Poetry is a metrical composition. The oldest stories we know were first told as poetry. In a poem the words are often arranged to a musical beat or rhythm. Poetry which is written in a metre, or rhythm, is known as verse. But the rhythm does not have to be regular all the time. This would be dull. Blank verse has a rhythm, but it does not rhyme. Shakespeare used blank verse in his plays, which does not rhyme or have a strict rhythm. There are different styles and forms of poetry.
Story-poems with short verses and, often with exciting stories are called ballads.
Long story-poems are called epics.
The greatest of the ancient epic poems, full of the deeds of brave heroes, are the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, a Greek and the Aeneid of the Roman poet Virgil.