Comilla University

Department of English
Assignment on:

Define Poetry and Elucidate Its Different Types,

Alluding to Their Chief Characteristics with Notable Examples.

Course Title: Critical Appreciation, Rhetoric and Prosody

Course Code: ENG_1102

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Abdullah Al Jobayer MD.Emran Hossain

Roll:12501014 Lecturer

Session:2024-25 Department of English

Batch: 19 Comilla University

Submission Date:24-08-2025
Poetry is considered the oldest art in the world and one of the earliest ways in which humans

expressed their thoughts and emotions. It helps writers share their feelings, experiences, and

traditions.

Various critics and poets have attempted to define poetry in their own ways, highlighting its

depth and diversity.

Sir Philip Sidney, defined poetry in his An Apology for Poetry, as “a speaking picture, with

this end, to teach and delight.”

William Wordsworth described poetry as “The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,

recollected in tranquility.”

P. B. Shelley, in A Defence of Poetry, stated that “Poetry is the record of the best and happiest

moments of the happiest and best minds."

Matthew Arnold considered poetry as “a criticism of life.”

The classification of poetry into its major types is presented in the diagram:
1) Objective Poetry: Objective poetry deals with themes beyond personal feelings and

thoughts. It includes two main forms :

I)Narrative Poetry

II)Dramatic Poetry

• Narrative poetry:

It is a story in verse, often including characters, events and a plot. Narrative poetry is

generally classified into three types:

I)Ballad

II)Epic

III)Metrical romance

I) Ballad:A narrative poem that tells a story through dialogue and action.

Characteristics:

a) It is narrative in form, and so, it tells a story.

b) Its narrator is generally impersonal third person.

c) It opens dramatically at the middle of the story.

d) Its story is told through dialogue and action.

e) Traditionally it deals with rural labourers or love or legends or supernatural elements or

tragic events.

Example:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner composed by S.T. Coleridge is a famous ballad. Scott’s Lay

of the Lasts Minstrel etc.

II) Epic:A long narrative poem that tells in grand style the history and aspiration of a national

hero.

Characteristics:

a) Invocation to the Muses and proposition of the subject at the beginning.

b) Lofty language and high style.

c) A central hero of superman quality.

d) A subject of national or collective interest.

e) A long perilous journey, often on water.

f) Long speeches of the heroic leaders.

g) Mighty battles.

h) Homeric (long-run) similes.

i) Involvement of supernatural elements.

j) An underworld journey.

k) Assembly of the supernatural powers.

Example: Homer’s The Iliad & Odyssey. Beowulf- an Old English epic etc.

III) Metrical Romance: Medieval verse narrative of knights, love, and chivalry.

Characteristics:

a) Written in verse (usually rhymed).

b) Centers on knights, quests, and damsels.

c) Combines realism with fantasy.

d) Moral lessons are often present.

Example:Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

(14th century) tells the story of Sir Gawain’s test of honor, coura
2) Subjective Poetry: Subjective Poetry talks about personal feelings and thoughts.

• Lyric: A short poem expressing personal or subjective thoughts and intense feeling of a

single speaker.There are six kinds of lyrics:

I)Elegy

II)Sonnet

III)Ode

IV)Dramatic Monologue

V)Hymn

VI)Epithalamion

Characteristics:

a) It does not tell a story.

b) It makes a momentary flash of emotion.

c) It expresses personal thoughts and feelings.

d) A single speaker speaks in it.

1) Elegy: A lyric poem mourning for the death of an individual or lamenting over a tragic

event.

Characteristics:

a) It opens with lamentation for the death of the speaker's dear friend.

b) In its middle part the speaker idealizes and admires the dead.

c) The society is criticized for doing injustice to the dead and for not allowing the dead

person to do what he could have done.

d) The speaker feels the presence of the dead friend around him.

e) It is meditative in nature.

f) Its tone is grave.

Example:

Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Tennyson's In Memoriam etc.

2) Sonnet:A lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter sonnets. It is of three types:

I)Petrachan (also known as Italian)

II) Shakespearean (also known as English)

III)Spenserian.

Characteristics:

a) The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet are called octave and the last six lines of it are

called sestet.

b) The rhyme scheme of the octave of a Petrarchan sonnet is abba abba and that of sestet is cd

cd cd or cde cde.

c) Milton, Wordsworth, Wyatt, Rossetti and a few other English poets have used Petrarchan

form in their sonnets.

Example: Wordsworth's The world is too much with us, Shakespeare's Sonnets etc.

3) Ode:An exalted lyric poem that begins with an address to someone, instills anguish in the

middle part and ends with consolation.

Characteristics:

a) It opens with address to someone or something.

b) Its middle part develops a sense of grief.

c) Its subject is serious.

d) Its tone is grave.

Example:

Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, Keats' Ode to a Nightingale etc.

4) Dramatic Monologue:A kind of lyric poem in which a single speaker expresses his

thoughts and feelings to a silent listener.

Characteristics:

a) A single speaker speaks throughout the poem on some specific issue.

b) It concentrates on the speaker and reveals his character and mindset.

c) It is not a dramatic technique, and therefore, it is not used in the drama. It is a form of lyric

poem.

Example:Robert Browning's My Last Duchess, Tennyson's Ulysses and Tithonus etc.

5) Hymn:A lyric poem or song in praise of God or a deity or a hero.

Example:John Milton's Let us with a gladsome mind William Blake’s And did those feet in

ancient time etc.

6) Epithalamion:A kind of poem written to celebrate wedding.

Example: Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion etc.