4. The kinds of poetry and their contexts

Abstract

Many different things have been described as poetry—different ways of writing, ways of seeing the world, and states of mind. But in the Western tradition there are three established structural categories of writing that come under the heading of poetry: epic, drama, and lyric. ‘The kinds of poetry and their contexts’ considers these, but also looks at other forms including pastoral poetry, public poetry, and satire. It also discusses what makes poetry popular and why certain poems achieve universal appeal. Also considered are the poetry of place, comic and nonsense verse, elegy, the villanelle, consolation poetry, and wisdom poetry.