arrative narrative poetry
 
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Narrative poetry
narrative poetry
Narrative poetry was a precursor to the modern novel and many of the world's great (and still popular) stories are written in verse: Iliad, Aeneid, Beowulf, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Gawain and the Green Knight, The Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, The Fairie Queen, The Rape of Lock, Don Juan, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Browning's Dramatic Lyrics, Idylls of the King, Hiawatha — to mention only European examples. Narrative poetry presents a story or account of events, and must therefore encompass the novel's requirements.

Rambling narratives
narrative poetry


Stories needn't be simple or linear. Half the pleasure comes from digressions, subplots, observations on life and a dozen other inconsequentialities. Narrative poems allow their author to speak with borrowed voice and viewpoint — useful for dealing with painful or novel experiences — but, more importantly, open up new techniques to the poet. Plot,
dialogue, conflict, page-turning suspense, characterisation, setting, local colour, reader-grabbing openings and so forth: these are not simply requirements but a way of vastly extending the territory and accomplishments of a poem.


Anti-narrative tradition
anti-narrative tradition
Isn't story telling natural to humans? No, says the American avant-garde. Narratives impose a structure on events, and are therefore repressive. Poets like Bernadette Mayer, Charles Bernstein, Jack Spicer, Shawn Walker and Catherine French therefore replace characterisation and narrative techniques by free association, mechanical or random selection devices, stress on text only, etc. Results are dada-like but sometimes beautiful. Freedom is not the only aim, moreover: some avant-garde work simply tries to represent the contemporary world honestly, without borrowed trappings.

Narrative poetry today
writing narrative poetry


Narrative poetry has enjoyed a modest revival in the last twenty odd years. Contemporary narrative poetry can also be found at: expansive poetry and music online, skylonda, christian narrative poetry, polyphony, doggrel.co.uk, ceteris paribus, double take, POeTRY, and Poems from Boston and Cambridge. The literature on contemporary American poetry is partisan, but see J.M. Conte's Unending Design (1991), V.L. Shetley's After the Death of Poetry (1993), and J. Holden's The Fate of American Poetry (1991) for a discussion of the issues involved.


 
 
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