Book-Length Verse Narratives

Before the age of the novel, much of history and literature was written in narrative verse. With the resurgence of book-length poems, we return to our Homeric roots.

Before the age of the novel, much of world history and literature was written in the form of verse. Narratives such as The Iliad and The Odyssey in Europe and The Bhagavad-Gita in Asia are ready examples. (Narratives such as The Iliad and The Odyssey in Europe and The Bhagavad-Gita in Asia are ready examples of religion, biography and history as poetry. ) As hard as it seems for us to imagine now, the advent of prose was a revolutionary act. One of the reasons the Prose Edda, for instance, is so important to western culture is because it was written in this stunning new non-verse form. The same is often said for the Tale of Genji in Japan.

Even in the nineteenth century books of popular literature, if not history, were written in book-length lyric volumes. Pushkin’s Evgeny Onegin (1833) for instance, is still widely read. The 1860 novel-in-verse, Lucile, by Owen Meredith, however, was not so long-lived and is out of print now even though it was wildly popular for decades in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Many poets writing today are returning to the traditional story-telling form. Publishers, on the other hand, seem shy about announcing a book as a lyric narrative. Though it is often hard to tell from the title, cover, or back material, bookstores today are stocking more and more novels-in-verse and linked narrative collections.

For the next few weeks we will explore the role poetry can play in the telling of a good story.  Here are a few we will be examining:

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

An urban drama based on Greek Mythology.

Louise in Love by Mary Jo Bang

A romance based in Flapper-era America.

After the Lost War by Andrew Hudgins

A biography of Poet Sidney Lanier, and history of the post Civil War US.

Ultima Thule by Davis McCombs

Two stories -- one historical, one fiction -- set in Mammoth Caverns.

Fredy Neptune by Les Murray

Action-packed historical fiction of WWI through WWII.

The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley

An allegory using the Paris Metro as Underworld.

Kyrie by Ellen Bryant Voigt

Historical fiction based on the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Tamsen Donner:  A Woman’s Journey by Ruth Whitman

Historical fiction based on the Donner Party tragedy.

Notice how many times the word “fiction,” is used in the above descriptions.  This is done purposefully, because of the need to underscore an important distinction. After decades of confessional poetry being the dominant model, especially in American classrooms, many assume that all contemporary poetry is true – that what it records actually happened. Poetry has become confused with journaling. “So, how did you get into poetry?” a student asked recently.  “Did you feel depressed one day and pick up a pen?” 

Poetry used as personal confessional, however, is but one use of the genre. In the next few weeks we will be letting poetry out of the confines of the expected, and take it off-roading into the wild literary woods.

Think of an important prose biography, history, or novel.  How is the story served by being told in prose? How could the story be told through poetry?  Does the change in form change the story, and if so, how?

(This article first appeared in Suite 101)