Forms of Poetry

• Acrostic:

  • Poem with vertical first letters spelling out the topic
  • Horizontal words describe the topic
• Ballad:

  • Narrative poem telling a dramatic story in four-line stanzas with a regular beat
  • Originally set to music and sung
  • Characterized by simplicity of language, repetition of epithets and phrases, simple rhyming schemes (usually abcd, sometimes abab) and refrains
  • Topics often drawn from community life, local and national history, legend, and folklore
  • Verse tales usually about adventure, war, love, death, and the supernatural
• Chant:

  • Dating to prehistoric times
  • One of the earliest forms of poetry
  • Poem of no fixed form, with one or more lines repeated over and over
  • Meant to be spoken aloud
• Cinquain:

  • Five-line poem that follows a pattern and does not rhyme
  • Consists of lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables respectively
• Comic Verse:

  • Poem involving humor and making sense
• Diamante:

  • Seven-line poem with the first and last lines being opposites or contrasts
  • Written in the shape of a diamond
• Elegy:

  • Poem of mourning someone's death
  • Serious in tone
• Epic:

  • Long narrative poem on a subject considered great
• Epigram:

  • Short and pointed poem, often a witty statement in verse or prose
  • Complimentary, satiric, or aphoristic
• Epitaph:

  • Poem with a short inscription carved on a tombstone or written with that context in mind
  • Usually rhymes and lends itself to imitation and distortion
  • Can be serious or humorous
• Sonnet - A type of poem with fourteen lines, usually iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line), and follows a specific rhyme scheme.
• Haiku - A Japanese form of poetry consisting of three unrhymed lines with a total of seventeen syllables, typically describing nature.
• Pantoum - A Malayan poetic form characterized by repetition of certain lines at different points in the poem.
• Ode - An extended lyric poem addressed to an object, person, place, or idea, celebrating its beauty or importance.
• Free Verse refers to poems without any set structure or meter, allowing poets to experiment with language and form.
• Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three unrhymed lines with the first and third lines having five syllables and the second line having seven syllables.
• Ballad is a type of folk song originating from medieval Europe, typically featuring four-line stanzas with an ABAB rhyme scheme and telling stories through repetition and refrains.
• Ode - An extended lyric poem addressed to a person, place, thing, or idea.
• Free Verse - A style of poetry without any set rules regarding meter, rhythm, or rhyme.
• Free Verse - A modernist movement in poetry that rejects traditional rules of meter and rhyme, allowing poets greater freedom in their expression.
• Free verse:

  • Does not conform to particular schemes or patterns of rhyme, meter or form
  • Offers flexibility as it doesn't follow strict rules
  • Rhythm is created by the natural flow of the poet's thoughts and emotions
  • Each line is based on speech rhythm, often a mixture of iambic and anapestic feet
  • Each line is a meaningful unit in its own right and in relation to other lines
  • Form is even more important in free verse than in traditional verse, usually quite subtle
• Haiku:

  • Originated in Japan and often tells about nature
  • Consists of three unrhymed lines containing 17 syllables (5, 7, 5)
  • Portrays a single idea or feeling with strong visual imagery
• Light verse:

  • Cheerful, airy, and light-hearted
  • Often describes everyday events
  • Uses language of the speaking voice
• Limerick:

  • Brief and lends itself to comic effects
  • Consists of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba
  • Rhyme and rhythm are used to enhance the content
• Lyric:

  • Concerned with feelings and thoughts rather than action or narrative
  • Represents and reflects on a single experience, intensely personal
  • Rhythms often have a musical flexibility
  • Does not have to tell a story, often short
• Narrative:

  • Tells a story with an orientation, complication, and resolution
  • Can be short or long, serious, humorous, personal, or impersonal
  • May come in the form of allegories, fables, or accounts of everyday events
• Nonsense verse:

  • Categorized as light verse with structure and rhyme
  • Contains invented words
  • Characterized by fantastic themes, absurd images, artificial language, and humor
• Nursery rhyme:

  • Usually has regular rhymes, strong rhythms, and repetition
  • Described as jingles for children, part of the oral tradition of many countries
• Ode:

  • Usually celebrates a person, animal, or object
  • Often written without the constraints of formal structure or rhyme
• Riddle:

  • Indirectly describes a person, place, thing, or idea
  • Can be any length and usually has a rhyming scheme
• Song lyric:

  • A poem set to music
  • The word 'lyric' comes from the Greek word lyre, often used to accompany songs
• Sonnet:

  • A lyric poem with fourteen lines of five beats each
  • Explores a feeling or state of mind, expresses a fixed idea
  • Alternating rhyme scheme, usually has a 'turning point' at the eighth line
• Tanka:

  • Japanese poem similar to haiku
  • Consists of five lines with specific syllable patterns (5-7-5-7-7)
• Villanelle:

  • A fixed form poem with five three-line stanzas and a four-line stanza
  • Contains only two rhymes throughout