Which term describes a poem focusing on personal feelings and experiences?

• A. Epic
• B. Elegy
• C. Allusion
• D. Lyric

Answer: (D)

Lyric poetry describes a poem that centers on the speaker's inner life—personal feelings, thoughts, and experiences—often conveyed with a musical or emotional quality. It's typically shorter and focused on mood or reflection rather than telling a big story. This distinguishes it from an epic, which narrates heroic deeds and extensive events, or from a narrative poem that presents actions and events in sequence. While an elegy is a kind of lyric that expresses mourning for a loss, the general idea of a poem that concentrates on personal feeling and experience points to lyric poetry as the best fit. An allusion, by contrast, is a reference within a text, not a type of poem, so it isn’t describing the poem’s form at all. So the best answer is lyric poetry, which centers on the speaker’s emotions and experience.