Poetic Forms

Sonnet --14 line poem in iambic pentameter (see definitions below).  created by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1348), refined by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), Poet Laureate of France, Edmund Spenser (ca. 1552-1599), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), who created the "Shakespearian Sonnet" , William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Jean Keats (1795-1821), Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) and Edna Saint-Vincent Millay (1892-1950), all credited for its evolution into its present form.

Petrachan: starts with an eight line segment, with an abbaabba rhyme scheme, followed by a six line segment of cdcdee rhyme scheme.

Spenserian: The original English sonnet, It is in quatrain/couplet format, but uses a different rhyme scheme: abab/bcbc/cdcd/ee.

Shakespearean: Uses elements of both Petrachan and Spenserian sonnets. Consists of three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet, with the rhyme scheme abab/cdcd/efef/gg.

Iambic pentameter--based on the iamb, and once the most common meter in poetry written in English.  A poem written in iambic pentameter will have 5 beats per line, each iamb making up one beat.  An iamb is a two-syllable grouping, with the accent stressed on the last syllable, like the word "in-FRINGE."

Acrostic Poems--In Acrostic poems, the first letters of each line are aligned vertically to form a word. The word often is the subject of the poem.

B..reathe into my quill;
flowing scroll inking adoration
true
.
R..relinquish all afore-thought end
to this begun haiku
.
U..ndo as I unveil
this or that idea;
thought only of you
.
C...an I draw a flower;
lily or rose colored hues?
.
E..lope with my fantasy;
entirely...
let us leave these two's
.
~© SynfullySweet~ 10-27-2003

Allegory--Refers to an extended narrative (can be a poem or prose narrative) in which the characters and actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived to make coherent sense on the "literal" level and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of characters, concepts and events.  In other words, an allegory carries a second meaning along with its surface story.

Ballad--a songlike narrative poem traditionally characterized by a recurring refrian and four line stanzas.

Ballade--Refers to three stanzas of eight lines each and a half stanza of four lines.  The meter is usually iambic or anapestic tetrameter, and the rhyme scheme is regularly as such: 
first, second, and third stanzas: a b a b b c b c  Envoy: b c b c

Blank verse--unrhymed iambic pentameter.  Most of Shakespeare's plays were written in this format.

Concrete poetry--writing in which the physical layout of words on the page create a picture.  A poem about a lollipop would be shaped like a lollipop, for example.

Confessional Poetry--a poem that uses the "I" as the poem's speaker.  Refers to a type of narrative and lyric verse which deals with the facts and intimate mental and physical experiences of the poet’s own life. In confessional poetry, the speaker often describes his confused chaotic state, which becomes a metaphor for the state of the world around him.  Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton have written confessional poems.  (Also known as RANTS)


Dirge--A lyrical poem or song of lament for the death of a particular person. A dirge is similar to an ELEGY by it is less formal and is supposed to be sung.

Elegy--a poem of mourning and lamentation

Epigram--Refers to a short pithy poem or saying of two or four lines containing a neatly expressed thought that often ends with a surprising or witty turn of thoughts.  Epigrams are often, but not always comic or satirical.

Epic Poem--a long narrative poem that embodies the central values of its culture.

Free Verse (not blank verse-very different)--Refers to poetry that does not follow a prescribed form but is characterized by the irregularity in the length of lines and the lack of a regular metrical pattern and rhyme.  Free verse may use other repetitive patterns instead (like words, phrases, structures).

Ghazal--a traditional Persian or Iranian poetic form made up of sequences of 5-15 related couplets.

Haiku--The name haiku is derived from the word haikai which is any verse in a Renga, and hokku which is the first 5,7,5 verse of a Renga.  The two words were combined to formalise the haiku style by M. Shiki in the 1860's.  Haiku can be written in many ways, either with 17 syllables all on one line, or as is more commonly the fashion, using three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.  The key thing to recall about formal Haiku is that a) it revolves around nature themes, or seasonal reference b) can have a caesura at the end of either the first line,  or second, but not both, c) shouldn't rhyme, d) shouldn't form a complete sentence, nor a run on, and e) the imagery in the first two lines is only illuminated by the seperate image in the third and final line. © Bruce Herbert Fader 2003

Light Verse--A term applied t a great variety of poems that use an ordinary speaking voice and a relaxed manner to treat their subjects gaily, or playfully, or with a good - natured satire.  Its subjects may be serious or petty; the defining quality is the tone of voice used and the attitude of the lyric or narrative speaker towards the subject.

Limerick--must have five lines with aabba rhyme scheme.  The beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, STRESSED) with three feet in lines 1, 2, and 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 and 4.  However the following exceptions are allowed: The first foot of an line may have only one weak beat in front of the strong beat.  Trailing weak beats that continue the rhyme are allowed at the end of the each line. Naturally these sounds must be identical over rhyming lines.  A good limerick must have some element of the absurd. 

 
Lyric--a general label for a fairly short poem that expresses personal thought and emotion. a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and feeling rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation.  Originally, the term "lyric" designated poems meant to be sung but today, the term is sometimes used to refer to any short poem.  Lyric Poetry is written in the first person, but the "I" isn't necessarily the Poet.

Kenning--An ancient Norse style of poetry, whereby the poet uses metaphorical phrases to describe actual words. 

Etymology: Old Norse, from kenna
Date: 1883
: a metaphorical compound word or phrase
(as Ocean becomes "Swan-road", School becomes "Halls of Knowledge," Home becomes "Where hearts beat together at night," etc...) used especially
in Old English and Old Norse poetry.   

Mock Heroic/Mock Epic--A poem that imitates the elaborate form and ceremonious style of the epic genre, but applies it to a commonplace or trivial subject matter, whereby the poet writes with a certain amount of pomp and flare about something as prosaic as a gerbil on its wheel, or the life of a flower.

Ode--a stately and elaborate poem fit for solemn subjects.
Parody--A type of high burlesque which imitates or exaggerates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author.  Parody is a device of satire.

Prose Poetry--A poem using common language in a concentrated, yet rhythmical way; its manner dense and compact, full of poetic imagery (which is what differentiates it from normal prose (that which is Prosaic)), these compositions are sonorous, at times bombastic; their intense manner and direct way of speaking to the poet's audience making them one of the greatest revolutions in modern poetry.  Traditionally they are written in sentence format and without line breaks, such as in, Baudelaire's "Little Poems in Prose."  (See also Free Verse, as these styles are often combined.  Meaning that line breaks are instated, but at the same time the rhythmic content of Prose is added to the Free Verse content; making a strong marriage of poetry).  © Bruce Herbert Fader 2003

RANTS--(see Confessional Poetry)

Renga-- meaning linked elegance, is a solely Japanese form of poetry that stemmed off of the Tanka.  It is done in partnership with other poets, whereby traditionally a man writes a Hokku [starting verse] (5,7,5) and a woman completes the Tanka with the (7,7).  In Renga, this process can continue on indefinitely with innumerable poets adding their particular flavour to the piece.  Each of these individual Tanka within a Renga is called a Haikai.  Over time people just started writing the Hokku with nothing else attached, and these in turn became known as Haiku (see Haiku and Tanka).  © Bruce Fader 2003

Sestina--A poem which consists of six six-line stanzas and a final three line stanza (called an Envoy), all unrhymed; the final word in each line of the first stanza becomes the final word in other stanzas (but in a different specified pattern); the final stanza uses these words again in a specified way, one in each half line.  Example: In the diagram, each letter represents the terminal word of a verse and each line represents a stanza:
Stanza 1: a  b  c  d  e  f
Stanza 2:  f  a  e  b  d  c
Stanza 3:  c  f  d  a  b  e
Stanza 4:  e  c  b  f  a  d
Stanza 5:  d  e  a  c  f  b
Stanza 6: b  d  f  e  c  a
Envoy:   e  c  a

 
Shape poetry--poetry that forms a shape such as a tree, a vase, a candlestick ect. does not need to form the subject of the poetry. A romantic shape poem may be in the shape of a rose or a vase.
 
Tanka--five lines as follows:  5,7,5,7, and 7 syllables.

Villanelle--a traditional poem of 19 lines, and employing only two rhymes.  Line 1 is repeated at lines 6, 12, and 18, and line 3 is repeated at lines 9, 15, and 19.  This intermeshes into five tercets that rhyme aba, and a final quatrain rhymed abaa.