Narrative Poetry, a note

Simply put, a narrative poem is a poem that tells a story. But more than that, it is a poem that combines storytelling and poetry. A story written in verse and an imaginative poem with a very thin thread of narrative are both narrative poems, but neither fully exploits the possibilities of narrative poetry. Both the story aspect and the poetic aspect of the narrative poem are stronger when they are balanced and essential parts of the whole. What this means is that the poetic form should enhance the story, rather than just being incidental. Examples of a good balance of poetry and story are found in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Christina Rossetti's “The Goblin Market.”

Why Poetry?

But why choose to tell a story as a poem instead of as a short story or novel? The story part of a narrative poem could probably also be effectively written as a short story, but the effect on the reader will be different because short stories and poems use different techniques. So even if your story is a good short story, you could try writing it as a poem to change the way it works for the reader. The story as poem might accentuate different motifs than the story as short story. Perhaps as a poem it would be more visual or more immediate in effect, whereas as a short story it is subtler or takes longer to sink in. You probably won't know until you try it and see what happens.

Characteristics

While a short story generally has some kind of rising action leading to a climax and then a resolution (though this becomes less true as writers become more experimental with form), a narrative poem often ends before the action is resolved. Thus a narrative poem may present an unsolved or unsolvable mystery or situation. An example of this is found in Edgar Allen Poe's fantastic rhyming poem “The Raven.”


Try writing your own story in verse. You might want to use your skills of imitation in order to settle upon a type of stanza that you can use.