Literature Glossary
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Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Narrative Poem
Definition:
Every heard of Beowulf or The Canterbury Tales? Then you're already an expert in narrative poetry.
Narrative poems are like grandpas—which is to say, they like to tell stories. Just like their prose cousins, narrative poems have everything you'd expect from a story, like narrators, characters, and a plot.
But… they're told in verse.
Beyond those conventions, though, all bets are off. Narrative poems can be short and sweet, or they can be long and complicated. They might have a specific rhythm and meter… or they might not. They're fickle beasts, those narrative poets.
Ready for some more examples of narrative poetry? Peep these, Shmooper:
- "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe