Drama, poetry and prose

In a nutshell

Fiction texts are examples of writing that use language in a very creative way and are made up by the writer. There are many types of fictional texts with the main types being drama, poetry and prose. In this summary, you will learn more about these text types.

Drama

Drama is a type of fiction that represents performance. It can be a play that is performed on a stage or it can be a film. A drama text allows you to awaken your imagination. They will often include extra things that you may not see in normal texts such as novels or short stories. For example, you may see stage directions and the settings written out onto the page.

Examples of film and TV

Peaky Blinders Good Cop Bad Cop Red Rose

Examples of theatre

An Inspector Calls Macbeth Romeo & Juliet

Example of stage directions

At rise of curtain, the four BIRLINGS, and GERALD are seated at the table, with ARTHUR BIRLING, at one end, his wife at the other, ERIC downstage, and SHEILA and GERALD seated upstage.

(From 'An Inspector Calls' by J.B. Priestly)

Poetry

Poetry is a literary genre which uses emotive language and rhythmic qualities to show meaning. It is carefully written and often in short simple lines. There are different themes that a poem may convey such as romance, war, or nature. The fun thing about poetry is that it doesn't always have to have meaning, it can just be written for fun.

Examples

'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley

'She Walks in Beauty' by Lord Byron

'Sonnet 43' by William Shakespeare

Example of a love poem

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

(From 'Sonnet 43' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Prose

This type of text follows a general grammatical structure just like any other fiction and non-fiction text. Prose can be thought of as anything that is not poetry. It sounds like a normal speech and most books are written in this type of form. Novels and short stories are common examples of prose and is further explained below.

Examples of prose texts

Essays Instructions Newspaper articles Textbooks

Novels

A novel is a long work of narrative fiction that often has a number of different plot lines. The plot of a novel is usually structured into five different stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. 19th century novels are typical novels you might read in school.

Examples

'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens

'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley

'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen

Short stories

Unlike novels, short stories do not include many characters as they usually only contain a few thousand words. This allows much time for the author to develop characters and show many events that may happen. Short stories will often follow a straight forward plot line as there is not much room to make it complex. Authors may decide to end their short stories with a cliffhanger to add emphasis and let the reader wonder what may happen next.

Examples

'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allen Poe

'A Good Man Is Hard to Find' by Flannery O'Connor