What type of poem typically has a specific storyline and characters?

A narrative poem is designed to tell a story, complete with a plot, characters, and a setting. This form of poetry often unfolds events and developments, similar to a short story or novel, and engages the reader through a sequence of events that typically leads to a climax and resolution.

While other types of poems, such as elegies and epics, may include storytelling elements, they do not do so in the same structured way as a narrative poem. An elegy focuses more on mourning and lamentation, reflecting on loss rather than developing a storyline. Epics, while they can tell grand stories, are often lengthy and emphasize heroic deeds, and may not always stick to a single narrative structure as concise as that of a narrative poem. A limerick, on the other hand, is a whimsical, often humorous poem with a specific rhythm and rhyme scheme that does not support an expansive storyline or character development. Thus, the defining characteristic of a narrative poem is its ability to weave together characters and events in a coherent tale.