Types of Poetry

Narrative: A type of poem that tells a story
Example:
From noiseful arms, and acts of prowess done
In tournament or tilt, Sir Percivale,
Whom Arthur and his knighthood called The Pure,
Had passed into the silent life of prayer,
Praise, fast, and alms; and leaving for the cowl
The helmet in an abbey far away
From Camelot, there, and not long after, died.

~from The Holy Grail by Alfred Tennyson~

Ballads: A narrative poem that is like a folk tale and also can be sung as a song.
Example:
Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below

And the land lubbers lay down below.

~The Mermaid~

Epic: A long narrative poem that talks about a hero or heroine.
Example:

“Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.”

~from the Odyssey by Homer~

Lyric: A short non-narrative poem that has a single speaker talking about their moods, feelings,...
Example:
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

~Dying by Emily Dickinson~

Sonnet: A kind of poem that has 14 lines and is originated in Europe.
Example:

From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel: Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content, And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding: Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

~by Shakespeere~

Odes: A lyric poem that is written for a specific subject and is written in a structure.
Example:

Just as Walt Whitman would say,
if he were with me today.....
There is a "Song of Myself",
A song that sings of my internal wealth.
A child of God, and also
able to make a friend out of every foe.
For I have true love inside
Any egotisms have surely died.
The beautiful song that strives to be heard
this song is clearer than any songbird.
There is no reason to feel pity
for my God and his love is always with me.
And I will try to learn as much as I should,
knowing that there are no problems,
just oppurtunities to be good.

~Ode to Myself~

Elegies: A poem that mourns the dead.
Example:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

~by Thomas Gray~

Free Verse: A poem that does not rhyme or follow a pattern of meter.
Example:
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

~Song of Myself by Walt Whitman~