You know some of the details of writing it, so let’s talk about the…

NARRATIVE?! That’s right. Narrative poetry. It tells a

story in verse form. ▪ These have elements similar to those in

short stories, like plot and characters. ▪ Example of narrative poetry would be the

Elder Edda (These are Norse myths, my personal favorite), “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Illiad”, “The Odyssey” both by Homer, and “Beowulf”. What’s not to love about violence of godly proportions?

One of my personal favorites is Þrymskviða (that’s Icelandic. No, I don’t speak it. Yes, I will butcher it if I try and pronounce it). The synopsis is here: Poetic Edda. This one involves Thor. He’s this guy:

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. In other words: it’s how we organize

the sounds of a word. Syllables are pretty darn important in

poetry; they can influence rhythm, meter, and stress patterns in a poem.

What we do when we split something into syllables is split it into spoken parts. Also, it depends on vowels in a word. A one-syllable word would be “dog”. It

can’t be split into parts. A two-syllable word would be “better”. We

put a split in at bet/ter. A three-syllable word would be “hospital”.

We split it as hos/pit/al.

This gives some rules for how to count syllables.

This one is cheating.

HAIKU?! OH MAN! YES! I LOVE HAIKUS! These classy guys are three-line

Japanese verse forms. The first and third lines have five syllables, and the second line has seven.

In order to write a haiku, you need to be familiar with syllables and how to count them.

Free Verse poetry is, like, totally defined by the lack of structure, man. It doesn’t conform to your conformist

idea of regular meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza pattern.

Free Verse is it’s own poem, man. You can’t tell it what to do.

From Little Father Li-Young Lee (1957- )I buried my father in

my heart.

Now he grows in me, my strange son,My little root who won’t drink milk,Little pale foot sunk in unheard-of night,Little clock spring newly wetIn the fire, little grape, parent to the futureWine, a son the fruit of his own son,Little father I ransom with my life.

Lyrical poetry expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker, often in highly musical verse. Lyrics go with music. Lyrical poetry has

musical verses. Lyrical poetry = music. Easy enough.

LISTEN TO THE RADIO.

No, seriously. I’m not putting up an example.

▪ Really. You know what lyrical poetry is.

▪ …seriously. You listened to it yesterday in class.

How about some ballads? Everyone loves ballads. These are songlike poems that tell

stories.▪ These songs generally deal with adventure

and romance. Aw, how cute. ▪ Or heroic.

Romantically heroic?

“Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton. This tells a story of his son who fell 53

stories in New York to his death. Feels bad, man.

“Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin (One of the best bands to ever grace your auditory cavities) Also has one of the most recognized

guitar solos in history. Not the best, but most recognized.

Without wanting to disappoint, there’s also concrete poems. These are shaped to look like their

subjects. The poet arranges lines to create a

picture on the page.▪ Neat.

THIS!

That’s right. Limericks. I said it. These guys are humorous, rhyming,

five-line poems with a specific rhythm pattern and rhyme scheme. ▪ Fun fact: People think the term originated in

Ireland, as well as the poetry type.

There was an Old Man in a tree,Who was horribly bored by a Bee;When they said, 'Does it buzz?'He replied, 'Yes, it does!''It's a regular brute of a Bee!'

RHYMING COUPLETS?! Why yes. Rhyming couplets indeed. These are pairs of rhyming lines,

usually of the same meter and length. No need to get excited.

StarfishI found a starfish in the bay

When I was fishing yesterday.

Starfish, starfish in the ocean Moving along in slow motion.

Many arms and color brightSea stars are a special sight.