POETRY.
For the definition of poetry in general, see under POETRY. Poetic literature is commonly classified as Narrative, Lyrical, or Dramatic, though there are certain other subsidiary kinds.
This distinction is primarily based on the poet's subject matter and his relation to it. In nar rative poetry the principal subject is action, objective or external, usually related by the poet as one standing outside it ; in lyrical poetry the principal subject is feeling, personal or subjective, expressed by the poet as for him self or for an imagined speaker; in dramatic poetry the subject is both action and feeling, but the action is represented objectively while the feeling is expressed subjectively by the various characters.
Of narrative poetry the chief types are those of early periods, this kind having greatly diminished in significance in the modern period characterized by the rise of prose fiction ; these chief early types are Epic and Ballad. The epic is a long narrative poem dealing with heroic adventures of a traditional character, usually concerned with national or racial themes and involving supernatural elements. One may distinguish the primitive or communal epic., like the
term Idyl has been loosely and variously used,— most often to describe a narrative poem with a large descriptive element, especially in pas toral setting, but in a special sense by Tennyson, for the separate narratives (spiritualized re workings of Arthurian romances) which he called 'Idylls of the King' (q.v.). Finally, we may note that occasional experiments have been made in the use of poetry for narratives of familiar life in the manner of the novel ; examples are Clough's
Lyrical Poetry is characterized on the one hand by its association with music, and on the other by the personal or subjective feeling which it normally expresses. Its simplest and most typical form is the Song. As the type develops, with the natural' course of civilization, a larger and larger element of reflection, or intellectual expressiveness, is added to the originally simple and song-like utterance of feeling, resulting in what may be called the Reflective Lyric. Of the song-lyric the poems of Burns are the most important examples in modern English literature; of the reflective lyric the chief masters are Wordsworth, Shel ley and Tennyson (e.g.,
Abbey,'
a Skylark,' (Tears, Idle Tears' ). Special forms of the reflective lyric are the Ode, the Elegy, and the Sonnet. The term Ode is loosely applied to a lyric of a highly dignified or impassioned character, elaborated at some length, especially when addressed to some per sonified idea (as Coleridge's
to France' and Wordsworth's
to Duty)) or expres sive of public feeling on some important occa sion (as Tennyson's
on the Death of Wellington) and Lowell's
The Elegy is (for English usage, hav ing a much more general significance in class ical poetry) a lyric expressive of melancholy or grief, in particular when commemorative of a dead friend. The most representative ex amples are Milton's