Narrative Poetry Tells The Story
Aristotle divided poetry into three main categories: narrative, dramatic, such as we see in Shakespeare’s plays in which character development is the the thing rather than plot, and lyric poetry. And, of course, these three basic forms can overlap as in a lyrical poem that is also a narrative.
A narrative poem is defined as a poem that tells a story. It can be really long like a novel or really short like a lyrical poem, but it always tells a story. There are four types of narrative poems and that is the epic, such as we find in Greek mythology about the life of a hero, like Hercules, for instance, ballads, idylls, which are basically pastoral in subject matter, and lays (lyrical poetry) which are by and large autobiographical and written in the first person.
A good example of an English epic poem would be Milton’s “Paradise Lost” which contains a lengthy complicated plot about what was going on in heaven, in hell, and on earth between Adam and Eve, the Devil, and God during the fall of Man. An epic poem always has a plot, and a good example is the epic poem entitled Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet, in which a young Acadian woman named Evangeline searches for her long lost lover. Gabriel, who was lost during the deportation of the Acadian people by the British from Canada. The poem follows her life as she searches for her lover all through the thirteen American colonies, but in vain, until she finally settles down in Philadelphia and becomes a Sister’s of Mercy nun.
Another kind of a narrative can be found in a ballad which is a poem set to music and sometimes has refrains. This form was first developed by the French and used as dance songs. But this form became very popular in England and Ireland in the latter part of the middle ages and finally in America. A good example of an American ballad would be Johnny Cash’s classic country song “A Boy Named Sue” in which he tells the story of a young boy’s rough upbringing.
Thank you
Well, my daddy left home
When I was three
And he didn’t leave very much to my ma and me
Except this ole guitar and
An empty bottle of booze
Now I don’t blame him
‘Cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that my daddy ever did
Was before he left he wanted to
Name me Sue
He musta thought
That it was quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from lots a folks
Seems I had to fight my whole life through
Some gal would giggle and I’d turn red
And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head
I’ll tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue
Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean
My fist got hard and my wits got keen
Roamed from town to town
To hide my shame
But I made me a vow to the moon and stars
I’d search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man that gave
Me that awful name
Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I’d just hit town and my throat was dry
I thought I’d stop and have myself a brew
At an old saloon on a street of mud
There at a table dealin’ stud
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue
Well I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn out picture that my mother had
Knew that scar on
His cheek and his evil eye
He was big and bent and grey and old
And I looked at him and my
Blood ran cold, and I said
“My name is Sue! How do you do?
Now you gonna die!”
Well, I hit him hard right
Between the eyes
And he went down but to my surprise
Came up with a knife and
Cut off a piece of my ear
Then I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through
The wall and into the street
Kickin’ and a gougin’ in the mud
And the blood and the beer
Well I tell ya, I’ve fought tougher men
But I really can’t remember when
He kicked like a mule and
He bit like a crocodile
I heard him laugh and
Then I heard him cuss
And he reached for his gun but
I pulled mine first
He stood there lookin’ at me and
I saw him smile
And he said
“Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make
It he’s gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn’t be
There to help you along
So I gave you that name
And I said goodbye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s that name that helped
To make you strong.”
He said, “Now you just fought
One heck of a fight
And I know you hate me
And ya got the right
To kill me now and I wouldn’t
Blame you if you do
But you oughta thank me before I die
For the gravel in your gut
And the spit in the eye
‘Cause I’m the –
That named you Sue.”
Yeah, what could I do?
I got all choked up and threw down my gun
Called him my pa and he called me his son
And I came away with a
Different point of view
And I think about him now and then
Every time I try and every time I win
And if I ever have a boy
I’ll name him
Bill or George or Frank
Anything dam thing but Sue!
Hate that name
The idyllic poem is a narrative that glorifies nature and bucolic scenes in the country, and a lay or a lyrical poem (a short rhymed and metered poem which can be set to music, and is often biographical, had it’s inception in ancient Greece when such poetry was accompanied by the music of the lyre, Robert Frost was America’s great idyllic poet who wrote about all things county, and the elements of both the lyric and the idyllic poem can be found in his popular poem “The Road Not Taken”.
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.
This short lyrical poem is the story of a man who has a decision to make that has permanent ramifications set in ther most bucolic of scenes, the woods. But another short idyllic poem that has all the elements of a lyrical poem in that it begins with the word “I” and is a snapshot of a story is as follows:
I watch fields, as nature
Invites pastoral bliss….
Irises and oaks glow
Imbued with morn’s fresh soil;
Igniting rural charm
In mind’s eye – O hometown
Illumines peace- earth’s gift!
These different form of narrative poetry can certainly cross over with the elements of one form being found in another.
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