JAMB Exam > JAMB Notes > Literature in English > Cheatsheet: Types Of Poetry
Cheatsheet: Types Of Poetry
1. Narrative Poetry
1.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry that tells a story with plot, characters, setting, and conflict |
| Purpose | To narrate events in verse form |
| Structure | Contains beginning, middle, and end; uses chronological or non-linear sequence |
| Point of View | First person, third person, or omniscient narrator |
1.2 Types of Narrative Poetry
1.2.1 Epic
- Long narrative poem about heroic deeds and adventures of legendary or historical figures
- Features supernatural elements, vast settings, elevated language
- Examples: Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Virgil's "Aeneid", Milton's "Paradise Lost"
- Begins in medias res (in the middle of action)
- Contains epic similes, catalogues, and invocations to muses
1.2.2 Ballad
- Short narrative poem meant to be sung or recited
- Simple language, repetition, and refrain
- Quatrain stanzas with ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme
- Alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter (ballad meter)
- Focuses on single dramatic episode
- Types: folk ballads (anonymous, oral tradition) and literary ballads (known author)
- Examples: "Sir Patrick Spens", Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
1.2.3 Romance
- Medieval narrative poetry about knights, chivalry, and courtly love
- Features quests, supernatural elements, idealized characters
- Emphasizes honor, bravery, and noble deeds
- Example: "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
1.2.4 Metrical Tale
- Narrative poem with regular meter and rhyme
- Shorter than epic but longer than ballad
- Examples: Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
2. Lyric Poetry
2.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry expressing personal emotions, thoughts, and feelings of the speaker |
| Origin | Named after the lyre, a musical instrument used in ancient Greece |
| Length | Short to medium length |
| Voice | First person; subjective and personal |
| Focus | Single emotion or moment; introspective |
2.2 Types of Lyric Poetry
2.2.1 Sonnet
- 14-line poem with specific rhyme scheme and meter
- Written in iambic pentameter
- Two main types:
| Type | Structure and Features |
|---|---|
| Petrarchan (Italian) | Octave (8 lines, ABBAABBA) + sestet (6 lines, CDECDE or CDCDCD); volta (turn) between octave and sestet |
| Shakespearean (English) | Three quatrains + couplet (ABABCDCDEFEFGG); volta before final couplet |
- Themes: love, beauty, mortality, nature
- Examples: Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, Petrarch's sonnets to Laura
2.2.2 Ode
- Formal lyric poem praising or glorifying a person, object, or abstract idea
- Elevated language and serious tone
- Three main types:
| Type | Features |
|---|---|
| Pindaric Ode | Complex structure: strophe, antistrophe, epode; ceremonial and formal |
| Horatian Ode | More intimate and meditative; regular stanza pattern |
| Irregular Ode | No fixed pattern; free structure |
- Examples: Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn", Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
2.2.3 Elegy
- Mournful poem lamenting the dead or reflecting on serious loss
- Somber and reflective tone
- Themes: death, mourning, consolation, remembrance
- May include praise of the deceased
- Examples: Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", Tennyson's "In Memoriam A.H.H."
2.2.4 Pastoral
- Idealized depiction of rural life and nature
- Features shepherds, countryside, simple living
- Contrasts rural innocence with urban complexity
- Examples: Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"
2.2.5 Song/Lyric
- Musical quality; meant to be sung or have song-like rhythm
- Simple language, repetition, refrain
- Regular meter and rhyme scheme
3. Dramatic Poetry
3.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry written in the voice of a character; meant to be spoken or performed |
| Voice | Uses personas or characters speaking |
| Purpose | To reveal character, situation, or story through speech |
3.2 Types of Dramatic Poetry
3.2.1 Dramatic Monologue
- Single character speaks to silent listener(s) at critical moment
- Reveals speaker's character, motivations, and psychological state
- Creates tension between what speaker intends to reveal and what is actually revealed
- Elements: distinct speaker, silent audience, dramatic situation, revelation of character
- Examples: Browning's "My Last Duchess", Tennyson's "Ulysses"
3.2.2 Soliloquy
- Character speaks thoughts aloud when alone
- Reveals inner thoughts and feelings directly
- Common in verse drama
- Example: Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech
3.2.3 Dialogue Poem
- Conversation between two or more characters in verse
- Exchange of ideas, debate, or discussion
- Each speaker's voice is distinct
4. Descriptive Poetry
4.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry that vividly describes a person, place, thing, or experience |
| Focus | Creating clear mental images through sensory details |
| Techniques | Imagery, figurative language, sensory appeal (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) |
| Purpose | To paint pictures with words; evoke sensory experience |
4.2 Key Features
- Rich use of adjectives and adverbs
- Metaphors, similes, and personification
- Appeals to multiple senses
- Creates atmosphere and mood
- May overlap with other types (lyric or narrative)
5. Didactic Poetry
5.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry intended to teach, instruct, or convey moral, religious, or philosophical lessons |
| Purpose | Educational or instructional; imparts knowledge or values |
| Tone | Authoritative, instructive, moralistic |
| Content | Religious doctrine, moral principles, practical knowledge, philosophy |
5.2 Examples and Forms
- Fables in verse (Aesop's Fables)
- Religious poetry conveying spiritual teachings
- Philosophical poems explaining ideas
- Alexander Pope's "Essay on Criticism" and "Essay on Man"
- Lucretius' "De Rerum Natura" (On the Nature of Things)
6. Satirical Poetry
6.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to criticize or expose folly, vice, or corruption |
| Purpose | To criticize society, politics, institutions, or human behavior |
| Techniques | Irony, sarcasm, wit, parody, caricature, exaggeration |
| Tone | Mocking, critical, humorous, indignant |
6.2 Types and Examples
- Horatian satire: gentle, humorous, tolerant
- Juvenalian satire: harsh, bitter, indignant
- Menippean satire: attacks mental attitudes and belief systems
- Examples: Pope's "The Rape of the Lock", Swift's "A Satirical Elegy", Byron's "Don Juan"
7. Occasional Poetry
7.1 Definition and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry written for a specific occasion or event |
| Purpose | To commemorate, celebrate, or mark a particular event |
| Occasions | Weddings, funerals, coronations, national celebrations, public events, births |
7.2 Types
- Epithalamion: wedding poem celebrating marriage
- Eulogy: poem in praise of someone who has died
- Epitaph: inscription on a tomb; poem commemorating the deceased
- Victory odes: celebrating military or athletic victories
- Poet Laureate poems: commissioned for state occasions
8. Free Verse and Experimental Forms
8.1 Free Verse
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Poetry without regular meter, rhyme, or fixed form |
| Structure | No predetermined pattern; poet creates own structure |
| Rhythm | Natural speech rhythms; cadence based on meaning and emotion |
| Line Breaks | Determined by poet for emphasis, pacing, or meaning |
- Uses other poetic devices: imagery, metaphor, alliteration, assonance
- Emerged prominently in 19th-20th centuries
- Examples: Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"
8.2 Concrete Poetry
- Visual arrangement of words creates image related to poem's subject
- Form and content merge; shape reinforces meaning
- Also called shape poetry or pattern poetry
8.3 Prose Poetry
- Written in prose form but contains poetic elements
- No line breaks; appears as paragraph(s)
- Uses imagery, figurative language, rhythm, and compression
- Blurs boundary between poetry and prose
9. Fixed Forms in Poetry
9.1 Villanelle
- 19 lines: five tercets + one quatrain
- Two rhymes throughout (ABA pattern)
- First and third lines of opening tercet alternate as refrains
- Rhyme scheme: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA
- Example: Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
9.2 Sestina
- 39 lines: six stanzas of six lines + three-line envoi
- No rhyme; uses end-word repetition in set pattern
- Six end-words rotate through stanzas in specific order
- Envoi contains all six end-words (two per line)
9.3 Limerick
- Five lines with AABBA rhyme scheme
- Lines 1, 2, 5 have three metrical feet; lines 3, 4 have two feet
- Anapestic meter (two unstressed syllables + one stressed)
- Humorous or nonsensical content
- Example: Edward Lear's limericks
9.4 Haiku
- Japanese form: three lines
- Syllable pattern: 5-7-5
- Focuses on nature, season, moment of insight
- Contains kigo (seasonal reference) and kireji (cutting word)
- Presents single image or observation
9.5 Rondeau
- 15 lines in three stanzas
- Two rhymes throughout
- Refrain (opening words) repeated after stanzas 2 and 3
- Rhyme scheme: AABBA AABR AABBAR (R = refrain)
9.6 Blank Verse
- Unrhymed iambic pentameter
- Regular meter without rhyme
- Closest to natural English speech rhythms
- Used extensively in English drama and epic poetry
- Examples: Shakespeare's plays, Milton's "Paradise Lost"
10. Comparison of Major Types
| Type | Primary Purpose |
|---|---|
| Narrative | Tell a story; present sequence of events |
| Lyric | Express personal emotion and feeling |
| Dramatic | Present character through speech; reveal through dialogue |
| Descriptive | Create vivid sensory images |
| Didactic | Teach moral or philosophical lesson |
| Satirical | Criticize through humor and irony |
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Apr 20, 2026 Last updated
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