Poetry and drama have a few key features that emphasize their per formative nature. One is the use of rhyme, rhythm, meter, alliteration, and other types of sound symbolism. For example, in Gwendolyn Brooks' "We real cool", the poet uses a strong rhyme scheme, a consistent meter, and an almost sing-song tone to demonstrate the lack of education of the narrator and his or her youthfulness. It also emphasizes the last line "We die soon.". Another is in "unity of action". Both drama and poetry tend to be focused on a single action, plotline, and main protagonist. In contrast, a novel might be more "epic" in nature, spanning multiple continents, historical eras, and plotlines. For instance, in a play like Ibsen's "A Doll's House", all the action focuses on the main character Nora. While there are secondary characters in the play, the focus remains on her "deception" throughout. Plays and poems tend to use characterization, emotion, and plot to develop their themes, while novels can use more exposition and direct discussion of their themes. For example, a book like "1984" also focuses on the main character Winston, but it has a lot of direct discussion of the society that he lives in. There are secondary "tangents" that aren't directed toward the main plot (his acts of rebellion) but instead just show the world that he lives in. Drama has to be more direct and to the point.
With drama and poetry, the reader has to work a bit harder to see "the point". Because everything isn't spelled out, you have to first figure out what's going on with the character or narrator in the piece, then figure out how it connects to ideas in the larger world.
Poems -- especially lyric poems -- often have a highly performative aspect. Unfortunately, this fact is too often forgotten by readers who automatically assume that the speaker of a lyric poem is necessarily theauthor of the poem. This is rarely a safe assumption. Even when the poem clearly invites us to identify author with...