Three Different Literary Forms - Essay Example

The greatest similarities between drama, poetry, and short story are that they all set out to convey a story or a message, and they all strive to draw emotion from the audience. Another commonality between these three different literary forms is that they all try to invoke the thoughts of audience members. However, how they attempt to accomplish these varies with each literary form, which is where the differences can be found.
In drama, the characters and their dialogue are the most vital components, a concept which can be seen throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Shakespeare); in the short story, characters are also important, though they usually only exist abstractly in poetry. Drama is driven by action and plot, just as short stories are, which can be seen in many fairytales or children’s fables, like Cinderella (Perrault); poetry, on the other hand, is more driven by expression. Poetry and short stories rely on imagery and point of view to display their messages, but drama depends more on the story itself.
Yet another greatest difference between these three literary forms is their length: drama is often the longest, followed by the short story. Poetry, though, compresses its ideas and tends to follow specific rhythmic patterns to convey the message or the detail in fewer lines, as She dwelt among the untrodden ways (Wordsworth 71) by William Wordsworth; many poems, with some exceptions, such as Beowulf, do not exceed a page. Due to the length of poems, the poet has to reveal as much as they can while they can. Drama and short stories leave room for other elements to be displayed, such as theme and setting.
Two other vast differences between these literary elements can be seen in their settings and their genres. Read More