Line #114 Main/NarrativePoem


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4	->''The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,''
5	->''The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,''
6	->''The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,''
7	->''And the highwayman came riding--''
8	-->''Riding--riding--''
9	->''The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.''
10	-->'''Alfred Noyes,''' "Literature/TheHighwayman"
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12	Simply put, a narrative {{poe\|try}}m is a poem that tells a story. This [[{{Formats}} format]] is OlderThanDirt -- in fact, it may even predate prose. Such poems were popular in ye olden dayes, as the rhymes, rhythms, and alliteration helped the storyteller remember how the story went when no writing existed.
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14	Despite originally being designed for reciting by heart, narrative poems remained the most popular form of narrative fiction well after writing was invented and popularised. However, they started to decline in popularity with the advent of the printing press as the production of fictional prose became cheaper and easier. They persisted in popularity for several hundred years, and even in the 19th century book-length narrative poems were not unusual.
15
16	Nowadays, though, narrative poems are [[ForgottenTrope rarely written]].
17
18	Subtypes of narrative poetry include:
19	* A narrative poem that meets the criteria of an [[TheEpic epic]] is an epic poem.
20	* A shorter narrative poem that uses stanzas is a ballad (especially if it is set to music)
21	* A {{novel}} written in verse is a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin verse novel]].
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23	Subgroups of ballads that have their own page on this wiki are the MurderBallad, the RevengeBallad, and the MoralityBallad. For a related format, see RockOpera.
24	----
25	!! Examples of narrative poems:
26	!!! Epic poems (including [[{{Parody}} genre parodies]])
27	* ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' is the oldest surviving example.
28	* ''Literature/TheIliad'' by Creator/{{Homer}}.
29	* ''Literature/JohnTheValiant''
30	* ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', also ascribed to Homer.
31	* The rest of Literature/TheTrojanCycle, authors uncertain.
32	* ''Literature/{{Batrachomyomachia}}'', a mock-heroic epic poem, i.e., parody of Homer.
33	* ''Literature/{{Cerebus Slept}}''
34	* ''Literature/{{The Gaiad}}''
35	* ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}''
36	* ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}''
37	* ''Literature/TheAeneid'' by Creator/{{Virgil}}
38	* ''Literature/TheThebaid'' by Creator/{{Statius}}.
39	* ''Literature/TheAchilleid'' also by Statius.
40	* ''Literature/{{Pharsalia}}'' by Lucan.
41	* ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', Anglo-Saxon heroic epic.
42	* ''Literature/TheShahnameh'' by Ferdowsi
43	* ''Literature/TheSongOfRoland'', an account of how the title character was betrayed at Roncesvalles.
44	* ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}''
45	* ''The Poem of the Cid'' on the exile and redemption of El Cid Campeador, (very) loosely based on his real exploits.
46	* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' by Creator/DanteAlighieri.
47	* ''Orlando innamorato'' by Matteo Maria Boiardo, the predecessor of...
48	* ''Literature/OrlandoFurioso'' by Ariosto. (Leans hard on the parodistic.)
49	* ''Os Lusíadas'' by Luis Vaz de Camões
50	* ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' by Edmund Spenser.
51	* ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' by Creator/JohnMilton.
52	* ''Literature/TheRapeOfTheLock'' by Alexander Pope, another mock-epic.
53	* ''Literature/LudasMatyi'' is a Hungarian example, adapted to a successful animated film.
54	* ''Literature/DaredevilsOfSassoun'', a traditional Armenian epic.
55	* ''Literature/DonJuan'' by Creator/LordByron, mock-epic.
56	* The unfinished ''The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream'' by Creator/JohnKeats.
57	* ''Literature/TheEveOfStAgnes'' by Creator/JohnKeats
58	* ''Literature/TheKalevala'' (the Finnish national epic)
59	* ''Literature/TheSongOfHiawatha'' by Creator/HenryWadsworthLongfellow.
60	* ''Evangeline'', also by Longfellow.
61	* ''The Cantos'', by Creator/EzraPound
62	* ''{{Literature/Kalevipoeg}}''
63	* ''Literature/TheKnightInThePanthersSkin'', a Georgian medieval epic poem
64	* ''[[Literature/JustForFun The Fall of the Black and Yellow Warriors]]''
65	* ''Literature/{{Waltharius}}''
66	* ''Literature/{{Toldi}}'', a Hungarian epic about the FolkHero Miklós Toldi.
67	* Literature/TheEpicOfSundiata
68
69	!!! Verse novel
70	* ''Literature/EugeneOnegin'', a Russian novel by Creator/AlexanderPushkin
71	* ''Literature/PanTadeusz'' by Adam Mickiewicz
72	* ''The Golden Gate'', a modern novel written in Pushkin stanzas by Vikram Seth.
73	* ''Literature/{{Zorgamazoo}}'', a modern novel written entirely in rhyme by Robert Paul Weston.
74	* Creator/EllenHopkins multiple series of YoungAdult verse novels. ''Literature/CrankTrilogy'', ''Literature/{{Impulse}}'', ''Literature/{{Identical}}'' are a few.
75	* ''Literature/TheCrossover'', another modern (and children's) example by Kwame Alexander
76	* ''Literature/LoveDishonorMarryDieCherishPerish'' by Creator/DavidRakoff
77	* ''Literature/LightAndLavender'' by Zev Bordowitz
78	* ''Literature/{{Eludoran}}'' has over 15,000 rhyming couplets spanning 800 pages.
79	* ''Literature/AutobiographyOfRed'' by Anne Carson.
80
81	!!! Other (includes ballads):
82	%%
83	%% Titles of ballads go in double quotes; epic poems and series/collections go in italics.
84	%%
85	* ''Literature/EnumaElish'' -- Babylonian creation myth.
86	* Several of the Homeric Hymns
87	* ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'' by Creator/{{Ovid}}
88	* "Literature/TheBalladOfMulan", Chinese ballad.
89	* The ''Literature/PoeticEdda'' consists of these.
90	* ''Piers Plowman'' by William Langland
91	* The anonymous ''Literature/SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight''
92	* ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'' and ''The Book of the Duchess'' by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer.
93	* ''Venus and Adonis'' and ''The Rape Of UsefulNotes/{{Lucre\|tia}}ce'' by Creator/WilliamShakespeare
94	* "Literature/TamLin", a Literature/{{Child Ballad\|s}}
95	* All the other Literature/ChildBallads
96	* Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge's ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner''
97	* "Kubla Khan", also by Coleridge.
98	* "Literature/TheErlking" by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe.
99	* "La Belle Dame sans Merci" by Creator/JohnKeats
100	* "Literature/TheHighwayman" by Alfred Noyes
101	* "Tam o' Shanter", by Creator/RobertBurns.
102	* "Terje Vigen" by Creator/HenrikIbsen.
103	* ''Literature/FloranteAtLaura'', by Francisco Balagtas (1830s).
104	* Creator/AlfredLordTennyson has a few:
105	** ''Literature/TheLadyOfShalott'' (1833 and 1842)
106	** "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854)
107	** "Maud" (1855)
108	** "Literature/EnochArden" (1864)
109	* "Literature/TheRaven" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe.
110	* Robert Browning's "Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower Came", basis of Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series.
111	* "Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark" by Creator/LewisCarroll.
112	* "Literature/CaseyAtTheBat" by Ernest Thayer.
113	* "The Shooting of Dan [=McGrew=]" and "The Cremation of Sam [=McGee=]", both by Robert W. Service.
114	* "The Truant" by E.J. Pratt.
115	* Creator/JRRTolkien wrote quite a few: two long epic poems of tales from the ''[[Literature/TheSilmarillion Quenta Silmarillion]]'' ("The Lay of Leithian" and "The Lay of the Children of Húrin", respectively), as well as countless shorter ones appearing in his works (e.g. "Eärendil" from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'').
116	* "Crossing America" by Leo Connellan.
117	* ''The Adventures And Brave Deeds Of The Ships Cat On The Spanish Maine: Together With The Most Lamentable Losse Of The Alcestis and Triumphant Firing of the Port of Chagres'' by Creator/RichardAdams
118	* ''Literature/TheSonneteer'', an experimental blog-verse narrative by TJ Radcliffe
119	* "Literature/TheBalladOfTheWhiteHorse" by Creator/GKChesterton
120	* ''Literature/LeavesOfGrass'' by Creator/WaltWhitman
121	* "Literature/{{Lenore}}" by Gottfried August Bürger
122	* ''[[Literature/JustForFun The Little Laundry Fairy]]''
123	* ''Literature/GoblinMarket'' by Christina Rossetti
124	* ''Literature/MiksMammoth'' by Roy Gerrard
125	* ''The Wanderings of Oisin,'' by Creator/WilliamButlerYeats, a retelling of the later part of the Ossian legend, in which the poet travels away to Tir Na Nog and leaves Ireland behind for 400 years, before getting homesick. Memorably, this poem is narrated by Oisin himself to St. Patrick in the DistantFinale. Yes, ''that'' St. Patrick. He's a bit of a [[GoodIsNotNice jerkass]], in fact.
126	* ''Literature/MartinFierro'': The poem is about a {{Gaucho}} who recounts his life full of misadventures singing thirteen songs in the first part, and thirty three improvised songs in the second part. This format could be a parody or pastiche (José Hernández was a CattleBaron who wanted to imitate the style of the [[{{Gaucho}} gauchos]]), but Creator/JorgeLuisBorges thinks the book could be classified as a novel.
127	* Shows up from time to time in children's literature, the most well-known of which would be works by Creator/DrSeuss.
128	* "Literature/IJustMakeThemUpSee" by Creator/IsaacAsimov
129	* "Literature/TheFigurehead" by Crosbie Garstin
130	* "Literature/TheWitch1896" by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
131	* "Literature/ThePhantomShip1927" by Winifred Batdorf
132	* "Literature/TheNauticalBalladOfBenBoBohns" by James Brookes More
133	* ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids''[='=]s 2020 Halloween special was a collection of short tales entitled ''The Verses of Samhain'', being ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Halloween-themed Cupid stories in verse.
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