Lesson 2; Narrative Verse
Narrative poetry is one of the oldest, and may be the oldest, forms of poetry. It's used to tell a story and can be either long or short. There are different types of narrative poetry. The most common are: epics, romances, and historical verse.
Epics are very long and have many parts; many are as long as a whole book. Some famous epic poems are Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Dante's "Divine Comedy", Beowulf (author unknown), John Milton's "Paradise Lost", etc.
Romances are usually shorter poems, and tells stories about chivalry and classical mythology.
Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" is a good example of narrative romance.
Historical verse takes true stories and makes them come to life by putting them to rhyme. However, be careful, for they occasionally stretch the truth. "Paul Revere's Ride" by H.W. Longfellow is a famous example of a historical narrative.
