A lyric is a poem that presents the subjective experience, thought, or feeling of a single speaker. It is distinguished from narrative poetry (which tells a story) and dramatic poetry (which presents characters in dialogue or action). The lyric is the dominant mode of modern and contemporary poetry in English.
The term originates in ancient Greece, where lyrics were poems sung to the accompaniment of a lyre. The association with music persists: lyric poetry tends to foreground sound — meter, rhyme, vowel quality, consonant texture — and to be short enough to sustain a single emotional or perceptual arc.
The lyric “I” is one of the form’s central problems. The speaker of a lyric poem is not necessarily the poet, but the convention of first-person address creates an intimacy that blurs the line between persona and person. Contemporary poetry often exploits this ambiguity, using the lyric “I” to perform or interrogate subjectivity rather than simply express it.