Novels in Verse

Try Dorothy Porter's verse novels, esp. The Monkey's Mask.

Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow.

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth

Well, does a novel in verse have to be an epic poem? Could it be a collection of a number of poems in different forms?

My book, Daddy-Daughter Day, I consider to be a fictional story (a.k.a. a novel, or in this case a novella) in verse. It's 39 poems in a variety of forms. If I achieved my aim, each poem stands alone, while at the same time forms a seamless link in the story. This is not a conflict-heavy novella (no car chases, though someone does die).

Here's the link, in case you're interested. For now it's a print book only.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1511590343/?tag=absowrit-20

Actually there are novels in verse that use more than one poetry style. There may even be one in more than one POV. Ask a librarian to help you find examples and flip pages to see if they are epic poems or use many verse forms. I think the latter is more likely because the narrator would use forms to present moods. Of course, I know no titles just what I've heard (read) by keeping my ears (eyes) open. Thus my library suggestion.

For the last few years I've been reading the slowly emerging 'life poem' Drafts written by Rachel Blau du Plessis, a work-in-progress since 1985 and what she herself called an "endless poem" in canto-like sections, grouped in nineteen units. She isn't that well-known (like many experimental poets of the 20th and 21st centuries) but it may come to be seen as one of the great epics of our post-modern times. It isn't a novel, but she draws on fictional and cinematic techniques such as flashbacks, dialogue, compressed stories, an unreliable narrator etc.

No mention of Alice Notley?

For the last 500 days or so, I've written several poems. They are all interconnected, and create a novel of a kind. Check out my Instagram