

by HenryWadsworthLongfellow

• Narrative Poetry

• Lyric Poetry

What makes this a LYRIC poem?

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

—from “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,”by William Wordsworth

What makes this a NARRATIVE poem?

For many a petty king ere Arthur came Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war Each upon other, wasted all the land;

And still from time to time the heathen host Swarmed overseas, and harried what was left. And so there grew great tracts of wilderness, Wherein the beast was ever more and more, But man was less and less, till Arthur came.

—from “Idylls of the King,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson