Poetry is usually classified as epic, lyric, dramatic, and didactic.
=Epic Poetry= is that which deals with the life and adventures of some
real or mythic personage, called a hero.
1. The _great epic_ is considered the highest effort of poetic talent,
on account of the loftiness of its conceptions, the dignity of its
character, and the difficulty of its execution. Few epic poems have
gained general admiration. Those most highly prized are Homer’s _Iliad_
and _Odyssey_; Virgil’s _Æneid_; Milton’s _Paradise Lost_; and Tasso’s
_Jerusalem Delivered_.
2. The _Metrical Romance_ differs from the great epic in its theme,
which is less serious; its metre, which is lighter; and its control of
events, which is mainly human; the love element is more prominent in
this form of the epic. Examples: Scott’s _Marmion_ and _The Lady of the
Lake_.
3. The _Tale_ is a simple form of narrative poetry telling a complete
story. Examples: Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_; Tennyson’s _Enoch Arden_.
4. The _Ballad_ is a direct, rapid, and condensed story, having
peculiarities of phrase and poetic accent. Examples: _Chevy Chase_;
Coleridge’s _Ancient Mariner_.
5. _Pastorals_ and _Idylls_ have a great deal of description, often of
simple country scenes, mingled with the narrative. Examples: Goldsmith’s
_Deserted Village_; Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_.
=Dramatic poetry= tells a story by means of characters speaking and
acting in such a way as to develop a plot. The drama is divided into
acts, often five, the fifth act showing the results of the plot which
has been developing.
The classes of dramatic poetry are tragedy and comedy.
_Tragedy_ deals with the grave situations and problems of life and
engenders in the spectator noble emotions.
_Comedy_ deals with the pleasanter and more trivial side of life and
chooses its subjects from everyday follies, accidents, or humors.
=Lyric poetry= expresses the deepest emotions of sentiment of the poet.
The lyric, as the word suggests, was originally designed to be sung to
the music of the lyre.
Lyric poetry includes five classes, as follows:
_Song_ may be either sacred or secular.
The _Ode_ is the loftiest form of lyric, and expresses great range and
depth of feeling. This range of emotion often varies the metre.
Examples: Tennyson’s _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington_;
Lowell’s _Commemoration Ode_.
The _Elegy_ laments the fleeting condition of human affairs. Examples:
Gray’s _Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard_; Milton’s _Lycidas_;
Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_.
The _Sonnet_ is a short poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines, and
had originally a prescribed arrangement of rhyming lines. The great
English sonnet writers are Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and Mrs.
Browning.
Many lyrics have none of the special aims already mentioned. These may
be called _Simple_ lyrics. Example: Burns’s _To a Daisy_.
=Didactic verse= is not the highest type of poetry.
Its aim is not to give pleasure, but to instruct.
Example: Pope’s _Essay on Man_.