What term describes the narrator of a poem?

The term that best describes the narrator of a poem is "speaker." In poetry, the speaker is the voice that conveys the thoughts, feelings, and emotions expressed within the poem. This is important because the speaker may not always be the same as the author; they can represent a unique perspective or persona created by the poet. Understanding the role of the speaker illuminates how the poem communicates its themes and emotions, allowing readers to engage more deeply with the text.

While terms like "author," "protagonist," and "character" do have their own meanings in literature, they do not specifically pertain to the narrator of a poem in the same way that "speaker" does. The author is the individual who writes the poem, the protagonist usually refers to the main character in a narrative (often found in prose), and a character can be any figure within a narrative but does not necessarily imply the role of a narrator or voice. Hence, "speaker" is the most accurate term for the narrator in the context of poetry.