Here and there obsolete words help establish an antique flavor. The eternal problem of the nature of evil is basic to the development of the plot. There are many other types of poetic narrative. There is, first the metrical romance, a poem of considerable length whose origins go back to the Middle Ages. The characters are usually of the nobility and their behavior follows the code of chivalry that we associate with King Arthur and his knights of the round table.
Plots are episodic and frequently include supernatural elements and fantastic adventures.
Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes , Tennyson's Arthurian poems, and E. A. Robinson's Tristram are well-known examples of the type. Earlier examples sought both to entertain, in describing a world where knights are fierce in combat against the forces of evil but gentle and longsuffering in their endeavors to win the favor of beautiful damsels, and to communicate ideas about good and evil, about human relations and modes of behavior. Just as Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde represents the best in romances, so do some of his Canterbury Tales represent the best in short stories in poetry. The range of the Canterbury Tales suggests the range of narrative poetry. His Man of Law's Tale is closely related to the medieval saint's lives-early biographies of the suffering and virtues of the saints.