Reality in poetry

[Achebe]

I don't think there should be two (epic and lyric) classes of poetry. There should be three. Lyric - music, the ear, sonics; Epic - storytelling, narration, drama, pure and simple, and there's a third, image-rich form that's not lyric and not epic, but is most of modern poetry.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it there, but the genres do blend. Really, the third class of poetry you speak of just feels like a blend of the other two, especially since lyric's associative rhythm does mean a good deal of images. But it's been a good deal since I read it, and you should probably just give it a shot.

Sight and sound are quite different but I'll give Frye a read if you say so.