what are the forms of poetry in literature

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Posted on Feb 07, 2022

Types of Poems: 15 Poetry Forms You Need to Know

Poetry is an art form that, for much of its history, has been defined by how it adheres to (or defies) its own tradition. And part of that rich tradition is the poetic forms that have been championed by each generation's leading writers. To understand where poetry is going next, readers and writers should ideally know where poetry has come from .

In this Reedsy guide, we will examine what it takes to write and publish poetry. But lest we run before we walk, we should first become intimate with the many faces of the great spoken art...

In other words, here are 15 types of poems everybody should know:

The invention of the sonnet is first accredited to the thirteenth-century Sicilian poet Giacomo da Lentini, who crafted the form as an ideal way of expressing ‘courtly love’. This poetry form was typically meant to express a ‘forbidden love’ in the court (think ‘noble lady falls in love with the squire’) and it was a genre in itself at the time. 

Modern variations are closer to Seamus Heaney’s Glanmore Sonnets, in which he takes the drama expected of a sonnet and plays on that by writing about the mundane.

The two most common sonnets are named for their best-known practitioners: William Shakespeare and the 14th-century poet, Petrarch. While both of these are fourteen lines long, they come with different rule sets:

What makes a Shakespearean sonnet?

Structure: Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter.

• Three quatrains (4 lines), followed by a couplet (two lines).
• The final couplet presents a volta (AKA a thematic twist) or conclusion.

Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Similar forms in other cultures: Onegin stanza / oneginskaya strofa (Russian), Quatorzain (French, archaic). 

What is iambic pentameter?   Iambic pentameter consists of five iambic ‘feet’ — stressed syllables followed by unstressed syllables — sounding something like:   Now IS the WIN-ter OF our DIS-con-TENT   It was Shakespeare's favored meter, and, spoiler alert, iambic pentameter crops up in a lot of other poetic forms!

What makes a Petrarchan sonnet?

Structure: Fourteen lines, split into two stanzas, in iambic pentameter (traditionally).

• First stanza: eight lines (an octave) asking a question or posing an argument
• Second stanza: six lines (a sestet) answering that question. 
• The volta arrives between the eighth and ninth lines 

Meter: Iambic pentameter (traditionally). 

Rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CDECDE

Shakespearean example: " Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Petrarchan example: "How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Ever get so excited about that new book you’ve been waiting to get your hands on, or that new game with amazing graphics, that you just want to tell everyone about it? Well, poets have been right there with you for centuries, they even made a poetic form specifically to praise things they think are really amazing. (Though historically speaking, they probably didn’t write about games.)

What a mighty fine thing!

Unlike the previous poetry forms, the ode is a lyrical stanza addressing a specific person, place, thing, or event. In fact, it doesn’t just casually address the thing of choice; it’s written in elaborate praise of said thing. The term ‘ode’ originates from the Ancient Greek ōdḗ (or ‘ aoidē ’), meaning ‘song’ —  likely reflecting the form’s origins as a predominantly musical form. 

There are two classic subcategories of ode: Pindaric and Horatian — both of which follow an ABABCDECDE rhyme scheme. However, contemporary odes tend to be more irregular. 

What makes a pindaric ode?

Structure: Traditionally separated into three-stanza sections; the strophe (two plus lines repeated as a unit), a metrically harmonious antistrophe (similar to the strophe, but with a thematic reverse), and the epode (concludes the poem thematically, and has a different meter and length to the previous stanzas).

Meter: Characterized by irregular line length.

Rhyme: ABABCDECDE

What makes a  Horatian ode?

Structure: Written in a series of couplets or quatrains, thematically surrounding intimate scenes in day-to-day life. Irregular odes may follow any structure.

Meter: Poet's choice, but the rhyme scheme and meter should be consistent throughout.

Rhyme scheme: ABABCDECDE. Irregular odes have no set pattern. 

What makes an i rregular ode?

Structure: No strict form, verse structure and patterns should be irregular.

Meter: As the title suggests, the meter can be irregular.

Rhyme scheme: Typically rhymed, but the placement of the rhyme is the poet's choice.

Pindaric ode extract: "Ode To Aphrodite" by Sappho

Deathless Aphrodite, throned in flowers, Daughter of Zeus, O terrible enchantress, With this sorrow, with this anguish, break my spirit Lady, not longer! Hear anew the voice! O hear and listen! Come, as in that island dawn thou camest, Billowing in thy yoked car to Sappho Forth from thy father's Golden house in pity! ... I remember: Fleet and fair thy sparrows drew thee, beating Fast their wings above the dusky harvests, Down the pale heavens, Lightning anon! And thou, O blest and brightest, Smiling with immortal eyelids, asked me: 'Maiden, what betideth thee? Or wherefore Callest upon me? 

Horatian ode extract: "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

         My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

         One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

         But being too happy in thine happiness,—

             That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees

                        In some melodious plot

         Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

             Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

         Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green,

         Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

         Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

             With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

                        And purple-stained mouth;

         That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

             And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Irregular ode extract: "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelle

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

While most modern readers may be more familiar with 80s power ballads than the works of middle-English poets — poetry, culture, and music as we know it today will owe a lot to this form. 

Ballads were invented to narrate a story in a memorable way. (Ever heard of the lovable vigilante Robin Hood? You might not have if his legend wasn’t passed down in 14th-century ballads!) 

"They'll sing songs about you one day..."

Though popularized by British and Irish bards, the name actually derives from the medieval French chanson balladée (meaning ‘dance songs’) — and it’s not hard to see the semblance between this form’s rhythm and structure and modern-day music:

Lithe and listen, gentleman,

That be of freeborn blood; 

I shall you tell of a good yeoman, 

His name was Robin Hood.

— A Gest of Robyn Hode, ed. Francis James Child. 

While hardly the bread and butter of twenty-first-century writers, 1985's US poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks has been praised for her mastery of this poetic form. Ballads nowadays can be easily identified by their quatrains (four-line stanzas) and simple, melodic rhyme scheme – designed to fit with musical accompaniment. 

What makes a ballad?

Structure: Any length, usually written in quatrains.

Meter:  Traditionally, they're written in alternating lines of iambic tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables). 

Rhyme scheme: ABAB or ABCB, occasionally ABABBCBC.

Similar forms in other cultures:   Vaar (Punjabi),  Corrido (Mexican). 

Ballad example: "A Ballad of Hell" by John Davidson

'A letter from my love to-day!

Oh, unexpected, dear appeal!'

She struck a happy tear away,

And broke the crimson seal.

'My love, there is no help on earth,

No help in heaven; the dead-man's bell

Must toll our wedding; our first hearth

Must be the well-paved floor of hell.'

The colour died from out her face,

Her eyes like ghostly candles shone;

She cast dread looks about the place,

Then clenched her teeth and read right on.

'I may not pass the prison door;

Here must I rot from day to day,

Unless I wed whom I abhor,

My cousin, Blanche of Valencay.

An elegy is a mournful poetic form, the origins of which can be traced back to a combination of Ancient Greek poetics and Old English scriptures from the 11th Century, written to lament a death. 

Given the form’s long and rich history, you could point to a plethora of the most well-known poets — such as John Milton, or Walt Whitman — and probably find an elegy somewhere in their work. 

You can mourn more than just a person

Of course, this expression of sorrow isn’t exclusive to the death of a person, but also the topic of loss more generally: how we deal with it, the abstract loss of things, or the absence of what once was. Think Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard , in which the speaker wanders through a churchyard (no surprises there) and begins to contemplate his own death, ultimately ending the poem with a passerby reading out an elegy for the narrator himself. 

Typically, this form was written in elegiac couplets, but nowadays you’ll usually find them in rhyming quatrains. Of course, if you’re interested in identifying an elegy, or writing one yourself, the most important thing to know is that the rules aren’t strict as long as the content is on-message. 

What makes an elegy?

Structure: Can be as long as the poet wants, and is mostly commonly written in couplets or quatrains, but it’s the poet’s choice as long as it’s about death/mourning/etc. 

Meter:  Iambic pentameter (usually).

Rhyme scheme: Typically ABBA or ABAB, but not strictly.

Similar forms in other cultures: Keening or Caointeoireacht (Gaelic Celtic), Rithā’ (Arabic), Soaz, Noha, and Marsiya (Arabic, Persian, Urdu).

Elegy example: "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Our little systems have their day;

   They have their day and cease to be:

   They are but broken lights of thee,

And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

We have but faith: we cannot know;

   For knowledge is of things we see

   And yet we trust it comes from thee,

A beam in darkness: let it grow.

The epic poetry form is, as the name might suggest, one of the longest (and oldest) forms of poetry — often book-length. For context, the oldest recorded piece of literature is The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to the Bronze Age between 2500 and 1300 BCE. Though commonly associated with Ancient Greek poets such as Virgil and Homer, almost every classic civilization had its own form of epic. For example, Mahabharata in ancient India and the ancient Persian Shahnameh .

While modern poets seldom write epics, the few that are published (such as Kate Tempest’s 2013 epic Brand New Ancients ) are equal parts eye-catching and ripe for critical acclaim when done well.

Epics are long by their very nature

Written in narrative verse, epic poems usually follow the story of a hero or a group of heroes — a famous example of this is, of course, The Odyssey by Homer. Though it’s difficult to define precise rules for writing epic poetry, The Odyssey’s structure is typical with its long stanzas and no rhyme scheme to speak of.

What makes an epic?

In the absence of strict rules, here are a couple of things to look out for:

Standard structure: Often epic (!) in stanza and overall length.

Common features:

• Repetition of words or symbols; 
• Enjambement Sentences allow lines to carry over to the next without punctuation, which makes the stanza flow more similar to a real speech; 
• Caesura: Mid-line pauses (usually signified by a full-stop or comma) are the poetry equivalent of writing ‘pause for effect’ in a script — helping to add weight to a line, control the pace of the poem, and mimic speech. 

Similar forms in other cultures:   Kāvya (Indian),  Alpamysh (Turkish),  Duma (Ukrainian).

Epic poetry extract: "The Odyssey" by Homer (trans. Emily Wilson).

“Hear me, leaders

And chieftains of Phaecia. I will tell you

The promptings of my heart. This foreigner — 

I do not know his name — came wandering 

from west or east and showed up at my house.

He begs and prays for help to travel on.

Let us assist him, as we have before

with other guests: no visitor has ever 

been forced to linger in my house. We always

give them safe passage home. Now let us launch 

a ship for her maiden voyage on the water,

and choose a crew of fifty-two, the men 

selected as the best, and lash the oars

beside the benches. Then return to shore,

and come to my house. Let the young men hurry

to cook a feast. I will provide supplies,

plenty for everyone. And I invite 

you also, lords, to welcome him with me.

Do not refuse! We also must invite 

Demodocus, the poet. Gods inspire him, 

so any song he chooses to perform

is wonderful to hear.”

6. Alexandrine

The modern English alexandrine is derived from the traditional French alexandrine: one line of twelve syllables, which may be repeated to form a whole poem. What's more, it's not technically a poetic form but a metrical structure — referring to the rhythm and length of a single line.

Though the French alexandrine and the English alexandrine are, by all accounts, pretty similar, there are two key differences when it comes to the caesura and emphasis on syllables, which we'll outline below.

We’ve made sure to include examples of the traditional French alexandrine alongside an English alexandrine. Because French language alexandrines are often translated to iambic pentameter for English speech patterns, we’ve also included French verse by poet and playwright Molière, as well as a faithful English translation of Du Bartas’s French poetry to show you how this form can look in French and English translation. 

What makes a French alexandrine?

Structure: A single line adding up to twelve metric syllables.

Meter: Two half-sections (hemistichs) of six syllables , separated by a caesura (pause).

Rhyme scheme: Usually AABB or ABAB when used in a longer poem

Similar forms in other cultures: Trzynastozgłoskowiec (Polish), český alexandrín (Czech), mester de clerecía (Spanish). 

What makes an English alexandrine?

Structure: A series of quatrains (four-line stanzas), any length. 

Meter: Each line has twelve stresses, with no fixed caesura.

Similar forms in other cultures: Trzynastozgłoskowiec (Polish), český alexandrín (Czech), mester de clerecía (Spanish).

Alexandrine extract: "Le Misanthrope" by Molière

Que de son cuisinier il s'est fait un mérite,

et que c'est à sa table à qui l'on rend visite.

Note how there is a natural momentary pause after the fifth syllable of each line. This pause is what's known as a caesura .

Alexandrine extract: "La Sepmaine" by Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas

Thou that guid’st the course of the flame-bearinge spheares; 

The waters fomye bitt, Seas sou’reigne, thou that beares; 

That mak’st the Earth to tremble; whose worde onely byndes, 

And slackes th’vnruly raynes, to thy swifte postes the wyndes; 

Alexandrine extract: "To A Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,

That from Heaven, or near it,

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

7. Blank verse

Popular with both old and contemporary writers, blank verse is unrhymed poetry — written most commonly in iambic pentameter. You’ll likely have encountered this form previously; it is commonly found in Shakespeare's plays and poems, chosen perhaps for its similarity to natural English speech. (And, not to mention, it would sound pretty strange if characters spoke in rhymes throughout every play!)

Because of its focus on rhythm above all, blank verse is a great form to look at if you want to delve into meter (what sounds right) and meaning ( why, without a rhyme scheme, is one word chosen over another).

What makes a blank verse poem?

Structure: Overall length and stanza length are the poet’s choice. 

Meter: Must be in metric verse, usually iambic pentameter.

Rhyme scheme: Unrhymed.

Blank verse example: "Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth.

Five years have past; five summers, with the length

Of five long winters! and again I hear

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs

With a soft inland murmur.—Once again

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,

That on a wild secluded scene impress

Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect

The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

The day is come when I again repose

Here, under this dark sycamore, and view

These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,

Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,

Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves

'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,

Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke

Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

With some uncertain notice, as might seem

Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,

Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire

The Hermit sits alone.

8. Villanelle

The villanelle is a nineteen-line poetic form strictly consisting of five three-line stanzas, ending in a quatrain.

Sadly, this form has nothing to do with a certain loveable villain from BBC’s Killing Eve. In fact, its name can be traced all the way back to the medieval Latin ‘villanus’, meaning ‘farmhand’, reflecting the villanelle’s origin as pastoral folk music — in which a single (usually female) singer would improvise lyrics while a ring of dancers danced around her. 

It bears repeating...

The modern villanelle’s heavy use of refrain, in which specific lines of the poem are repeated, definitely reflects its musical roots. This common repetition has made it the favored form for poets who wish to convey obsession — such as with Sylvia Plath’s Mad Girl’s Love Song, in which the narrator obsesses over the loss of a loved one who may or may not have been real. 

What makes a villanelle?

Structure: Nineteen lines, structured with five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a quatrain.

Meter:  No strict meter, though most villanelle's after the twentieth century have been written in pentameter. 

Repetitions: 

• Line one must repeat in lines six, twelve, and eighteen. 
• Line three must repeat in lines nine, fifteen, and nineteen. 

Rhyme scheme: ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABAA.

Villanelle example: "Theocritus" by Oscar Wilde

O Singer of Persephone!

In the dim meadows desolate

Dost thou remember Sicily?

Still through the ivy flits the bee

Where Amaryllis lies in state;

O singer of Persephone!

Simaetha calls on Hecate

And hears the wild dogs at the gate;

Still by the light and laughing sea

Poor Polypheme bemoans his fate:

And still in boyish rivalry

Young Daphnis challenges his mate:

Slim Lacon keeps a goat for thee,

For thee the jocund shepherds wait,

Villanelle extract: "Mad Girl’s Love Song" by Sylvia Plath

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

9. Free verse

Free verse is the favored poetry form for many contemporary poets, in large part because (as the name implies) they can make their own rules — and break them if they wish. Poets naturally choose to make their own rules most often because, in this form, understanding the effect of punctuation and stanza breaks on how a poem is read is essential. 

When writing in free verse, poets (that is if they want to make their poetry public) must be considerate of the reader: how will one rhyme scheme read vs. another? Does this pause emphasize the previous line properly? Are there enough breaks for the reader to catch their breath? These are just some of the questions a poet writing in free verse might ask themselves! 

What makes a free verse poem?

Structure: Poet’s choice.

Meter: Anything, really.

Rhyme scheme: Any which way is fine.

Equivalent in other cultures: Japanese haibun.

Free verse example: "Come Slowly, Eden" by Emily Dickinson.

Come slowly – Eden!

Lips unused to Thee –

Bashful – sip thy Jessamines –

As the fainting Bee –

Reaching late his flower,

Round her chamber hums –

Counts his nectars –

Enters – and is lost in Balms.

Note: Free verse always results in interesting book interiors! Check out our post on poetry book layouts for insights from designers and inspiration.

10. Acrostic

Acrostic poetry spells out a secret meaning, often using the first letter of each new line, stanza, or any other recurring feature. The hidden message could be a word, phrase, or, more commonly, a name — sounds exciting, right? This form was popularised from the high middle ages onwards, with many poets at the time beginning their longer works with a short acrostic spelling their name. 

Hidden in plain sight

The beauty of this form is the diversity in how it might be used. Indeed, there have been several instances in recent years of people — such as CEOs, resigning employees, politicians — utilizing prose acrostics in emails and letters (often to convey a political message). You can even find multiple acrostics in the same poem — you might point to Behold, O God! by William Browne, in which you can find three different hidden New Testament verses, as a great example of this. 

There aren’t strict rules when it comes to writing this form; you only need to remember that, if there’s a hidden meaning (which is often identified through seemingly random capitalization of letters) then chances are that you’re reading an acrostic.  

What makes an acrostic?

Structure: Poet’s choice — just get a hidden meaning in!

Meter: Poet’s choice, but this will probably be determined by the hidden meaning.

Rhyme scheme: Poet’s choice!

Acrostic example: "Elizabeth"   by Edgar Allan Poe.

Elizabeth, it surely is most fit

[Logic and common usage so commanding]

In thy own book that first thy name be writ,

Zeno and other sages notwithstanding;

And I have other reasons for so doing

Besides my innate love of contradiction;

Each poet - if a poet - in pursuing

The muses thro' their bowers of Truth or Fiction,

Has studied very little of his part,

Read nothing, written less - in short's a fool

Endued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art,

Being ignorant of one important rule,

Employed in even the theses of the school-

Called - I forget the heathenish Greek name

[Called anything, its meaning is the same]

"Always write first things uppermost in the heart."

The haiku may often be the first type of poem you encounter; whether you’ve had to write one for school, or you’ve encountered them as Instagram poetry, you’ve probably had some experience with haiku . Though they were traditionally poems about the poet’s geographical and seasonal placement, paying homage to the landscape, nowadays people use the short form for comedic effect. 

Short and sweet

The haiku is a three-line poem, with a 5-7-5 syllable structure, originating in seventeenth-century Edo-period Japan. Originally named ‘hokka,’ the haiku is derived from the opening of a longer, collaborative, form of Japanese poetry called renga (or, linked poetry). Notably, most English translations separate haiku into three separate lines, while (romanized) originals are usually one single line separated by caesura. 

What makes a haiku?

Structure: Three lines long, with a 5-7-5 syllable structure:

• Line one: five syllables.
• Line two: seven syllables.
• Line three: five syllables.

Meter: Each line must follow the 5-7-5 syllable structure. 

Rhyme scheme: N/A.

Haiku example: "The Oak Tree" by Matsuo Bashō

In the original Japanese, romanized:

Kashi no ki no / hana ni kamawanu / sugata kana.

In English, translated by Robert Hass.

The oak tree:

not interested

in cherry blossoms.

12. Epigram

An epigram is a short poetic form that can range from two to four lines long. That said, many poets choose to create longer poems using this form by essentially lacing a number of smaller poems together — the end effect being that each section works well with the next while also standing on its own. 

Little poems found in the wild

Though the form was popularized by poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Voltaire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, you might also point to Ezra Pound or Ogden Nash as more recent writers who favored this style. You might also be interested to know that, unlike other forms, epigrams are not exclusive to poetry. They can be used as a literary device, or in a speech to illustrate complex ideas concisely. (You might point to “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind,” a quotation often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, as a good example of this.)

What makes an epigram?

If you’re looking to spot a poetic epigram, take a look at these simple rules:

Structure: Two to four lines, structured in couplets or four-line quatrains. 

Meter:  Often in iambic pentameter, but not strictly so. 

Rhyme scheme: ABAB (most commonly). 

Epigram example: "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour

Epigram example: "Underwoods: Epigram" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Of all my verse, like not a single line;   

But like my title, for it is not mine.   

That title from a better man I stole:   

Ah, how much better, had I stol'n the whole.

13. Epitaph

Think of epitaphs as like ‘Elegy Lite’. They’re often found carved onto gravestones so they need to be short unless the intended grave is actually a mausoleum. They also don’t have specific rules to speak of. They date back to the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks — but the English language form used nowadays is derived more closely from the Ancient Roman version, which was less emotive and focused on portraying facts about the deceased. 

So long, farewell

That said, modern epitaphs often include riddles, puns on names or professions, and even acrostics (though, it takes some care to know when humor is appropriate). One of the most famous influences for the modern-day epitaph is Robert Burns, who wrote thirty-five epitaphs (for close family, friends, and even himself), many of which were satirical. 

What makes an epitaph?

Structure: Poet’s choice!

Meter: Poet’s choice!

Similar forms in other cultures: Jisei (Japanese).

Epitaph example: "Epitaph on my own Friend" by Robert Burns

An honest man here lies at rest

As e'er God with his image blest.

The friend of man, the friend of truth;

The friend of Age, and guide of Youth:

Few hearts like his with virtue warm'd,

Few heads with knowledge so inform'd:

If there's another world, he lives in bliss;

If there is none, he made the best of this.

Epitaph example: "Epitaph" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Heap not on this mound

  Roses that she loved so well;

Why bewilder her with roses,

  That she cannot see or smell?

She is happy where she lies

  With the dust upon her eyes.

14. Limerick

If you’ve ever heard a poem about an old man from Nantucket, then you’ve almost certainly encountered a limerick. These humorous poems, known best for their often rude or shocking punchlines, were popularized by Edward Lear in the nineteenth century. 

Part of what enhances the reader’s enjoyment of this form is the distinct AABBA rhyme scheme and rhythm which makes it fun to recite (and a great party trick!). After all, a great joke should feel inevitable and unexpected — the first rhyme of a limerick does this by setting a limit on what the punchline could possibly be, while the last line aims to catch you off-guard despite expectations. 

What makes a limerick?

The most important guideline to follow when writing this type of poetry is, of course, to make it funny and memorable. That aside, limericks do have a few rules that make them easy to identify:

Structure: One stanza, five lines.

Meter: The predominant meter is anapestic (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable). Two long(er) lines of 7-10 syllables each, and two short lines of 5-6 syllables each. The final line should be a punchline. 

Rhyme scheme: AABBA.

Note: Though the most common limerick form, following its rise in popularity, would rhyme the same word in the first and last lines, it’s more common now to avoid this, unless for a specific effect. 

Limerick example: "Limerick" by Anonymous 

The limerick packs laughs anatomical

Into space that is quite economical.

But the good ones I’ve seen

So seldom are clean

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Limerick example: "There was an Old Man with a Beard" by Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, "It is just as I feared!—

Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard.

15. Concrete

Concrete is given its name because, like concrete in a mold, it changes shape to fit the artist’s purpose. Indeed, it’s written to assume a specific shape on the page in order to reflect the poem’s subject matter. (And, let’s be honest, it’s probably quite an enjoyable form to play around with!) 

This form was popular as far back as Greek Alexandria in the 3rd and 4th centuries BCE, and ancient examples of concrete poems (shapes like eggs or hatchets) still remain today. For more recent examples, you might point to George Herman, who was particularly well-known for his concrete poetry — such as in the example below, where the poem’s form mimics the ‘wings’ mentioned in the verse. 

What makes a concrete poem?

Structure: How long is a piece of string? That aside, the poem’s physical shape should reflect a theme or symbol. 

Meter:  Beholden to the poem's shape. 

Rhyme scheme:  As the poet wishes...

Concrete poetry example: "Easter Wings" by George Herbert.

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,

Till he became

Most poore:

O let me rise

As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginner

And still with sicknesses and shame.

Thou didst so punish sinne,

That I became

Most thinne.

Let me combine,

And feel thy victorie:

For, if I imp my wing on thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me. 

Now that you have an idea of the various traditional poetry forms mastered by poets of yesteryear, how would you like to write your own? Continue to the next part of this series and learn just that! 

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Attempts to define poetry

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• Poetic diction and experience
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• Poetry as a mode of thought: the Protean encounter

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poetry , literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning , sound, and rhythm .

(Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Howard Nemerov.)

Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and older, present wherever religion is present, possibly—under some definitions—the primal and primary form of languages themselves. The present article means only to describe in as general a way as possible certain properties of poetry and of poetic thought regarded as in some sense independent modes of the mind. Naturally, not every tradition nor every local or individual variation can be—or need be—included, but the article illustrates by examples of poetry ranging between nursery rhyme and epic . This article considers the difficulty or impossibility of defining poetry; man’s nevertheless familiar acquaintance with it; the differences between poetry and prose; the idea of form in poetry; poetry as a mode of thought; and what little may be said in prose of the spirit of poetry.

Poetry is the other way of using language . Perhaps in some hypothetical beginning of things it was the only way of using language or simply was language tout court , prose being the derivative and younger rival. Both poetry and language are fashionably thought to have belonged to ritual in early agricultural societies; and poetry in particular, it has been claimed, arose at first in the form of magical spells recited to ensure a good harvest. Whatever the truth of this hypothesis , it blurs a useful distinction: by the time there begins to be a separate class of objects called poems, recognizable as such, these objects are no longer much regarded for their possible yam-growing properties, and such magic as they may be thought capable of has retired to do its business upon the human spirit and not directly upon the natural world outside.

Formally, poetry is recognizable by its greater dependence on at least one more parameter , the line , than appears in prose composition . This changes its appearance on the page; and it seems clear that people take their cue from this changed appearance, reading poetry aloud in a very different voice from their habitual voice, possibly because, as Ben Jonson said, poetry “speaketh somewhat above a mortal mouth.” If, as a test of this description, people are shown poems printed as prose, it most often turns out that they will read the result as prose simply because it looks that way; which is to say that they are no longer guided in their reading by the balance and shift of the line in relation to the breath as well as the syntax .

That is a minimal definition but perhaps not altogether uninformative. It may be all that ought to be attempted in the way of a definition: Poetry is the way it is because it looks that way, and it looks that way because it sounds that way and vice versa.

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Types of Poetry: The Complete Guide with 28 Examples

by Fija Callaghan

Poetry has been around for almost four thousand years, predating even written language, and it’s still evolving all the time. Let’s explore some of the different types of poems you might come across, including rhymed poetry and free verse poetry, and how experimenting with a poem’s structure can make you a better poet.

Why do the different forms of poetry matter?

Poetic forms are important when we write poems for three main reasons:

1. Forms make poetry easier to remember

At its inception, poetry was used as a way to pass down stories and ideas to new generations. Poetry has been around longer than the written word, but even after people started writing things down, some cultures continued telling stories orally. They did this by telling stories as poems. Using set rhyme schemes, meters, and rhythms made it easier to learn those poems by heart.

2. Form shapes the rhythm and sound of a poem

Using poetic structure helps shape the way a poem will sound when it’s spoken out loud. Even though most of our poetry today is written down, it’s still heard at live performances, and we’ll often “hear” a poem in our head as we’re reading it. Different types of poetry will have different auditory moods and rhythms, which contributes to the overall emotional effect.

3. Form challenges our use of language

As writers, we always want to be challenging ourselves to use words in new and exciting ways. Using the constraints of formal poetry is a great way to stretch our imagination and come up with new ideas. The story theorist Robert McKee calls this “creative limitation.” By imposing limits on what we can do, we’ll instinctively look for ever more creative and imaginative ways to use the limited space that we’re given.

Free verse poetry vs. rhymed poetry

These days, rhymed poetry has fallen out of vogue with contemporary poets, though it still has its champions. In the early 20th century free verse, or free form, poetry was embraced for its fluid, conversational qualities, and dominates the poetic landscape today. It became popular in part because it feels less like a performance and more like you’re talking directly to the reader.

Rhymed poetry, on the other hand, is great for getting a message across to the reader or listener. Most pop songs today are, at least in part, rhymed poetry—that’s why we remember them and find ourselves mulling over the lyrics days later.

We’ll look more at different types of free verse poetry and rhymed poetry, and you can see which ones work best for you.

27 Types of Poetry

You might recognize some of these types of poems from reading poetry like them in school (Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Walt Whitman are all names you’ve probably come across in English class!) Others might be new to you. Once you know a little bit more about these common forms (and some less common ones), you can even enjoy writing some of your own!

A haiku is a traditional cornerstone of Japanese poetry with no set rhyme scheme, but a specific shape: three lines composed of five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line.

Occasionally, some traditional Japanese haiku won’t fit this format because the syllables change when they’re translated into English; but when you’re writing your own haiku poem in your native language, you should try to adhere to this structure.

Haiku poems are often explorations of the natural world, but they can be about anything you like. They’re deceptively simple ideas with a lot of poignancy under the surface.

Here’s an example of a haiku poem, “Over the Wintry” by Natsume Sōseki:

Over the wintry Forest, winds howl in rage With no leaves to blow.

Learn more about writing your own haiku poetry in our dedicated Academy article.

2. Limerick

A limerick is a short, famous poetic form consisting of five lines that follow the rhyme form AABBA. Usually these are quite funny and tell a story. The first two lines should have eight or nine syllables each, the third and fourth lines should have five or six syllables each, and the final line eight or nine syllables again.

Limericks are great learning devices for children because their rhythm makes them so easy to remember. Here’s a fun example of a limerick, “There Was A Small Boy Of Quebec” by Rudyard Kipling:

There was a small boy of Quebec, Who was buried in snow to his neck; When they said, “Are you friz?” He replied, “Yes, I is— But we don’t call this cold in Quebec.”

3. Clerihew

Clerihews are a little bit like limericks in that they’re short, funny, and often satirical. A clerihew is made up of four lines (or several four-line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme AABB, and the first line of the stanza must be a person’s name.

This poetry type is great for helping people remember things (or enacting some good-natured revenge). Here’s a famous example, “Sir Humphrey Davy” by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, the inventor of the eponymous clarihew:

Sir Humphrey Davy Abominated gravy. He lived in the odium Of having discovered sodium.

4. Cinquain

A cinquain is a five-line poem consisting of twenty-two syllables: two in the first line, then four, then six, then eight, and then two syllables again in the last line. These are deceptively simple poems with a lovely musicality that make the writer think hard about the perfect word choices.

Here’s an example of a cinquain poem, “November Night” by Adelaide Crapsey:

Listen… With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees And fall.

A triolet is a traditional French single-stanza poem of eight lines with a rhyme scheme of ABAAABAB; however, it only consists of five unique lines. The first line is repeated as the fourth and seventh line, and the second line is repeated as the very last line. Although simple, a well-written triolet will bring new depth and meaning to the repeated lines each time. Here’s an example of a classic triolet poem, “How Great My Grief” by Thomas Hardy:

How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee! Have the slow years not brought to view How great my grief, my joys how few, Nor memory shaped old times anew, Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee?

A dizain is another traditional form made up of just one ten-line stanza, and with each line having ten syllables (that’s an even hundred in total). The rhyme scheme for a dizain is ABABBCCDCD. This poetry type was a favorite of French poets in the 15th and 16th century, and many English poets adapted it into larger works. Here’s an great example of a dizain poem, “Names” by Brad Osborne:

If true that a rose by another name Holds in its fine form fragrance just as sweet If vivid beauty remains just the same And if other qualities are replete With the things that make a rose so complete Why bother giving anything a name Then on whom may I place deserved blame When new people’s names I cannot recall There seems to be an underlying shame So why do we bother with names at all

A sonnet is a lyric poem that always has fourteen lines. The oldest type of sonnet is the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, which is broken into two stanzas of eight lines and six lines. The first stanza has a consistent rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA and the second stanza has a rhyme scheme of either CDECDE or CDCDCD.

Later on, an ambitious bloke by the name of William Shakespeare developed the English sonnet (which later came to be known as the Shakespearean sonnet). It still has fourteen lines, but the rhyme scheme is different and it uses a rhythm called iambic pentameter. It has four distinctive parts, which might be separate stanzas or they might be all linked together. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

William Shakespeare is famous for using iambic pentameter in his sonnets, but you can experiment with different rhythms and see what works best for you. Here’s one of his most famous sonnets, Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

8. Blank verse

Blank verse is a type of poetry that’s written in a precise meter, usually iambic pentameter, but without rhyme. This is reminiscent of Shakespearean sonnets and many of his plays, but it reflects a movement that puts rhythm above rhyme.

Though each line of blank verse must be ten syllables, there’s no restriction on the amount of lines or individual stanzas. Here’s an excerpt from a poem in blank verse, the first stanza of “Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. ’Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood, This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not; Only that film, which fluttered on the grate

9. Villanelle

A villanelle is a type of French poem made up of nineteen lines grouped into six separate stanzas. The first five stanzas have three lines each, and the last stanza has four lines. Each three-line stanza rhymes ABA, and the last one ABAA.

Villanelles tend to feature a lot of repetition, which lends them a musical quality; usually the very first and third lines become the alternating last lines of each following stanza. This can be a bit like putting a puzzle together. Here’s an example to show you how it looks: “My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night,” a famous villanelle by Anthony Lawrence:

My darling turns to poetry at night. What began as flirtation, an aside Between abstract expression and first light Now finds form as a silent, startled flight Of commas on her face—a breath, a word… My darling turns to poetry at night. When rain inspires the night birds to create Rhyme and formal verse, stanzas can be made Between abstract expression and first light. Her heartbeat is a metaphor, a late Bloom of red flowers that refuse to fade. My darling turns to poetry at night. I watch her turn. I do not sleep. I wait For symbols, for a sign that fear has died Between abstract expression and first light. Her dreams have night vision, and in her sight Our bodies leave ghostprints on the bed. My darling turns to poetry at night Between abstract expression and first light.

10. Paradelle

The paradelle is a complex and demanding variation of the villanelle, developed in France in the 11th century… except it wasn’t. It was, in fact, a hoax developed in the 20th century that got drastically out of hand. The American poet Billy Collins invented the paradelle as a satire of the popular villanelle and, like many happy accidents, the paradelle was embraced as a welcome challenge and is now part of contemporary poetry’s repertoire.

A paradelle is composed of four six-line stanzas. In each of the first three stanzas, the first two lines must be the same, the second two lines must be the same, and the final two lines must contain every word from the first and third lines, and only those words, rearranged in a new order. The fourth and final stanza must contain every word from the fifth and sixth lines of the first three stanzas, and only those words, again rearranged in a new order.

11th-century relic or not, this poetry form is a great exercise for playing with words. Here’s an excerpt from the original paradelle that started it all, the first stanzas of “Paradelle for Susan” by Billy Collins:

I remember the quick, nervous bird of your love. I remember the quick, nervous bird of your love. Always perched on the thinnest highest branch. Always perched on the thinnest highest branch. Thinnest love, remember the quick branch. Always nervous, I perched on you highest bird the. It is time for me to cross the mountain. It is time for me to cross the mountain. And find another shore to darken with my pain. And find another shore to darken with my pain. Another pain for me to darken the mountain. And find the time, cross my shore, to with it is to. The weather warm, the handwriting familiar. The weather warm, the handwriting familiar. Your letter flies from my hand into the waters below. Your letter flies from my hand into the waters below. The familiar water below my warm hand. Into handwriting your weather flies you letter the from the. I always cross the highest letter, the thinnest bird. Below the waters of my warm familiar pain, Another hand to remember your handwriting. The weather perched for me on the shore. Quick, your nervous branch flew from love. Darken the mountain, time and find was my into it was with to to.

11. Sestina

A sestina is a complex French poetry form (a real one, this time) composed of thirty-nine lines in seven stanzas—six stanzas of six lines each, and one stanza of three lines. Each word at the end of each line in the first stanza then gets repeated at the end of each line in each following stanza, but in a different order.

Some poets use favorite metres or rhyme schemes in their sestina poems, but you don’t have to. The classic form of a sestina is:

First stanza: ABCDEF; each letter represents the word at the end of each line.

Second stanza: FAEBDC

Third stanza: CFDABE

Fourth stanza: ECBFAD

Fifth stanza: DEACFB

Sixth stanza: BDFECA

Seventh stanza: ACE or ECA

Here’s an excerpt from a modern example of a sestina, the first stanzas of “A Miracle For Breakfast” by Elizabeth Bishop. Looking at the first two stanzas, you can see that the repeated end words match the mixed-up letter guide above.

At six o’clock we were waiting for coffee, waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb that was going to be served from a certain balcony like kings of old, or like a miracle. It was still dark. One foot of the sun steadied itself on a long ripple in the river. The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river. It was so cold we hoped that the coffee would be very hot, seeing that the sun was not going to warm us; and that the crumb would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle. At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.

A rondel is a French type of poetry made of three stanzas: the first two are four lines long, and the third is five or six lines long. The first two lines of the poems are refrains which are repeated as the last two lines of the following two stanzas—although sometimes the poet will choose only one line to repeat at the very last line.

Rondels usually use a ABBA ABAB ABBAA rhyme scheme, but they can be written in any meter. Here’s an example of a traditional rondel poem, “The Wanderer” by Henry Austin Dobson:

Love comes back to his vacant dwelling— The old, old Love that we knew of yore! We see him stand by the open door, With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling. He makes as though in our arms repelling, He fain would lie as he lay before;— Love comes back to his vacant dwelling, The old, old Love that we knew of yore! Ah, who shall help us from over-spelling That sweet, forgotten, forbidden lore! E’en as we doubt in our heart once more, With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling, Love comes back to his vacant dwelling.

A ghazal is an old Arabic poetry form consisting of at least ten lines, but no more than thirty, all written in two-line stanzas called couplets. The first two lines of a ghazal end with the same word, but the words just preceding the last lines will rhyme. From this point on, the second line of each couplet will have the same last word, and the word just before it will rhyme with the others.

Ghazals are traditionally a poem of love and longing, but they can be written about any feeling or idea. Here’s an excerpt from a ghazal poem, the first stanzas of “Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun” by Heather McHugh:

Too volatile, am I? too voluble? too much a word-person? I blame the soup: I’m a primordially stirred person. Two pronouns and a vehicle was Icarus with wings. The apparatus of his selves made an absurd person. The sound I make is sympathy’s: sad dogs are tied afar. But howling I become an ever more unheard person.

14. Golden shovel

A golden shovel poem is a more recent poetry form that was developed by poet Terrance Hayes and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks. Though it’s much newer than many of the types of poetry on this list, it has been enthusiastically embraced in contemporary poetry.

It’s a bit like an acrostic-style poem in that it hides a secret message: the last word of every line of a golden shovel poem is a word from another poem’s title or line, or a saying or headline you want to work with.

For example, if you want to write a golden shovel poem about the line, “dead men tell no tales,” the first line of your poem would end in “dead,” the second line in “men,” and so on until you can read your entire message along the right-hand side of the poem.

Here’s an excerpt from Terrance Hayes’s poem that started the golden shovel trend:

When I am so small Da’s sock covers my arm, we cruise at twilight until we find the place the real men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool. His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we drift by women on bar stools, with nothing left in them but approachlessness. This is a school I do not know yet. But the cue sticks mean we are rubbed by light, smooth as wood, the lurk of smoke thinned to song. We won’t be out late.

15. Palindrome

Palindrome poems, also called “mirror poems,” are poems that begin repeating backwards halfway through, so that the first line and the last line are the same, the second line and the second-to-last line are the same, and so on.

They’re a challenging yet fun way to show two sides of the same story. Here’s an example of a palindrome poem, “On Reflection” by Kristin Bock:

Far from the din of the articulated world, I wanted to be content in an empty room— a barn on the hillside like a bone, a limbo of afternoons strung together like cardboard boxes, to be free of your image— crown of bees, pail of black water staggering through the pitiful corn. I can’t always see through it. The mind is a pond layered in lilies. The mind is a pond layered in lilies. I can’t always see through it staggering through the pitiful corn. Crown of Bees, Pail of Black Water, to be of your image— a limbo of afternoons strung together like cardboard boxes, a barn on the hillside like a bone. I wanted to be content in an empty room far from the din of the articulated world.

An ode is a poetic form of celebration used to honor a person, thing, or idea. They’re often overflowing with intense emotion and powerful imagery.

Odes can be used in conjunction with formal meters and rhyme schemes, but they don’t have to be; often poets will favor internal rhymes instead, to give their ode a sense of rhythm.

This is a more open-ended poetry type you can use to show your appreciation for something or someone. Here’s an excerpt from one of the most famous and beautiful odes, written in celebration of autumn: “To Autumn” by John Keats:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.

An elegy is similar to an ode in that it celebrates a person or idea, but in this instance is the poem centers around something that has died or been lost.

There’s a tradition among poets to write elegies for one another once another poet has died. Sometimes these are obvious memoriams of a deceased person, and other times the true meaning will be hidden behind layers of symbolism and metaphor.

Like the ode, there’s no formal meter or rhyme scheme in an elegy, though you can certainly experiment with using them.

Here’s an excerpt of an elegy written by one poet for another, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” by W. H. Auden:

He disappeared in the dead of winter: The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted, And snow disfigured the public statues; The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day. What instruments we have agree The day of his death was a dark cold day. Far from his illness The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests, The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays; By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

18. Ekphrasis

Ekphrastic poetry is a little bit like an ode, as it is also written in celebration of something. Ekphrasis, however, is very specific as it’s used to draw attention to a work of art—usually visual art, but it could be something like a song or a work of fiction too. Sometimes ekphrastic poems and odes can overlap, like in John Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”—an ekphrastic ode.

Ekphrastic poems are most often written about paintings, but it can also be about sculptures, dance, or even theatrical performances.

Ekphrasis has no set meter or rhyme scheme, but some poets like to use them. Here’s an excerpt from an ekphrastic poem, “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton, in celebration of Van Gogh’s painting:

The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky. The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die. It moves. They are all alive. Even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children, like a god, from its eye. The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.

19. Pastoral

Pastoral poetry can take any meter or rhyme scheme, but it focuses on the beauty of nature. These poems draw attention to idyllic settings and romanticize the idea of shepherds and agriculture laborers living in harmony with the natural world.

Often these traditional pastoral poems carry a religious overtone, suggesting that by bringing oneself closer to nature they were also becoming closer to their spirituality. They can be written in free verse, or in poetic structure. Here’s an excerpt from a famous pastoral poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe:

Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.

An epic poem is a grand, overarching story written in verse—they’re the novels of the poetry world. This is sometimes called ballad poetry, or narrative poetry. Before stories were written as novels and short stories and then, later, screenplays, all of our classic tales would be written as a narrative poem.

Experimenting with epic poems, such as writing a short story all in verse, is a great way to give your writer’s muscles a workout. These don’t have a specific rhyme scheme or metre, although many classic epic poems do use them to give a sense of rhythm and unity to the piece.

Here’s an excerpt from one of our oldest surviving epic poems, “Beowulf,” translated from old English by Frances B. Gummere:

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he!

(Irish poet Seamus Heaney has also completed an even more modern translation for the layperson.)

A ballad is similar to an epic in that it tells a story, but it’s much shorter and a bit more structured. This poetry form is made up of four-line stanzas (as many as are needed to tell the story) with a rhyme scheme of ABCB.

Ballads were originally meant to be set to music, which is where we get the idea of our slow, sultry love song ballads today. A lot of traditional ballads are all in dialogue, where two characters are speaking back and forth.

Here’s an excerpt from a traditional ballad poem, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats:

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel’s granary is full, And the harvest’s done.

22. Acrostic

In acrostic poems, certain letters of each line spell out a word or message. Usually the letters that spell the message will be the first letter of each line, so that you can read the secret word right down the margin; however, you can also use the letters at the end or down the middle of the lines to hide a secret message. Acrostic poems are especially popular with children and are sometimes called “name poems.”

Here’s an example of an acrostic poem, “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky” by Lewis Carroll. The first letter of each line spells out “Alice Pleasance Liddell,” who was a young friend of Carroll’s and the inspiration behind Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland .

A boat beneath a sunny sky, L ingering onward dreamily I n an evening of July— C hildren three that nestle near, E ager eye and willing ear, P leased a simple tale to hear— L ong has paled that sunny sky: E choes fade and memories die: A utumn frosts have slain July. S till she haunts me, phantomwise, A lice moving under skies N ever seen by waking eyes. C hildren yet, the tale to hear, E ager eye and willing ear, L ovingly shall nestle near. I n a Wonderland they lie, D reaming as the days go by, D reaming as the summers die: E ver drifting down the stream— L ingering in the golden gleam— L ife, what is it but a dream?

23. Concrete

A concrete poem, sometimes called a shape poem, is a visual poem structure where the shape of the poem resembles its content or message. These are another favorite with children, although they can be used to communicate powerful adult ideas, too.

When writing concrete poetry, you can experiment with different fonts, sizes, and even colors to create your visual poem. Here’s an example of a concrete poem, “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree” by George Starbuck:

* O fury- bedecked! O glitter-torn! Let the wild wind erect bonbonbonanzas; junipers affect frostyfreeze turbans; iciclestuff adorn all cuckolded creation in a madcap crown of horn! It’s a new day; no scapegrace of a sect tidying up the ashtrays playing Daughter-in-Law Elect; bells! bibelots! popsicle cigars! shatter the glassware! a son born now now while ox and ass and infant lie together as poor creatures will and tears of her exertion still cling in the spent girl’s eye and a great firework in the sky drifts to the western hill.

24. Prose poem

A prose poem combines elements of both prose writing and poetry into something new. Prose poems don’t have shape and line breaks in the way that traditional poems do, but they make use of poetic devices like meter, internal rhyme, alliteration, metaphor, imagery, and symbolism to create a snapshot of prose that reads and feels like a poem.

Here’s an example of a prose poem, “Be Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire:

You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk. But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk. And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking… ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: “It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”

25. Found poetry

Found poetry is a poem made up of a composite of external quotations. This may be from poems, beloved works of literature, newspaper articles, instruction manuals, or political manifestos. You can copy out pieces of text, or you can cut out different words to make a visual collage effect.

Another form of found poetry is blackout poetry, where words are crossed out and removed from an external source to create a new meaning.

These can be a great way to find new or contrasting meaning in everyday life, but always be sure to reference what sources your poem came from originally to avoid plagiarism. Here’s an example of a found poem, “Testimony” by Charles Reznikoff, cut up from law reports between 1885 and 1915:

Amelia was just fourteen and out of the orphan asylum; at her first job—in the bindery, and yes sir, yes ma’am, oh, so anxious to please. She stood at the table, her blond hair hanging about her shoulders, “knocking up” for Mary and Sadie, the stichers (“knocking up” is counting books and stacking them in piles to be taken away).

A nonce poem is a DIY poem structure intended for one-time use to challenge yourself as a writer, or just to try something new. It’s a formal, rigid, standardized poetry form that’s brand new to the world.

For example, you might say, “I’m going to write a poem starting with a three-line stanza, then two four-line stanzas, then another three-line stanza, and each line is going to be eight syllables except the first and last line of the poem which are each going to have eleven syllables, and the last word of every stanza will be true rhymes and the first word of every stanza will be slant rhymes.” And then you do it, just to see if you can.

Nonce poems are a great way to stretch your creativity and language skills to their limit. Then, like Terrance Hayes’s “Golden Shovel,” or Billy Collins’ “Paradelle,” your nonce poem might even catch on! Here’s an excerpt from a nonce poem, “And If I Did, What Then?” by George Gascoigne:

Are you aggriev’d therefore? The sea hath fish for every man, And what would you have more?” Thus did my mistress once, Amaze my mind with doubt; And popp’d a question for the nonce To beat my brains about.

27. Free verse

Free verse is the type of poetry most favored by contemporary poets; it has no set meter, rhyme scheme, or structure, but allows the poet to feel out the content of the poem as they go.

Poets will often still use rhythmic literary devices such as assonance and internal rhymes, but it won’t be bound up with the same creative restraints as more structured poetry. However, even poets that work solely in free verse will usually argue that it’s beneficial to first work up your mastery of language through exercises in more structured poetry forms.

Here’s an example of a poem in free verse, an excerpt from “On Turning Ten,” by Billy Collins:

The whole idea of it makes me feel like I’m coming down with something, something worse than any stomach ache or the headaches I get from reading in bad light— a kind of measles of the spirit, a mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

3 ways poem structure will make you a better writer

Maybe you’ve fallen in love with formal rhymed poetry, or maybe you think that for you, free verse is the way to go. Either way, it’s good training for a writer to experiment with poetry structure for a few different reasons.

1. Using poetic form will teach you about poetic devices

Using poetic form will open up your world to a huge range of useful poetic devices like assonance, chiasmus, and epistrophe, as well as broader overarching ideas like metaphor, imagery, and symbolism. We talk about these poetic devices a lot in poetry forms, but just about all of them can be used effectively in prose writing, too!

Paying attention to poetic form takes your mastery of language to a whole new level. Then you can take this skill set and apply it to your writing in a whole range of mediums.

2. Writing poems with structure teaches you how to use rhythm

Rhythm is one of the core concepts of all poetry. Rhymes and formal meter are two ways to capture rhythm in your poems, but even in free verse poetry that lacks a formal poetic structure, the key to good poetry is a smooth and addictive rhythm that makes you feel the words in your bones.

Once you start experimenting with poetry forms, you’ll find that you’ll develop an inner ear for the rhythm of language. This rhythmic sense translates into beautiful sentence structure and cadence in other types of writing, from short stories and novels, to marketing copy, to comic books. Rhythm is what makes your words a joy to read.

3. Formal poetry helps you increase your vocabulary and refine your word choice

No matter what you’re writing, specificity is a game changer when it comes to getting a point across to your reader. With the English language being well-populated with nice, easy syllables, many new writers fall into the bad habit of choosing words that are just kind of okay, instead of the exact right word for that moment.

Writing formal poetry forces you to not only expand your vocabulary to find the right word to fit the rhyme scheme or rhythm, but to weigh each word and examine it from all angles before awarding it a place in your poem. This way, when you move into other forms of writing, you’ll carry good habits and a deep respect for language into your work.

Start writing different types of poetry

Learning about different types of poems for the first time can be a bit like opening a floodgate into a whole new way of living. Whether you prefer free verse poetry, lyric poetry, romantic Shakespearean sonnets, short philosophical haiku, or even coming up with your own nonce poetry structure, you’ll find that writing poetry challenges your writer’s muscles in ways you never would have expected. Next time you’re in a creative rut, trying experimenting with poetry forms to get the words flowing in a whole new way.

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Types of Poems

All types of poems, forms or formats, with definitions and examples. See the top 10 types of poems and learn about popular forms of poetry like acrostic , haiku , lyric , narrative , and rhyme and more. Learn rhyme schemes, structure, form, stanzas, style, rhythm, and meter , etc. for all forms of poetry.

See also: Top 20 Most Popular Types of Poetry Ranked | Poetry Terminology | Types of Narrative Poetry | How to Write a Poem - 10 Steps

Top 10 Types of Poems, Forms or Formats

(10) | concrete - poems | definition, (9) | diamante - poems | definition, (8) | lyric - poems | definition, (7) | cinquain - poems | definition, (6) | free verse - poems | definition, (5) | limerick - poems | definition, (4) | elegy - poems | definition, (3) | ode - poems | definition, (2) | acrostic - poems | definition, (1) | haiku - poems | definition, a form of literature.

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke emotion and convey meaning. It has been a part of human culture for centuries and has evolved into various types, forms, and formats. Let's explore the different styles and genres of poetry and how they are analyzed.

Types of Poetry

There are various types of poetry, each with its own unique characteristics and structures. Some common types include sonnets, haikus, ballads, free verse, and epic poetry. Sonnets often follow a specific rhyme scheme and have 14 lines, while haikus are much shorter and consist of three lines with a specific syllable pattern. Ballads are narrative poems that tell a story, free verse has no specific rhyme or meter, and epic poetry is typically long and reflects heroic themes. These are just a few examples of the diverse range of poetry types, each offering different ways to convey emotions and ideas.

Lyric Poetry

Lyric poetry is a type of poetry that expresses personal emotions or feelings. It is often short and musical in nature, with a focus on the speaker's thoughts and emotions. Examples of lyric poetry include sonnets, odes, and elegies.

Narrative Poetry

Narrative poetry tells a story through verse. It often follows a specific structure and includes elements such as plot, characters, and setting. Examples of narrative poetry include epics, ballads, and epistles.

Dramatic Poetry

Dramatic poetry is meant to be performed or spoken aloud. It often includes dialogue and is written in a dramatic or theatrical style. Examples of dramatic poetry include monologues, soliloquies, and verse dramas.

Forms of Poetry

Poetic form can be defined in many ways, but it is essentially a type of poem that is defined by physical structure, rhythm, and other elements. It has a specific style or set of rules that must be used when writing. Even the literal shape that a poem takes on paper can matter when it comes to the type of poem. The line length, number of  syllables , and subject matter are all important parts of poetic form.

A sonnet is a 14-line poem that follows a specific rhyme scheme and structure. It originated in Italy and has been used by poets such as William Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. There are two main types of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet.

Haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry that consists of three lines with a total of 17 syllables. The first and third lines have five syllables each, while the second line has seven syllables. Haiku often focuses on nature and uses vivid imagery to convey a deeper meaning.

Free verse is a form of poetry that does not follow a specific structure or rhyme scheme. It allows poets to experiment with language and form, making it a popular choice for modern poets. Free verse can be written in any length and often uses unconventional punctuation and line breaks.

Formats of Poetry

There are various formats of poetry, including traditional forms such as concrete poetry and villanelles, as well as modern forms like slam poetry, found poetry, and spoken word poetry.

Slam poetry, found poetry, and spoken word poetry are all forms of expressive art that use language and performance to convey emotion and meaning. Slam poetry involves competitive performances in front of an audience, with a focus on powerful delivery and personal narratives. Found poetry takes existing texts and rearranges them into poetic form, often highlighting hidden meanings and creating new perspectives. Spoken word poetry is the art of performing poetry aloud, often utilizing rhythmic patterns and engaging storytelling techniques to captivate the audience.

These formats provide poets with a framework to craft their words and convey their messages in a specific and often rhythmic way, allowing for creativity within defined boundaries.

Slam Poetry

Slam poetry is a powerful form of spoken word that merges poetry with performance. Originating in the 1980s, it allows individuals to express their emotions, experiences, and opinions in a dynamic and engaging way, often addressing social issues or personal struggles. Slam poetry creates a powerful and inclusive space for self-expression and can have a profound impact on both the poet and the audience. It is a highly energetic and expressive style of performance poetry that is often performed competitively in poetry slams.

Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry, also known as shape poetry, is a type of poetry that uses the physical arrangement of words on the page to convey meaning. The words are arranged in a way that creates a visual representation of the subject or theme of the poem. This form of poetry is often seen as a combination of visual art and literature.

Spoken Word Poetry

Spoken word poetry is meant to be performed or spoken aloud. It often incorporates elements of rap, hip hop, and storytelling. Spoken word poetry is known for its powerful delivery and can cover a wide range of topics, from personal experiences to social and political issues.

Found Poetry

Found poetry is created by taking existing texts, such as newspaper articles or advertisements, and rearranging them to create a new poem. This form of poetry allows for a unique interpretation of the original text and can be a commentary on society or a personal reflection.

Genre Analysis of Poetry

Genre analysis is the study of different types of literature and how they are categorized. In poetry, there are several genres that can be used to classify different styles and forms.

Epic Poetry

Epic poetry is a genre that focuses on heroic deeds and larger-than-life characters. It often tells a story of a hero's journey and is written in a grand, elevated style. Examples of epic poetry include Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."

Romantic Poetry

Romantic poetry is a genre that emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is characterized by a focus on emotion, nature, and individualism. Romantic poets often used vivid imagery and symbolism to convey their feelings and experiences. Some famous romantic poets include William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Lord Byron.

Confessional Poetry

Confessional poetry is a genre that emerged in the mid-20th century and is known for its personal and often autobiographical subject matter. It often deals with themes of love, loss, and mental health. Some notable confessional poets include Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Robert Lowell.

Poetry is a diverse and ever-evolving form of literature. From traditional forms like sonnets and haikus to modern styles like spoken word and found poetry, there is a type of poetry for every taste. By understanding the different types, forms, and genres of poetry, we can gain a deeper appreciation for this art form and its impact on our culture.

15 Different Types of Poem Everyone Should Know

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

There are many types of poem in the world, and even one particular verse form can be written in a variety of ways: to take just one example, there is the sonnet, but there are Petrarchan sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets and Spenserian sonnets, all of them requiring a rather different rhyme scheme.

Below, we introduce some of the commonest, and most important, types of poem there are, and provide an example of each poem type. This list shows just how multifarious the world of poetry can be. Below, we find poems that rhyme and poems that do not, short poems and longer poems, poems with a fixed length and those with no set number of lines whatsoever. It really does depend on the verse form.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous type of poem, and therefore the perfect place to begin our odyssey of verse forms and varieties, the lyric is named for the lyre , the harp-like instrument played since classical times. Sappho, the pioneering ancient Greek love poet, wrote short poems expressing her feelings of desire and love and regret and heartache and a myriad other things, and her poems were meant to be accompanied by music played on the lyre.

Thus the ‘lyric’ was born. These days, a lyric poem is essentially any poem which expresses the thoughts and feelings of a speaker, rather than telling a story, or teaching us a moral lesson, and so forth. As you can imagine, this is quite a broad definition, and that is why the lyric is literally everywhere in modern verse.

Here’s a brief example of a lyric poem: Edward Thomas’s ‘ Tall Nettles ’.

A lyric poem is a kind or type of poem, but it requires no specific form. One of the most popular forms that a lyric can take, however, is the sonnet. Sonnets are almost always fourteen lines (though Gerard Manley Hopkins experimented with a shorter form, and George Meredith with a longer), and usually (though not always) focus on a single speaker describing a scene or expressing their feelings.

Because love poets from Petrarch to Shakespeare have written them, sonnets are closely associated with love poetry in the popular imagination.

We describe the specific forms a sonnet can take in more detail in a separate post , and recommend this poem as an example of the form: Christina Rossetti’s ‘ Remember ’.

Blank Verse.

Sonnets are almost always written in iambic pentameter . This means that each comprises five metrical feet, and these feet are usually iambs. An iamb itself comprises two syllables: one carrying a light stress and the other a heavy stress. You can hear this alternation of light and heavy stresses in this line of iambic pentameter, from Romeo and Juliet :

But SOFT! what LIGHT through YON-der WIN-dow BREAKS?

Many lines in Shakespeare’s plays are written not just in iambic pentameter, but in unrhymed iambic pentameter. This is known as blank verse, because the rhymes are, as it were, left blank. We recommend Wordsworth’s ‘ Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey ’ as a fine example of the speechlike, even conversational, quality to blank verse.

Free Verse.

Often confused with blank verse, free verse goes one further than blank verse, we might say: it does without not only rhyme but a regular metre as well. Robert Frost memorably mocked free verse as ‘like playing tennis with the net down’, on the basis that a poet needs a structure to work within.

But the best poets who have written in free verse have used the form – or rather, this absence of form – intelligently and to their advantage. For one example, see Audre Lorde’s poem ‘ Coal ’.

Villanelle.

The villanelle is very different from free verse, as it’s one of the tightest and most restrictive verse forms there is. Originating in Italy as a song which accompanied dancing, the villanelle is made up of nineteen lines and uses just two different rhymes throughout.

As if that isn’t demanding enough, the poem repeats the first and third lines multiple times throughout the poem, so these two lines serve as refrains. This can create a claustrophobic effect as the poem keeps circling back to the same preoccupations, but this can be used to the poet’s advantage, as in Sylvia Plath’s early poem ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’.

However, the most famous example of a villanelle in English is surely Dylan Thomas’ 1952 poem about his dying father, ‘ Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night ’, where the two refrains serve as a rallying call to the poet’s father to keep up the fight to the very end.

The sestina is possibly even more demanding than the villanelle: put briefly, it consists of six six-line stanzas, with the lines of each stanza ending with the same six words used in rotation: so if the word cold is the last word of the first stanza, cold will also come at the end of the first line of the second stanza, and so on.

But the best way to see how the sestina works is to observe an example: we recommend Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, simply called ‘ Sestina ’, which shows how the six repeated words can take on new significance as they are repeated in each stanza.

Strictly speaking, a cinquain should conform to the ‘rules’ set out by the American poet Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914) in her five-line poems: the first line has one heavy stress, the second line two, and third three, and fourth four, and the fifth and final line has just one heavy stress.

We have collected some of Crapsey’s best cinquains together in a separate post.

Narrative Poem.

A narrative poem is, in the broadest sense, any poem which tells a story. This means that some of the greatest narrative poems are fairly long. What they all have in common is a recognisable story that goes beyond the brief tableau (or series of tableaux) we might get in a lyric poem.

See John Keats’s great Halloween poem ‘ The Eve of St. Agnes ’ for a fine example from the era of Romanticism.

Some of the oldest poems in various cultures are epics: stories which tell of the founding of a great city or empire, or which provide a shared narrative to bring a particular people together. But strictly speaking, an epic poem is a long narrative poem dealing with ‘epic’ themes and subject-matter: war, adventure, a clash of civilisations, and many other things.

Epic poems, then, feature extraordinary characters doing extraordinary things, usually with a quick visit to the underworld slotted in somewhere on the itinerary. They are narrative poems, but on an ‘epic’ scale.

Ancient Rome has Virgil’s Aeneid , about the Trojan adventurer who, according to legend, travelled to Italy after the Trojan War; Greece has Homer’s Iliad , about the war between the Greeks and Trojans; and England has Beowulf , one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon poems. Going back even further, the Descent of Inanna – which predates even Homer by more than a thousand years – is a kind of proto-epic, and a sacred poem to the long-vanished Sumerian civilisation.

Like epic poems, ballads may be regarded as a subset of narrative poetry. They usually have a very specific form: quatrains of alternating lines of tetrameter (four feet per line) and trimeter (three feet per line), rhymed abcb .

We have selected ten of the most famous ballads here . Ballads were a popular form of poetry in the Middle Ages – popular with the lower classes perhaps even more than with the upper classes – because they could be sung in taverns by travelling singers, and thus enjoyed even by people who had never been taught to read.

Although there are various kinds of ode, at the fundamental level an ode is a poem written to something or someone. It has a clear and recognisable subject. So Keats’s ‘ Ode to a Nightingale ’ is a poem of praise addressed to the bird, for instance.

The two main classical kinds of ode were the Pindaric (which was rather lofty and high-flown) and the Horatian (named after Horace). Horatian odes were much more down-to-earth and intimate than the more formal and public nature of the Pindaric ode.

An elegy is a poem about someone who has died. There are many great examples in English literature: W. H. Auden’s ‘ Funeral Blues ’ is a popular modern example (featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral ).

Elegies are usually mourning the person who has died, but sometimes they can be satirical, as in Jonathan Swift’s ‘ A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General ’, about John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, which mocks the late duke rather than mourning his death.

Probably the best-known five-line poem in English, although nobody is quite sure how this type of poem came to be named after a place in Ireland. A limerick tends to be comical and much of the humour turns on the build-up to the rhyme in the last line (which also rhymes with the first two lines).

However, when the children’s writer Edward Lear popularised the form in the 1840s, he offered clean versions (of course!), although his limericks were marred by a sense of anticlimax (in that the last line shared the same last word as the first line). We have collected some of the funniest limericks in a separate post .

Not to be confused with an epigraph (a quotation which prefaces a book, poem, or chapter) or an epitaph (an inscription on a gravestone), an epigram is a short, pithy poem which usually makes a wise and/or witty point. Many of the poems of Ogden Nash can be categorised as epigrams.

A Japanese form which, when used in English at least, contains three lines, with the lines comprising five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables respectively, adding up (always) to seventeen.

Strictly, a haiku should take nature as its theme, as we’ve discussed in our separate article about the form. Here’s an example from the Japanese master of the haiku, Bashō (1644-94):

A caterpillar, this deep in fall – still not a butterfly.

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• Literary Terms
• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Write Poetry

I. What is Poetry?

Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of words and rhythm. It often employs rhyme and meter (a set of rules governing the number and arrangement of syllables in each line). In poetry, words are strung together to form sounds, images, and ideas that might be too complex or abstract to describe directly.

Poetry was once written according to fairly strict rules of meter and rhyme, and each culture had its own rules. For example, Anglo-Saxon poets had their own rhyme schemes and meters, while Greek poets and Arabic poets had others. Although these classical forms are still widely used today, modern poets frequently do away with rules altogether – their poems generally do not rhyme, and do not fit any particular meter. These poems, however, still have a rhythmic quality and seek to create beauty through their words.

The opposite of poetry is “prose” – that is, normal text that runs without line breaks or rhythm. This article, for example, is written in prose.

II. Examples and Explanation

Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth,

nothing is bred that is weaker than man.

(Homer, The Odyssey)

The Greek poet Homer wrote some of the ancient world’s most famous literature. He wrote in a style called epic poetry , which deals with gods, heroes, monsters, and other large-scale “epic” themes . Homer’s long poems tell stories of Greek heroes like Achilles and Odysseus, and have inspired countless generations of poets, novelists, and philosophers alike.

Poetry gives powerful insight into the cultures that create it. Because of this, fantasy and science fiction authors often create poetry for their invented cultures. J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote different kinds of poetry for elves, dwarves, hobbits, and humans, and the rhythms and subject matter of their poetry was supposed to show how these races differed from one another. In a more humorous vein, many Star Trek fans have taken to writing love poetry in the invented Klingon language.

III. The Importance of Poetry

Poetry is probably the oldest form of literature, and probably predates the origin of writing itself. The oldest written manuscripts we have are poems, mostly epic poems telling the stories of ancient mythology. Examples include the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Vedas (sacred texts of Hinduism). This style of writing may have developed to help people memorize long chains of information in the days before writing. Rhythm and rhyme can make the text more memorable, and thus easier to preserve for cultures that do not have a written language.

Poetry can be written with all the same purposes as any other kind of literature – beauty, humor, storytelling, political messages, etc.

IV. Examples in of Poetry Literature

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); I think that I shall never see  –> A a poem lovely as a tree… –> A poems are made by fools like me, –> B but only God can make a tree. –> B (Joyce Kilmer, Trees )

This is an excerpt from Joyce Kilmer’s famous short poem. The poem employs a fairly standard rhyme scheme (AABB, lines 1 and 2 rhymes together and lines 3 and 4 rhymes together), and a meter called “iambic tetrameter,” which is commonly employed in children’s rhymes.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking… (Alan Ginsberg, Howl)

These are the first few lines of Howl , one of the most famous examples of modern “free verse” poetry. It has no rhyme, and no particular meter. But its words still have a distinct, rhythmic quality, and the line breaks encapsulate the meaning of the poem. Notice how the last word of each line contributes to the imagery of a corrupt, ravaged city (“madness, naked, smoking”), with one exception: “heavenly.” This powerful juxtaposition goes to the heart of Ginsburg’s intent in writing the poem – though what that intent is, you’ll have to decide for yourself.

In the twilight rain, these brilliant-hued hibiscus – A lovely sunset

This poem by the Japanese poet Basho is a haiku . This highly influential Japanese style has no rhymes, but it does have a very specific meter – five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line.

V. Examples of Poetry in Popular Culture

Rapping originated as a kind of performance poetry. In the 1960s and 70s, spoken word artists like Gil Scott-Heron began performing their poems over live or synthesized drumbeats, a practice that sparked all of modern hip hop. Even earlier, the beat poets of the 1950s sometimes employed drums in their readings.

Some of the most famous historical poems have been turned into movies or inspired episodes of television shows. Beowulf , for example, is an Anglo-Saxon epic poem that has spawned at least 8 film adaptations, most recently a 2007 animated film starring Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven has also inspired many pop culture spinoffs with its famous line, “Nevermore.”

VI. Related Terms (with examples)

Nearly all poems are written in verse – that is, they have line breaks and meter (rhythm). But verse is also used in other areas of literature. For example, Shakespeare’s characters often speak in verse. Their dialogue is separated into rhythmic lines just like a song, but they are supposed to be speaking normally.

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15 Types of Poetry To Share With Kids (Plus Examples of Each)

Sonnets, limericks, free verse, haiku, and more.

Poetry can be a hard sell for kids. It’s not always easy for them to connect with, and getting them to try writing their own is even harder. But it might help them to learn that there are many types of poetry, not just Shakespearean sonnets. Show them these 15 types of poetry, including excellent examples of each, and they might just find something they really like!

In an acrostic, the first letter of each line spells out a word or phrase that’s generally related to the topic of the poem. There are several different types of acrostic, including a double acrostic where both the first and last letter of each line spell out a message. Another type of acrostic is the abecedarian, where the first letter of each line goes in alphabetical order. Acrostics are often one of the first types of poetry kids learn, by writing a poem using the letters of their own name.

Example: A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky, by Lewis Carroll

This is one of the oldest types of poetry, with ancient examples that were passed down orally through the centuries. A ballad tells the story of a person or event. Traditional ballades had four stanzas, with a repeated line called a refrain and a set rhyme scheme . Over time, they evolved to a slightly less structured form, with shorter rhyming stanzas (often four lines, known as a “quatrain.”) Ballads and epics are similar, since both tell stories of people or events, but ballads are shorter.

Example: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Blackout Poetry

Source: Austin Kleon

These poems are unique in that they use something that’s already been written, and strike out most of the text to leave only selected words and phrases. These are fun for kids to play around with, using pages from books or magazines. Blackout poetry is usually non-rhyming free verse, since the author is limited to the words already on the page. Contemporary author Austin Kleon has become well-known for his newspaper blackout poems.

Example: How To Improve, by Austin Kleon

Blank Verse

Blank verse doesn’t rhyme, but it’s a structured form of poetry in terms of meter. These poems are almost always written in iambic pentameter (da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM). It was particularly popular during Shakespeare’s time and remained a common choice for poets like William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Robert Frost.

Example: Mending Wall, by Robert Frost

Anyone who recognizes that “cinq” often indicates the number five will find it easy to remember that a cinquain (pronounced “sing-KANE”) is a five-line poem. According to Poets.org, cinquains generally follow a rhyme scheme of ababb, abaab, or abccb, though they are not required to rhyme at all. Multiple cinquains can be linked together to form a longer poem.

Poet Adelaide Crapsey invented a specific type of cinquain (sometimes called the American cinquain), which has one stress in the first line, two in the second, three in the third, four in the fourth, and one in the fifth. This poetry type is popular in classrooms, since the strict structure helps students create their own poems.

Example: Snow, by Adelaide Crapsey

Concrete Poetry

Source: @poetrymagazine

Poems written in this form take the shape of the item they’re describing. They can be written in any style, as long as the formatting creates a shape related to the words.

Example: Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree, by George Starbuck

In an elegy, the poet writes of sadness, grief, or loss. They’re often written in response to a death. Elegies can be any sort of poem in terms of meter and rhyme scheme (or they don’t need to rhyme at all). Traditional elegies follow a specific form. First is the “lament,” where the speaker tells of their sadness. Then, the author praises the dead or lost, and finally finishes with words of consolation, offering hope for the future.

Example: O Captain! My Captain!, by Walt Whitman

Like a ballad, an epic tells the story of an event or person. Epics are much longer than ballads, though, often even book-length. Like ballads, this form of narrative poetry has been around for centuries and frequently tells tales of superhuman deeds and incredible adventures.

Example: The Odyssey, by Homer

This is the most open form of poetry, with no rhythmical, rhyme, or other requirements. It often mimics the flow of regular speech, but it is set apart from prose by its use of line breaks and poetic devices like imagery, alliteration, and more.

Example: The Red Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos Williams

This Japanese style is highly structured and often focuses on nature. They seek to capture a brief moment in time in powerful words and phrases. The poems are written in three lines, with five syllables in the first, seven syllables in the second, and five in the third. That format is sometimes broken, especially when poems are translated from one language to another, but they will always contain just three meaningful lines.

Example: The West Wind Whispered, by R.M. Hansard

Want a laugh? Read some limericks! These structured poems have been around for a long time. They contain five lines, using the aabba rhyme scheme. Generally, the first, second, and fifth lines are longer, while the third and fourth are shorter. The fifth line is often like the punchline to the joke. Some limericks are downright bawdy, but there are lots of kid-friendly examples. They’re also a fun form for kids to experiment with. Edward Lear was a master of limericks.

Example: There Was an Old Man With a Beard, by Edward Lear

Narrative Poetry

This is a broad category, and it includes types of poetry like epics and ballads. You’ll know you’re reading a narrative poem when it has a plot, with a beginning, middle, and end. Over the years, they’ve been written to record history and extol the virtues of famous people. Narrative poetry has been popular since the days of the Greeks, and it continues to be beloved today.

Example: Paul Revere’s Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

These poems celebrate a person, place, thing, or idea. They can be written in any form (though there are odes that have specific formats, like Horatian odes ) and be of any length. Odes differ from ballads or epics in that they don’t generally have a plot. Unlike elegies, they don’t focus on grief or loss. Instead, they tell of the subject in glowing, descriptive terms, aiming to impress the reader.

Example: Ode to the West Wind, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

This is one of the most famous (and structured) types of poetry, immortalized by geniuses like Shakespeare and Milton. There are two classic types of sonnets, both with 14 lines written in iambic pentameter .

Petrarchan Sonnet

Petrarch was an Italian poet of the 14th century. Though he didn’t invent this form of sonnet, he mastered it so well it’s now known by his name. It has two stanzas. The first stanza has eight lines, with an abba, abba rhyme scheme. The second stanza has six lines, and the rhyme scheme can be cde cde, or cdcdcd. Petrarchan sonnets often present a question or argument in the first half, with a conclusion or counterargument in the second.

Example: How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43), by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Shakespearean Sonnet

After sonnets were introduced to England, poets made some alterations to the rhyme scheme and format. A Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains (sections of four lines each), followed by a couplet of two lines. The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. This gave writers a little more leeway, since it can be harder to find rhyming words in English than in the Romance languages. Shakespeare perfected the form, writing 154 sonnets in this style.

Example: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? (Sonnet 18), by William Shakespeare

Also check out 24 Famous Poets Your Students Should Know .

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Editorial »

Poetry forms, read about the various poetry forms and types including definitions and examples below..

“'Tis not to see the world

As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,

And heart profoundly stirred;

And weep, and feel the fulness of the past,

The years that are no more!”

~From 'Growing Old' by Matthew Arnold

Do you see a poet in yourself sometimes? Are you looking to explore more into the topic so you can find out your inner poet? Why not start with what poetry actually is and what are some of its types? It might help you pick a starting point so you can fulfil your dream of writing verses.

Originated from the Medieval Latin word poeta, meaning poet, poetry is a literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature.

Types of Poetry

Poetry is not limited to a single way of writing as the most diverse nature of the poets requires them to express their thoughts not only through a spell of words but also through an enchanted styles. The type of poetry one choses not only defines his mind processes but also the depth and complexity of the topic. There are various poetry styles which are discussed below.

Quickly navigate through the various forms.

Acrostic is a type of poetry in which the poet uses a careful set of words at the beginning or the end of each sentence in such a way that the letters in a line form a specific phrase or verb. The easiest way to write an acrostic poem is when the first letters of each line spell out a word whereas the most difficult and rarest acrostic poem is where the word is formed with the last letter of the last word in each verse.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote the beautiful acrostic in the name of Elizabeth.

“E lizabeth it is in vain you say

' L ove not' — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:

I n vain those words from thee or L. E. L.

Z antippe's talents had enforced so well:

A h! if that language from thy heart arise,

B reathe it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.

E ndymion, recollect, when Luna tried

T o cure his love — was cured of all beside —

H is folly — pride — and passion — for he died.”

A ballad poem is a narrative of the poet which tells a story in a rhythmic scheme ABAB and arranged in quatrains. Ballads were used as folk songs in the history and their rhyme make them typical modern music. A poetic story told in a ballad is usually a love story. Ballads are often long depending on the story told and poet’s concern.

William Shakespeare’s ballad poem “All the World’s a Stage” compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life to the seven acts of a play.

"Ballata 5" by Guido Cavalcanti highlights the form and voice of the standard ballad of today:

"That which befalls me in my Lady's presence

Bars explanation intellectual.

I seem to see a lady wonderful

Spring forth between her lips, one whom no sense

Can fully tell the mind of,and one whence

Another, in beauty, springeth marvelous,

From whom a star goes forth and speaketh thus:

'Now my salvation is gone forth from thee.'"

A French form of poem that includes twenty lines of no set lengths and is split into three octaves i.e. eight-lined stanzas and one quatrain i.e. four-lined stanza, making a total of 4 stanzas.

A ballade poem is a French form poem, (not to be confused with the "ballad" form, which we offer a separate workshop for!). A ballade has twenty-eight lines of no set length. It is split into three octaves (eight-lined stanzas) and one quatrain (a four-lined stanza), resulting in 4 stanzas in total. All stanzas end with the same one line refrain and uses a particular rhyme scheme. The first three octaves have a rhyme scheme of a, b, a, b, b, c, b, C, whereas the rhyme scheme of the quatrain is b, c, b, C. Ballade is difficult to write in English than in French and some famous ballade poets of English inlcude Geoffrey Chaucer, Andrew Lang, G K Chesterton and Wendy Cope.

A well-known ballade by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Down by the flash of the restless water (a)

The dim White Ship like a white bird lay; (b)

Laughing at life and the world they sought her, (a)

And out she swung to the silvering bay. (b)

Then off they flew on their roystering way, (b)

And the keen moon fired the light foam flying (c)

Up from the flood where the faint stars play, (b)

And the bones of the brave in the wave are lying. (C)

'Twas a king's fair son with a king's fair daughter, (a)

And full three hundred beside, they say, - (b)

Revelling on for the lone, cold slaughter (a)

So soon to seize them and hide them for aye; (b)

But they danced and they drank and their souls grew gay, (b)

Nor ever they knew of a ghoul's eye spying (c)

Their splendor a flickering phantom to stray (b)

Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying. (C)

Through the mist of a drunken dream they brought her (a)

(This wild white bird) for the sea-fiend's prey: (b)

The pitiless reef in his hard clutch caught her, (a)

And hurled her down where the dead men stay. (b)

A torturing silence of wan dismay - (b)

Shrieks and curses of mad souls dying - (c)

Then down they sank to slumber and sway (b)

Prince, do you sleep to the sound alway (b)

Of the mournful surge and the sea-birds' crying? - (c)

Or does love still shudder and steel still slay, (b)

Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying? (C)

Blank Verse

A poem that has no rhyme but has an iambic pentameter which means it contains lines of five feet (each foot representing an iambic) and has two syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. It has no fixed number of lines and is often used in descriptive poems, reflective poems and dramatic monologues

Below is ‘Mending Walls’ by Robert Frost which is an example of a Blank verse poem.

“ Some thing there is that does n’t love a wall .

That sends the fro zen- ground -swell un der it ,

And spills the up per boul ders in the sun ;”

Note that this poem has no rhyme scheme and follows iambic pentameter. The stressed syllables are marked in bold.

A cinquain poem consists of five un-rhyming lines forming a verse. It was first created by Adelaide Crapsey as an inspiration from Japanese haiku. Each line in a cinquain has a set number of syllables i.e. line 1: one syllable (title), line 2: two words describing the title, line 3: three words relating the action, line 4: four words expressing the feelings, and line 5: one word recalling the title.

Jan Allen wrote this beautiful cinquain titled “Flying High” quoted below:

Free as a bird

No wings to restrain us

Blown gently on salmon pink clouds

The poetry style that constitutes 7 lines written in the form of a diamond is known as diamante. The first diamante was written by Iris Tiedt in 1969 with the title of ‘The Diamante’. A diamante can be written for two purposes; either to compare and contrast two different subjects or to name synonyms at the beginning of the poem and antonyms at the other half of the poem. The structure of the poem is as follows:

Line 1: Beginning subject

Line 2: Two describing words about line 1

Line 3: Three doing words about line 1

Line 4: A short phrase about line 1, a short phrase about line 7

Line 5: Three doing words about line 7

Line 6: Two describing words about line 7

Line 7: End subject

A. L. Andresen wrote ‘Angels’ as a diamante poem.

love, mystery

beautiful, bright, caring

peaceful, spiritual, messengers, guardian angels

powerful, sparkling, presence

hope, longing

Maurice Scève gave this kind of poem his own mark with the lyrical romantic assembly of 449 French poems of Délie, but other poets, also English, have employed the dizain. Like the name says, 10 is crucial in it. The poem has one 10-line stanza, with 10 syllables per line, and with the rhyme scheme: ababbccdcd (the first 5 mirrored in the second 5). On top of that Scève devided each line in 4 and 6 syllables, giving it a structured flow.

Here's an example Dizain poem written by Dutch poet Ludy Bührs:

How do I pull myself up from darkness, where is the light, will my eyes find a hold? My cold hand is but searching, baseless without its fit, it slides in my shade’s mold and it reaches just to find an untold empty space of uselessness, gruesome void. No place to stay, drifting like an asteroid how much is left of me then, who am I? The night takes long, no second to avoid, my life’s flushed, in hollow strokes goes by.

A poem of mourning or reflection on the death of an individual.

A long, solemn poem that is written in narrative of the poet or another person who is telling some story about heroic figures or significant cultural events is an epic poem. Before the development of writing, epic poems were memorized and played an important part in maintaining a record of the great deeds and history of a culture. Some great epic poems of history include Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, and Beowulf.

An epigram is a short satirical, ironic and a witty piece written sometimes as a couplet or a quatrain but mostly as a single line phrase. It is brief, forceful remark with a funny twist at the end. The term epigram was derived from the Greek word ‘epi-gramma’ meaning inscription or to inscribe which referred to the inscriptions written on stone monuments in ancient Greece. The subject of epigram is a single event or a thought. The epigram flourished in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England thanks to John Donne, Robert Herrick, Ben Jonson, Alexander Pope, Lord George Byron, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In France, the poet Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux and the philosopher Voltaire often employed the epigrammatic form.

Coleridge defined epigram in the form of an epigram:

“What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole,

Its body brevity, and wit its soul.”

Oscar Wilde’s famous epigram:

"I can resist everything except temptation"

Free verse is a poem which has no rhyme, meter, or other traditional poetry technique. Lack of predetermined form, makes free verse take on unique shapes and characteristics. Essentially, free verse allows poets to take control of the poem as he is allowed more control over expression, meters, rhythm, rhymes, and other poetic techniques. This can allow for more spontaneity and individualization.

Robert Frost said about writing free verse, “Playing tennis without a net.” There are many examples of famous free verses written and Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Light Keeper’ is one of them.

“The brilliant kernel of the night,

The flaming lightroom circles me:

I sit within a blaze of light

Held high above the dusky sea.

Far off the surf doth break and roar

Along bleak miles of moonlit shore,

Where through the tides the tumbling wave

Falls in an avalanche of foam

And drives its churned waters home

Up many an undercliff and cave.”

The most famous type of Japanese poetry that was first known as ‘hokku’, but now called haiku as the abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" which means a verse of haikai. In English, haiku is generally written in three lines to equate to the three parts of a haiku in Japanese that consists of five, seven and then five on as the Japanese count sounds, not syllables. Punctuations such as comma, colon, ellipses, etc. are generally used at the end of the first or second line and very rarely found in the middle of the second line. The purpose is to create a relationship between the two parts. A Haiku poem is similar to a Tanka but has fewer lines and can be written on topics ranging from nature to love. A Haiku consists of 3 lines and 17 syllables. Each line has a set number of syllables see below:

Line 1 – 5 syllables

Line 2 – 7 syllables

Line 3 – 5 syllables

Matsuo Bashō wrote these haiku poems. Note that number of lines, syllables and punctuation:

“From time to time,

The clouds give rest

To the moon-beholders.”

“The old pond—

A frog jumps in,

Aound of water.”

Horatian ode

Named after its creator, the Latin poet Horace, Horatian ode is a type of poetry that comprise of two or four-line stanzas. In contrast to the lofty, heroic odes of the Greek poet Pindar, most of Horace’s odes are intimate and reflective; they are often addressed to a friend and deal with friendship, love, and the practice of poetry. A Horatian ode is a poem with meter and rhyme. It is devoted to praising a person, animal or object.

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote an astounding Horatian ode called “Ode to the West Wind”. An excerpt from it is down below.

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

A two word phrase that describes an object by the use of metaphors is called a kenning. The use of kennings in a poem which makes up a riddle describing someone or something is called a kennings poem. A kenning is a much-compressed form of metaphor, originally used in Anglo-Saxon and Norse poetry. A Kennings poem consists of several stanzas of two describing words. It can be made up of any number of Kennings. Judith Nicholls' 'Bluebottle' uses kennings as part of a larger poem, that is itself a riddle; Andrew Fusek Peters and Polly Peters go further, building a pair of poems both consisting entirely of kennings.

Polly Peters’ “Mum” is an example of kennings poem;

Sadness Stealer

Cut-knee healer

Hug-me-tighter

Wrongness righter

Gold star carer

Chocolate sharer (well, sometimes)

Hamster feeder

Bedtime reader

Great time player

Night fear slayer

Treat dispenser

Naughty sensor (how come she always knows)

Never glum,

Constant chum

Second to none

We’re under her thumb!

A Kyrielle is a French form of rhyming poetry written in quatrains (a stanza consisting of 4 lines), and each quatrain contains a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (usually appearing as the last line of each stanza). Each line within the poem consists of only eight syllables. There is no limit to the amount of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum. Some popular rhyming schemes for a Kyrielle are: aabB, ccbB, ddbB, with B being the repeated line, or abaB, cbcB, dbdB. Mixing up the rhyme scheme is possible for an unusual pattern of: axaZ, bxbZ, cxcZ, dxdZ, etc. with Z being the repeated line. The rhyme pattern is completely up to the poet.

‘Beyond Mere Mind’ by James Dean Chase is an example of kyrielle with the set structure of aabB, ccbB, ddbB, eebB.

“A blue-white light appeared to me

at the innocent age of three.

Guiding me strongly, yet so kind,

beyond horizons of mere mind.

Given choices, each step I took,

good would tingle and evil shook.

Some paths in life, perhaps, would wind

At times, I stumbled into pits,

drowning in darkness - causing fits.

Again, I'd see that blue-white find

As long as I have energy,

onward, I go, on Life's journey.

Spirit, nothing will ever bind,

beyond horizons of mere mind.”

A short, humorous, witty, sometimes uncouth, five line poem that is written in a distinctive rhythm. The first, second and fifth lines, the longer lines (7-10 syllables), rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines (5-7 syllables) rhyme. It has a rhyme scheme of A-A-B-B-A. Limericks are very light hearted poems and can sometimes be utter nonsense. They are great for kids to both read and write as they are short and funny. The first line of a limerick poem usually begins with 'There was a....' and ends with a name, person or place. The last line of a limerick is normally a little farfetched or unusual.

The famous poet Edward Lear wrote a witty Limerick poem as under;

“'There was an old man with a beard

Who said, 'It is just as I feared,

Two owls and a hen

A lark and a wren

Have all built their nests in my beard!'”

Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the lyric, which was defined by its musical accompaniment, usually on a stringed instrument known as a lyre. In some cases, the form and theme of a lyric poem are inter wed. However, it is just as common for the form and theme to be opposites, which brings the readers interest on whether the poet can successfully bridge a union between the two. Lyric poetry is made of two main types: elegy and ode.

A serious or thoughtful poem, usually with a formal structure. This type of poem is generally seen as a way to pay homage to a thing or person. This type of lyric is the most popular and includes the sub-genre of sonnets.

T. S. Eliot wrote ‘Lyric’ as a lyric poem;

“If Time and Space, as Sages say,

Are things which cannot be,

The sun which does not feel decay

No greater is than we.

So why, Love, should we ever pray

To live a century?

The butterfly that lives a day

Has lived eternity.

The flowers I gave thee when the dew

Was trembling on the vine,

Were withered ere the wild bee flew

To suck the eglantine.

So let us haste to pluck anew

Nor mourn to see them pine,

And though our days of love be few

Yet let them be divine.”

The pantoum is a poetic form derived from the pantun , a Malay verse form from the pantun berkait, a series of interwoven quatrains. A Pantoum is a type of poem with a verse form consisting of three stanzas. It has a set pattern within the poem of repetitive lines. The pattern in each stanza is where the second and fourth line of each verse is repeated as the first and third of the next. The pattern changes though for the last stanza to the first and third line are the second and fourth of the stanza above (penultimate). The last line is a repeat of the first starting line of the poem and the third line of the first is the second of the last.

American poets such as John Ashbery, Marilyn Hacker, Donald Justice ("Pantoum of the Great Depression"), Carolyn Kizer, and David Trinidad have done work in this form, as has Irish poet Caitriona O'Reilly. Stuart Dischell published a well-received pantoum, "She Put on Her Lipstick in the Dark," in the December, 2007 issue of The Atlantic.

The December 2015 issue of First Things featured a pantoum by James Matthew Wilson, "The Christmas Preface" given below:

There, in the hay’s warmth and the steaming sty,

The Word born to the frailty of flesh

Cracks our mortality with a weak cry

And seals our life within his endlessness.

The Word born to the frailty of flesh,

He lies wrapped in the cloths of mystery,

And seals our life within his endlessness,

In infant finitude eternity.

The straining of small limbs, unopened eyes.

In infant finitude, eternity

And love invisible we recognize.

The straining of small limbs, unopened eyes

Draw us from torchlight to the light of glory,

And love invisible we recognize

Shaping the child’s dream of the Christmas story.

Draw us from torchlight to the light of glory.

Crack our mortality with a weak cry,

Shaping the child’s dream of the Christmas story,

Here in the hay’s warmth and the steaming sty.

Pindaric ode

Pindaric ode, ceremonious poem by or in the manner of Pindar, a Greek professional lyrist of the 5th century B.C. Pindar employed the triadic structure attributed to Stesichorus, consisting of a strophe (two or more lines repeated as a unit) followed by a metrically harmonious antistrophe, concluding with a summary line in a different meter. These three parts corresponded to the movement of the chorus to one side of the stage, then to the other, and their pause mid-stage to deliver the epode. The collection of four books of Epinician odes influenced poets of the Western world since their publication by Aldus Manutius in 1513. They reveal Pindar’s sense of vocation as a poet dedicated to preserving and interpreting great deeds and their divine values. The metaphors, myths, and gnomic sayings that ornament the odes are often difficult to grasp because of the rapid shifts of thought and the sacrifice of syntax to achieving uniform poetic color.

Based on an extract from 'The Progress of Poesy' by Thomas Gray

(a) Wake up, you little sleep head, awake

(a) And give great joy to life that's found in dreams

(b) From Nature's most sweet sounding streams

(a) A thousand turns their twisty journeys take

(a) The dancing flowers, that above them blow

(c) Breathe life and music as they flow

(d) Now the vast waves of sound drift along

(d) Deep, beautiful, vast and strong

(e) Through the fields and vales and valleys they glide

(e) And rolling down the mountain side

(f) Daring and carefree the water pours

(f) From the highest edge they jump and falling, they roar.

Renga, meaning “linked poem," began over seven hundred years ago in Japan to encourage the collaborative composition of poems. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns composing the alternating three-line and two-line stanzas. To create a renga, one poet writes the first stanza, which is three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables. The next poet adds the second stanza, a couplet with seven syllables per line. The third stanza repeats the structure of the first and the fourth repeats the second, alternating in this pattern until the poem’s end. The language is often pastoral, incorporating words and images associated with seasons, nature, and love. In order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only the stanza preceding it.

An excerpt from “A Hundred Stanzas by Three Poets at Minase

Despite some snow

the base of the hills spreads with haze

the twilight scene

where the waters flow afar

the village glows with sweet plumb flowers

Where the waters flow afar

in the river wind

a single stand of willow trees

show spring color

In the river wind

day break comes on distinctly

with sounds of punted boat”

A lyrical poem of French origin having 10 or 13 lines with two rhymes and with the opening phrase repeated twice as the refrain is called a rondeau poem. It is a short poem consisting of fifteen lines that have two rhymes throughout. The rondeau began as a lyric form in thirteenth-century France, popular among medieval court poets and musicians. Named after the French word for “round," the rondeau is characterized by the repeating lines of the rentrement, or refrain, and the two rhyme sounds throughout. The challenge of writing a rondeau is finding an opening line worth repeating and choosing two rhyme sounds that offer enough word choices.

An example of a solemn rondeau is the Canadian army physician John McCrae’s 1915 wartime poem, "In Flanders Fields":

“In Flanders fields the poppies grow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place, and in the sky,

The larks, still bravely singing, fly,

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high!

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.”

Shaped Poem

Poetry written in the shape or form of an object that it describes. This is a type of concrete poetry. It could be a circle-shaped poem describing a cookie, or a poem about love shaped like a heart.

Below is an example of a shape poem called ‘Spring Bud’ written by Ernesto P. Santiago:

                        My 

                      breath

                          shivers under  

                       a rug of loneliness,

                    a sleepy heart huddles

                   against such memories 

                 of togetherness and not of 

               goodbyes, hating to disperse 

               the fiery rhymes of your lips, 

                as well as the warmth of its 

                 sweat...tastes like red wine, 

                   then it beats...and beats

                     gently, as it envisions

                          you, in an early

                                 misty

                                    s

                                   p

                                 r

                               i

                              n

                            g

An Italian style of poetry, credited mainly to Giacomo Da Lentini, sonnet is a poem of an expressive thought or idea made up of 14 lines, each being 10 syllables long. Its rhymes are arranged according to one of the schemes, where eight lines called an octave consisting of two quatrains which normally open the poem as the question are followed by six lines called a sestet that are the answer, or the more common English which is three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet. The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto (from Old Provençal sonet a little poem, from son song, from Latin sonus a sound).The structure of a typical English sonnet is ab ab, cdcd, efef, gg.

Famous writers and poets like Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe have contributed a lot in the field of sonnets. Poe’s sonnet ‘Sonet I’ from Sir John Suckling is quoted below:

“There are some qualities- some incorporate things,

That have a double life, which thus is made

A type of that twin entity which springs

From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.

There is a two-fold Silence- sea and shore-

Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,

Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces,

Some human memories and tearful lore,

Render him terrorless: his name's "No More."

He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!

No power hath he of evil in himself;

But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)

Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,

That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod

No foot of man,) commend thyself to God!”

The Japanese tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song," and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form. The poem has five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the other seven. Also called waka or uta, tanka poem is similar to a haiku but has two additional lines. In many ways, the tanka resembles the sonnet, certainly in terms of treatment of subject. Like the sonnet, the tanka employs a turn, known as a pivotal image, which marks the transition from the examination of an image to the examination of the personal response.

Amy Lowell wrote this Tanka poem

Roses and larkspur

And slender, serried lilies;

I wonder whether

These are worth your attention.

Consider it, and if not—

A terza rima is an Italian form of poetry first used by Dante Alighieri. A type of poetry consisting of 10 or 11 syllable lines arranged in three-line tercets usually in iambic pentameter. It follows an interlocking rhyming scheme, or chain rhyme. This is where the middle of each stanza rhymes with the first and last line of the following stanza. There is no set length to this form, as long as it follows the pattern as follows:

With the last stanza as a couplet rhyming with the middle line of the previous stanza.

‘The Eagle’ was a tercet written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92):

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands:

Close to the sun it lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world, it stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.”

Nicholas Breton, demonstrated the tercet’s flexibility as a triplet, as well as the beautiful musicality of the form ‘Country Song’:

“Shall we go dance the hay, the hay?

Never pipe could ever play

Better shepherd’s roundelay.

Shall we go sing the song, the song?

Never Love did ever wrong,

Fair maids, hold hands all along.

Shall we go learn to woo, to woo?

Never thought ever came to,

Better deed could better do.

Shall we go learn to kiss, to kiss?

Never heart could ever miss

Comfort, where true meaning is.

Thus at base they run, they run.

When the sport was scarce begun.

But I waked–and all was done.”

Tetractys, a poetic form invented by Ray Stebbing, consists of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). Tetractys can be written with more than one verse, but must follow suit with an inverted syllable count. Tetractys can also bereversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2, 1.

"Euclid, the mathematician of classical times, considered the number series 1, 2, 3, 4 to have mystical significance because its sum is 10, so he dignified it with a name of its own - Tetractys. The tetractys could be Britain's answer to the haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables." - Ray Stebbing.

Shani Fassbender wrote ‘Dust’ as a Tetractys:

It lands on tables and under your bed

It also clings to your computer screen

on clothes it goes

and of course

in your food

not in the mood

In the air, everywhere, I don’t care

You can have it mop, cloth, feather duster

I don’t want it

here or there

dust if you must

Scratch me a note of “clean me” on my shelf

If I dust today it will just come back

A stanza poem of eight lines. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and often all lines are in iambic tetrameter: the first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines, thereby making the initial and final couplets identical as well. A triolet is a close cousin of the rondeau, another French verse form emphasizing repetition and rhyme. Some of the earliest known triolets composed in English were written by Patrick Cary, briefly a Benedictine at Douai, who purportedly used them in his devotions. British poet Robert Bridges reintroduced the triolet to the English language, where it enjoyed a brief popularity among late-nineteenth-century British poets.

Thomas Hardy wrote a beautiful triolet called ‘Birds at Winter’:

“Around the house the flakes fly faster,

And all the berries now are gone

From holly and cotoneaster

Around the house. The flakes fly! – faster

Shutting indoors the crumb-outcaster

We used to see upon the lawn

Around the house. The Flakes fly faster

And all the berries now are gone!”

Notice how in the last line the punctuation is altered; this is common although not strictly in keeping with the original form. Furthermore, the fact that the 'berries now are gone' has a new relevance; the birds are going unfed.

A Tyburn Poem is a six-line poetic form where the first four lines consist of just a single, two syllabled word each that all rhyme. Line 5 has nine syllables, with the fifth to eighth syllables using the words from lines 1 and 2. Line 6 also has nine syllables, with the fifth to eighth syllables using the words from lines 3 and 4. The first four lines rhyme and are all descriptive words. The last two lines rhyme and incorporate the first, second, third, and fourth lines as the 5th through 8th syllables.

Below is “The Dog and His Master” written by Anne Kingsmill Finch.

“NO better Dog e'er kept his Master's Door

Than honest Snarl, who spar'd nor Rich nor Poor;

But gave the Alarm, when any one drew nigh,

Nor let pretended Friends pass fearless by:

For which reprov'd, as better Fed than Taught,

He rightly thus expostulates the Fault.

To keep the House from Rascals was my Charge;

The Task was great, and the Commission large.

Nor did your Worship e'er declare your Mind,

That to the begging Crew it was confin'd;

Who shrink an Arm, or prop an able Knee,

Or turn up Eyes, till they're not seen, nor see.

To Thieves, who know the Penalty of Stealth,

And fairly stake their Necks against your Wealth,

These are the known Delinquents of the Times,

And Whips and Tyburn.

testify their Crimes.

But since to Me there was by Nature lent

An exquisite Discerning by the Scent;

I trace a Flatt'rer, when he fawns and leers,

A rallying Wit, when he commends and jeers:

The greedy Parasite I grudging note,

Who praises the good Bits, that oil his Throat;

I mark the Lady, you so fondly toast,

That plays your Gold, when all her own is lost:

The Knave, who fences your Estate by Law,

Yet still reserves an undermining Flaw.

These and a thousand more, which I cou'd tell,

Provoke my Growling, and offend my Smell”

A villanelle is a 19-line poetic form consisting of five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a quatrain (four-line stanza). The form is known for its specific rhyme scheme and repeated lines, which create a complex pattern of repetition and rhyme. The structure is as follows:

• The first and third lines of the opening tercet serve as alternating refrains, repeating at specific points throughout the poem.
• The rhyme scheme is typically ABA for the tercets and ABAA for the quatrain.
• The first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately at the end of each tercet and then both are repeated at the end of the quatrain.

Here's a breakdown of the structure:

• Tercet 1: ABA
• Tercet 2: ABA (A1 from the first line of Tercet 1 as the last line)
• Tercet 3: ABA (A2 from the third line of Tercet 1 as the last line)
• Tercet 4: ABA (A1 from the first line of Tercet 1 as the last line)
• Tercet 5: ABA (A2 from the third line of Tercet 1 as the last line)
• Quatrain: ABAA (A1 and A2 repeated as the last two lines)

Example of a Villanelle

One of the most famous examples of a villanelle is "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas.

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Are you a poetry master, a poem in which the first letters of each line spell a word is called _______..

The relationship between poetry forms and language cannot be overstated: with different forms of poetry, poets encounter new ways to grapple with complex poetic topics. Indeed, poets have played with form since the dawn of poetry, resulting in the countless forms of poetry that us poets have at our disposal. Understanding most forms is easy, but if you plan on mastering poetry forms and poem structures, you need to know your poetic history.

This article covers everything a poet should know about rhyme schemes, different types of poetry forms, and identifying poetic meter. After exploring these components, we explore 15 forms of poetry, with tips and examples for poetry writers.

Let’s learn what the masters know about poetry forms. Then we’ll look at 15 poetry forms to experiment with in your own poetry writing.

• Lineation in Poetry
• Rhyme in Poetry
• Meter in Poetry
• The Sestina
• The Italian Sonnet
• The Elizabethan Sonnet
• The Contemporary Sonnet
• The Limerick
• The Villanelle
• The American Cinquain
• The Pantoum
• The Free Verse Poem
• The Narrative Poem
• The Prose Poem
• The Blackout Poem / Erasure Poem

What Are Poetic Forms?

A poem’s form is its structure: elements like its line lengths and meters, stanza lengths, rhyme schemes (if any) and systems of repetition.

A poem’s form refers to its structure: elements like its line lengths and meters, stanza lengths, rhyme schemes (if any) and systems of repetition. Every poem has a form—its own way of approaching these elements—whether that form is unique just to that poem, or part of a more widely used poetic form.

Poetry forms are defined poetic structures used across multiple poems, generally by multiple authors. Two well-known examples are the haiku and the limerick.

That brings us to poetry forms : defined poetic structures used across multiple poems and generally by multiple authors. Two well-known poetry forms are the haiku and the limerick. Both forms of poetry are defined by their structure in exactly the elements described above: line length, meter, rhyme scheme. And these forms influence how the poetry written in them tends to turn out, from terse and profound (haiku) to singsongy and silly (limerick).

All defined forms of poetry share three elements:

• Intentional line breaks and stanza breaks
• Consistent rhyme scheme
• Adherence to the rules of meter in poetry

Let’s investigate each component of poem structures individually, before turning our gaze towards 15 example forms of poetry.

Poetic Forms: Lineation in Poetry

Lineation refers to the line breaks and stanzas that architect a poem.

Lineation refers to the line breaks and stanzas that architect a poem. The length of these lines and stanzas greatly impacts how the reader interprets the poem, so a poem’s lineation requires painstaking care.

Some poetry forms and structures allow the poet to choose their own line and stanza lengths; others, like the ghazal or the sestina, have stricter requirements. Another poetry form with strict requirements is the villanelle, such as the poem “ Do not go gentle into that good night ” by Dylan Thomas:

You’ll notice that stanzas of different length have different names. The chart below includes the common names for stanzas of varying length.

Note: A single-line stanza is sometimes called a “monostich,” though this typically refers to a one-line poem. Since a stanza consists of multiple lines, it’s best to call a single-lined stanza a line itself.

You’ll notice that several of the stanza lengths are rare. Why is that? Few, if any, forms of poetry require the use of septets, nonets, and dizains. You may see stanzas of this length in free form poetry, but you will rarely see those terms outside of this article, given how infrequently they’re used.

Why use stanzas at all? Think of the stanzas as the paragraph of the poem. A stanza can hold singular ideas that contrast with other stanzas, or a stanza can hold multiple conflicting ideas that build tension within the poem. Stanzas help the poet with juxtaposition , repetition , and other poetic devices . For more on this, review our article on reading poetry like a poet .

As a parting note on stanza length, a poem without stanzas is called an isometric poem. Isometric poetry is just as valid as poems with stanzas, and the isometric form helps poets unify individual lines into an overarching theme . Contemporary sonnets are often isometric, as are some free verse poems.

Poetic Forms: Rhyme in Poetry

For most of poetry’s existence, rhyme schemes have been a critical component of the poem’s construction. Formally, rhyme is when two words agree in terminal sound, like “light” and “night.” Most of us can feel when two words rhyme, so it’s best not to overthink.

Rhyme is when two words agree in terminal sound, like “light” and “night.”

Yet, contemporary poetry seems to snub the rhyme scheme. You’ll rarely see rhyming in some modern poetry journals, except maybe internal rhyming—a topic we’ll cover later in this article.

Why did society suddenly switch to non-rhyming poetry? Are rhyme schemes even important these days? Rhyme and meter developed out of necessity—not for “literary” purposes, but mnemonic purposes. Poetry predates writing; we’ve been telling stories in poetry long before we had prose as a medium. Rhyme schemes allowed early poets to retell their poetry orally, which is why rhyme schemes endure into the modern era.

Rhyme schemes allowed early poets to retell their poetry orally.

In fact, rhyme continued to define poetry until the turn of the 20th century. By then, literacy rates among Western nations had dramatically improved, and poets didn’t need oral performance to spread their poetry—books were the new poetic medium. The new challenge for poetry was to find poetic meaning in the space of the page, rather than the space of the stage; thus, rhyme schemes fell out of favor throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

So, what is form in poetry for today’s poets as it pertains to rhyme? Should contemporary poetry refrain from rhyme? Well, not all the time. Many contemporary poetry forms still require a rhyme scheme, such as the villanelle, the limerick, and some sonnets.

Many contemporary poetry forms require a rhyme scheme, such as the villanelle, the limerick, and some sonnets.

Poets talk about rhyme the same way musicians do. Let’s say we have four lines, and each line ends with the same rhyme; we would describe that rhyme scheme as AAAA. If we had four lines with two alternating rhymes, we would describe it as ABAB. If the middle lines and the outer lines rhymed with each other, we would have ABBA. Pretty simple, right?

Let’s see rhyme in action before we move towards poetic meter. The villanelle poetry form, which we will later explore in-depth, has a fairly tricky rhyme scheme. For the sake of consistency, we’ll return to Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night,” with the villanelle form explained in the margins.

Poetic Forms: Meter in Poetry

Meter refers to the way certain sounds are emphasized in a poem. In short, every syllable we speak is either stressed or unstressed. Take the word “poem”: the first syllable, “po”, escapes the mouth with emphasis, whereas the second syllable, “em”, escapes the mouth rather quickly. In other words, “poem” is “stressed-unstressed” (a trochee).

Like rhyme, meter evolved as a mnemonic device. If the speaker can remember how the words are spoken, they can remember the words themselves simply by falling into the poem’s rhythm.

While meter is less emphasized in contemporary poetry forms, many of the best-known poetry forms, like the sonnet, have well-defined meters.

Also like rhyme, meter is less emphasized in contemporary poetry. Even contemporary forms of poetry rarely have specific metrical requirements. However, many of the best-known poetry forms, like the sonnet, have well-defined meters.

Part of the reason for this change is because language, especially the English language, has become much more global—and, as a result, much more varied in its pronunciations.

For example, I write to you with a Midwestern American accent. There, “poem” is pronounced with two syllables. However, an English speaker in Northern Ireland might pronounce “poem” as one stressed syllable—sounding more like “pome.” Both pronunciations are valid, yet both make it harder for a metrically correct poem to succeed on the other side of the Atlantic.

Simply put, meter isn’t always a huge concern for contemporary poets. Nowadays, poetry searches for euphony by combining different sound elements like alliteration, repetition, internal rhyme, and onomatopoeia .

If you’re reading classics, then it helps to know about the types of meter in poetry and how meter can influence the poet’s word choice . We’ll cover it briefly. Note that the following information applies best to European poetry; metrical rules vary by culture, a notable example being Vedic poetry, but that’s a topic for a different article.

Poetry meter considers two things: the pattern of syllable stresses and the length of the line.

Syllabic Stress

We mentioned earlier how words can have stressed and unstressed syllables. When these syllables are arranged into certain repeating patterns, different forms of poetry emerge.

One of the most common meters is the iambic meter. In other words, the poet writes the poem in a series of iambs—groupings of unstressed–stressed syllables. Take the following words for example:

• Ex ist 

The italicized portions are the stressed syllables. Of course, you don’t need to use only iambic words in an iambic poem, you just need to fit the pattern. Take Emily Dickenson’s poem “The Only News I Know”:

Many forms of poetry use iambic meter, in part because it replicates the beat of one’s heart (ba- dum , ba- dum , ba- dum ). But, while iambs are a common poetic meter, you should know a few others that classical poets used.

Line Length

In classical poetry, every line has the same number of feet. A foot, in this case, refers to the patterns of syllabic stress. So, an iamb counts as one foot, as well as an anapest or a dactyl. Whichever type of foot the poet chooses, they must write the entire poem in that meter, and each line must have the same amount of feet.

So, if you’re like Shakespeare, you write your sonnets in “iambic pentameter.” In other words, each line has 5 (penta) iambs. Or, if you’re like the poet Philip Larkin , you may have written in trochaic tetrameter—lines with 4 (tetra) trochees each.

The chart below offers the formal name for a line with X amount of feet.

15 Forms of Poetry

Now that we’ve covered the basics of poetry forms and poem structure, it’s time to dive into the forms themselves. Each of these poetry forms have interesting histories, tricky requirements, and many examples in both classical and contemporary poetry.

Keeping these forms of poetry in your toolkit can help you approach the poetic craft in new and exciting ways, so try your hand at as many of these poetry forms as you can.

Types of Poetry: The Ghazal

Length: Minimum of 10 lines Stanzas: Couplets Metrical requirements: All lines must have the same number of syllables. Rhyme Scheme: Both lines of the first couplet end with the same word. This word also ends line 4, 6, 8, etc. The word preceding the repeating word follows a different rhyme scheme.

The ghazal (pronounced like “guzzle”) has a long and complex history, migrating throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in its 1400 year history. The earliest ghazals date back to 7th century Arabia, shortly after the Islamic Caliphate was formed. Ghazals are romantic and tragic in nature, a tradition which many contemporary poets uphold.

The ghazal’s form and function varies somewhat between cultures, but the general rules for writing a ghazal are the following:

• Every line must have the same number of syllables. Your choice!
• Each stanza must be a couplet.
• There must be a minimum of 5 couplets.
• The first and second line of the poem end with the same word, called the radeef.
• Even numbered lines (Lines 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc.) also end with the radeef .
• The word before the radeef must also rhyme. It cannot rhyme with the radeef , and the same word cannot be used twice. This word is called the kaafiya.
• Each couplet must operate independently and as a whole. The couplet can stand alone as a poem, and it can form a larger poem, much like pearls on a string forming a necklace.

Psh, is that all? Ghazals are tricky and require each word to be carefully chosen, so a good ghazal may take a very long time to complete. Here’s a ghazal example, with notes demonstrating the above requirements.

Other contemporary ghazals:

Tonight by Agha Shahid Ali

With Prayer by Zeina Hashem Beck

“Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun” by Heather McHugh

Learn more about writing the ghazal here: 

Ghazal Poetry: How to Write a Ghazal Poem

Types of Poetry: The Sestina

Length: 39 Lines Stanzas: 6 sestets and 1 tercet Metrical requirements: None Rhyme scheme: None. Rather, emphasis is placed on the last words of each line, which are repeated throughout the poem and then reused to form the final tercet. Yes, it’s tricky.

The sestina form hails from Italy, and the earliest known sestina was written at the turn of the 13th century. As most things do, the sestina changed slightly when it was reintroduced to American poets; nonetheless, this relatively unchanged poetry form remains a headache to write for poets everywhere.

The sestina is composed of 6 sestets, as well as a final 3 line envoi (concluding stanza). (Note: this envoi is optional, and some sestinas eschew it.) In a sestina, special attention is placed on the last word in each line. These words are repeated throughout the poem in a special pattern, essentially forming the poem’s backbone.

The last word of each line follows this order:

Stanza 1: ABCDEF Stanza 2: FAEBDC Stanza 3: CFDABE Stanza 4: ECBFAD Stanza 5: DEACFB Stanza 6: BDFECA Stanza 7: (B)E(D)C(A)F Alternate Stanza 7: (A)B(C)D(E)F

This is much easier to understand when you see it color-coded. See below, using the sestina “ Homes ” by early Feminist Charlotte Anna Perkins Gillman.

Other contemporary sestinas:

Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape by John Ashbery

A sestina for a black girl who does not know how to braid hair by Raych Jackson

Paysage Moralisé by W. H. Auden

Learn more about the sestina here:

Sestina Poetry: How to Write a Sestina Poem

Types of Poetry: The Haiku

Length: 17 syllables divided into 3 lines, following the pattern 5-7-5. Stanzas: One tercet Metrical requirements: None Rhyme scheme: None

The haiku hails from Japan, though a lot has been lost-in-translation between Japanese haikus and English-language haikus. Originally, the haiku was the opening stanza to a renga —a collaborative work of poetry common in the Japanese tradition. By the 17th century, poets published haikus as standalone pieces, and a new poetic tradition developed.

Despite its brevity, the traditional haiku form has a bit of complexity. These simple 17-syllable poems often juxtapose opposing ideas or images, centered around a kireji , or “cutting word.”

Below are some rough translations of haiku by Basho.

You’ll notice that there’s a lot of flexibility in where the images and the kireji are placed. What matters for the haikuist is to place two images against each other, then place those images in relation to the kireji . Complex ideas can be introduced from the simple nudge of a haiku.

English language haikus often lack the aforementioned complexity. Some haiku writers still subscribe to the 5-7-5 rule, but just as many have eschewed syllable rules entirely. The American Academy of Poets defines the modern haiku as a short poem that “focuses on one brief moment in time, employs provocative, colorful imagery, and provides a sudden moment of illumination.”

Below are some examples of contemporary haikus that accomplish complexity, while still adhering to the 5-7-5 rule.

Small Poems for Big by Chinaka Hodge

5 & 7 & 5 by Anselm Hollo

Haiku [for you] by Sonia Sanchez

Types of Poetry: The Tanka

Length: 31 syllables divided into 5 lines, following the pattern 5-7-5-7-7 Stanzas: 1 quintain Metrical requirements: None Rhyme scheme: None

Many Western writers erroneously compare the tanka to the haiku. Yes, their syllable requirements are similar: the haiku’s 17 syllables are written 5-7-5, and the tanka’s 31 syllables are written 5-7-5-7-7.

Despite this, the two poems have different histories and terminologies. The earliest tanka were written in the 7th century, and the form evolved as a short, romantic poem often shared between lovers. In both content and construction, the tanka shares many similarities to the sonnet: both often dwell on love , and both rely on a sudden or unexpected turn in language.

A tanka has three parts: the top image ( kami-no-ku ), the bridge ( engo ), and the bottom image ( shimo-no-ku ). This bridge varies from the kireji in haiku: where kireji should be a single cutting word, the bridge in a tanka can use multiple words, but it must connect the tanka’s images in a surprising way.

Few poets today write tanka, so it’s harder to find good contemporary pieces. However, Tanka by Sadakichi Hartmann provides great examples of brevity and wit, and you can also find copious pieces at the archive of American Tanka .

Types of Poetry: The Italian Sonnet

Length: 14 lines Stanzas: 2 stanzas, an octet and a sestet Metrical requirements: Iambic Pentameter Rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Some variation exists for the rhyme scheme of the last six lines, but the first eight lines are always ABBA.

There are three major types of sonnets: Italian, Elizabethan, and Contemporary. Moving chronologically, we’ll start with the Italian Sonnet.

Italian Sonnets originate in the 13th century, but poets weren’t captivated by the sonnet until Petrarch. Francisco Petrarca, contemporarily known as Petrarch, was a 14th century sonneteer whose dedication to form promulgated the first sonnet tradition.

This tradition requires the following:

• An opening octet which introduces the poem’s core problem. The poet must express a question, argument, moral quandary, or other such issue.
• A closing sestet which responds to the octet and offers a resolution.
• A volta at the beginning of the sestet (line 9). The volta should be a sudden change in the poem’s tone, images, and/or style.
• Strict adherence to iambic pentameter.

To see these traditions in action, look no further than the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus. This poem, found at the base of the Statue of Liberty, is highlighted for your convenience below.

Contemporary poets don’t write this poetry form too often, as the Elizabethan Sonnet proved much more popular throughout history. More Italian Sonnets can be read here:

London, 1802 by William Wordsworth

Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Grave of Keats by Oscar Wilde

Types of Poetry: The Elizabethan Sonnet

Length: 14 lines Stanzas: Either isometric OR 3 quatrains and a couplet Metrical requirements: iambic pentameter Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

The Italian Sonnet hasn’t changed much in Italy, but when Englishmen started writing sonnets, the form evolved into something new and exciting. Also known as the Shakespearean Sonnet, Elizabethan Sonnets entered poetic history in the 16th century, then grew in popularity under the reign of Elizabeth I. Shakespeare commandeered the sonnet for most of his plays, owing to the form’s continued appreciation.

Like the Italian Sonnet, Elizabethan Sonnets have 14 lines in iambic pentameter. These lines include a core issue, a 9th line volta, and a poetic resolution. Additionally, the final two lines of the sonnet often comment on the first 12 lines.

Elizabethan Sonnets are just as tricky to write as Italian Sonnets, but poets often prefer the Elizabethan because of its Shakespearean history. Many poets of antiquity would compose strings of Shakespearean Sonnets that built off of one another, creating entire stories out of iambic pentameter.

For contemporary poets, the only difference between these two sonnets is the rhyme scheme. You can see this rhyme scheme in action here:

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 1 by Sir Philip Sidney

Fancy in Nubibus by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Types of Poetry: The Contemporary Sonnet

Length: 14 lines Stanzas: variable Metrical requirements: variable Rhyme scheme: variable

Sonnets created a lot of history between Shakespeare’s time and ours. For the purposes of brevity, let’s move towards modern sonnets, as there are countless classical sonnet forms that aren’t worth getting sucked into.

You might remember that rhyme schemes fell out of favor with poets in the 20th century; the sonnet was no different. Contemporary sonnets have less rules and more flexibility, and today’s poets have certainly risen to that challenge.

Today, a sonnet doesn’t have the same strict requirements. There are no metrical requirements, so the sonnet’s tradition of iambic pentameter is optional. Rhyme schemes and stanza breaks also vary, and the volta now rests between the 7th and 9th line.

Rather than force certain rules of rhyme and meter, the contemporary sonnet asks the poet to use form as a vehicle for meaning. Terrance Hayes takes this task rather literally: his American Sonnets tread our modern political landscape, using language to create form rather than using form to create language.

Other great contemporary sonnets include:

Sonnet by Billy Collins

Sonnet by Alice Notley

Sonnet by Anthony Opal

Types of Poetry: The Limerick

Length: 5 lines Stanzas: 1 quintain Metrical requirements: A form of anapestic trimeter Rhyme scheme: AABBA

How is that for a short poem ? The limerick was invented in England during the 19th century. What began as a silly form of poetry quickly turned into a quippy poetic ode, as the limerick became a fun and humorous way to write about other people.

The limerick has some strict requirements, but they’re a pleasure to write nonetheless. It has five lines following the rhyme scheme AABBA. A lines are usually longer and B lines are usually shorter—you’ll notice this in the example I wrote. You might also notice a certain rhythm to the words. Generally, the A lines are 8-10 syllables and the B lines are 5-7, though this is mostly a recommendation to fit the poem’s lightheartedness. Limericks also follow a modified form of anapestic trimeter. It’s easy to hear that meter in play at these readings (start at 2:00). 

Limericks usually talk about people, though of course, poets have hijacked it to talk about other things. Nonetheless, you can find wondrous and pithy poetry in the following limericks.

Limericks by Edward Lear (the creator of the Limerick)

A Young Lady of Lynn (anonymous)

There Was a Small Boy of Quebec by Rudyard Kipling

Types of Poetry: The Villanelle

Length: 19 lines Stanzas: 5 tercets and a quatrain Metrical requirements: none Rhyme scheme: Too complicated to summarize

So, which one of you is the poet who hates sestinas, and which one of you is the poet who hates villanelles?

Oddly enough, the villanelle didn’t begin as a complicated form. Throughout the Renaissance, villanelles were simple rustic poems designed to appreciate the idyllic country life. It wasn’t until the villanelle rose in popularity among English poets that the form gained complexity, resulting in the rather complicated rhyme scheme we see today.

A villanelle is composed of two rhyming refrains (repeating lines). These refrains interweave throughout the rest of the poem, forming the skeleton of the poem’s rhyme and subject matter. As a general rule, it’s best to start a villanelle by figuring out the refrains, as most villanelles get remembered for these through-lines.

The 4 components of a villanelle are best summarized below:

• A1: Refrain 1
• A2: Refrain 2
• A: Non-refrain rhyme beginning most stanzas
• B: Alternate rhyme in the middle of each stanza

These components are arranged into the following:

A1BA2 / ABA1 / ABA2 / ABA1 / ABA2 / ABA1A2

To make it easier, see this rhyme scheme in action with Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

Contemporary villanelles remain just as tricky. Some contemporary poets have tried to make it even trickier, adding additional refrains or changing the rhyme scheme. For more inspiration, these contemporary villanelles offer great rhyme and insight.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

Mad Girl’s Love Song by Sylvia Plath

Villainhelle by David Mills (an experimental form with 3 refrains, written by our wonderful instructor )

Learn more about the villanelle here:

Villanelle Definition: How to Write a Villanelle

Types of Poetry: The American Cinquain

Length: 5 lines of varying length Stanzas: One cinquain Metrical requirements: None Rhyme scheme: None

While a cinquain is a five-lined stanza, it is also in itself a poem structure.

The American Cinquain was developed by Adelaide Crapsey, a 20th century poet who wrote hundreds of poems in this form. It goes as follows:

Line 1: 2 syllables Line 2: 4 syllables Line 3: 6 syllables Line 4: 8 syllables Line 5: 2 syllables.

Here’s an example from Adelaide Crapsey herself, retrieved here :

These be three silent things: The falling snow . . . the hour Before the dawn . . . the mouth of one Just dead.

This short poetry form forces the poet to write with concision. Images and their juxtapositions matter far more than metaphor. Notice how surprising that last line is, how it comes so unexpectedly, how much we can learn in its ironic similarities with snow and the dawn. Crapsey’s poetics have often been compared to that of the tanka or haiku.

Here are some other examples of the American Cinquain:

Cinquains written during a tropical storm by Urayoán Noel November Night by Adelaide Crapsey Amaze by Adelaide Crapsey

There are plenty of innovations on the American Cinquain form, including the double cinquain, butterfly cinquain, lanterne, and others. You can learn more about these types of poetry here:

https://writers.com/cinquain-poetry

Types of Poetry: The Pantoum

Length: Any length, though often these are 4 stanzas long. Stanzas: Quatrains. Metrical requirements: None. Rhyme scheme: None, but two lines of one stanza are repeated in the next.

The pantoum poetry form hails from Malaysia. In fact, its Malaysian form likely predates the written word, and it is much more complicated than the form that contemporary English-language poets write.

To write a pantoum in English, the poet must repeat the second and fourth lines of one stanza as the first and third lines, respectively, in the next.

Some poets repeat lines from the first stanza in the last stanza, too.  If you were writing a 4 quatrain pantoum, here’s what it might be structured as:

Line A Line B Line C Line D

Line B Line E Line D Line F

Line E Line G Line F Line H

Line G Line I (or A) Line H Line J (or A, or C)

Here’s an example of this type of poetry, retrieved here .

“Descent of the Composer” by Airea D. Matthews

When I mention the ravages of now, I mean to say, then. I mean to say the rough-hewn edges of time and space, a continuum that folds back on itself in furtive attempts to witness what was, what is, and what will be. But what

I actually mean is that time and space have rough-hewn edges. Do I know this for sure? No, I’m no astrophysicist. I have yet to witness what was, what is, and what will be. But what I do know, I know well: bodies defying spatial constraint.

Do I know this for sure? No, I’m no scientist. I have yet to prove that defiant bodies even exist as a theory; I offer what I know. I know damn well my body craves the past tense, a planet in chronic retrograde, searching for sun’s shadow.

As proof that defiant bodies exist in theory, I even offer what key evidence I have: my life and Mercury’s swift orbits, or two planets in chronic retrograde, searching for sun’s shadow. Which is to say, two objects willfully disappearing from present view.

Perhaps life is nothing more than swift solar orbits, or dual folds along a continuum that collapse the end and the beginning, which implies people can move in reverse, will their own vanishing; or at least relive the ravages of then—right here, right now.

This slow, melodic poem circumnavigates the pain of addiction recovery. By lamenting both the desire to return to the past and the uncertainty of the future, Matthews uses the pantoum to show how the certain past is constantly echoed in the uncertain present. These types of poetry forms, in which repetition links each stanza together, are often useful for ruminating on the past’s continuation in the present.

Here are some more examples of the pantoum poem structure:

“Eclipse Season” by Tracy Fuad “Pantoum for Love and Fire” by Anointing Obuh “Pantoum from the Window of the Room Where I Write” by Alison Townsend

Learn more about the pantoum poetry form here:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-pantoum-poem

Types of Poetry: The Free Verse Poem

Length: Variable Stanzas: Variable Metrical requirements: Variable Rhyme scheme: Variable

Ah, free verse. That open space of nonconforming anythingness. That great beacon of poetic possibility. Nothing and everything can fit into the space of free verse, the poet’s version of a blank page. No rhymes to jail us. No meters to constrict us. That perilous python of poetry will not wrap its scaled and coiled tail around contemporary poets any longer, or my name isn’t T. S. Eliot!

And it isn’t. Free verse poetry doesn’t have metrical requirements, but that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. Rather than relying on meter or rhyme to achieve the poem’s euphony, free verse poetry uses images, internal rhymes, and other poetic devices to search for deeper meaning.

That doesn’t mean free verse poems are constructed willy-nilly (though they can be!). Just like Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets , form follows language. You might write a sequence of non-rhyming couplets, like instructor Jonathan McClure does in “ A Prayer ”; or, you might explore the staccato of 1s and 0s like Franny Choi does in “ Turing Test ”.

Some forms of poetry tend to be free verse. This isn’t to say they are free verse forms, but they are forms of poetry typically written in free verse. These include:

• Ekphrastic poetry 

To learn more about writing free verse poems, check out our article on the topic.

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-free-verse-poem

If you don’t see a rhyme scheme or meter, it’s probably free verse. So, rather than recommend great free verse poems, I’ll recommend some websites with great poetry archives. Modern poets certainly use poetry forms and structure, but they just as frequently invent their own forms, so try exploring the relationship between form and language in everything you read and write.

Poetry Foundation Poets.org Lit Hub

Types of Poetry: The Narrative Poem

Length: It varies greatly, but it’s longer than just a page. Stanzas: It varies greatly. Many examples are isometric. Metrical requirements: Older poetry, yes; contemporary, not so much. Rhyme scheme: Older poetry, yes; contemporary, not so much.

The narrative poem is likely the oldest form of literature. Before the written word, people told stories in verse. In fact, many of the sonic devices in poetry, such as rhyme, meter, and alliteration, were mnemonic devices for storytellers to remember their verses.

Ancient narrative poetry certainly required rhyme and meter. Any student of works like The Aeneid , The Iliad and the Odyssey , or Beowulf will be acquainted with iambic pentameter or dactylic hexameter. However, contemporary examples of narrative poetry don’t rely on meter or rhyme; they are more interested in using poetic form as a vehicle for storytelling.

The narrative poem is distinct from the lyric poem , in that a narrative poem tells a story, with plot and characters and settings. Lyric poetry can best be described as a moment of emotion crystalized in language: what happens in the poem happens in merely an instant of thought or feeling.

“Trevor” by Ocean Vuong is a good example of a (relatively) short narrative poem. Longer examples includes novels-in-verse, such as Omeros by Derek Walcott or Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson.

For reference, all the other types of poetry in this article are lyric poetry forms. You can better understand the dichotomy between lyric and narrative poetry here:

https://writers.com/narrative-poem-definition

Types of Poetry: The Prose Poem

Length: It varies, but typically no longer than 3 pages. Stanzas: None—it’s written in paragraphs. Metrical requirements: None. Rhyme scheme: None.

Prose poetry refers to a poem written in prose, rather than in verse. By that, we mean the poem is constructed in sentences and paragraphs, as opposed to lines and stanzas.

There’s no clear definition of what makes a prose poem. However, a few traits unite most prose poetry:

• Experimentations in syntax and sentence structure.
• A charting of the unconscious mind.
• The use of poetic and sonic devices, from metaphors and symbols to assonance and consonance.

Prose poems were written as early as Baudelaire in the mid-19th century, and then re-popularized in the 20th century. Several poetic movements, from the modernists to the objectivists, projectivists, and language poets, dabbled in the form to uncover new modes of language play.

You can see these elements of the prose poem at play in these three pieces by our phenomenal instructor Barbara Henning.

Learn more about the prose poem here:

https://writers.com/prose-poetry-definition

Types of Poetry: The Blackout Poem / Erasure Poem

Length: It varies. Stanzas: None. Metrical requirements: None. Rhyme scheme: None.

Blackout poetry (and its cousin, found poetry) are distinct from other types of poetry in this article, because they rely on amending and stitching texts into poetry.

A blackout poem is a poem in which a piece of text has been blacked out, so that only the remaining words form a poem. If the text has been erased instead of blacked out, it’s typically called an erasure poem. See the below erasure poem, crafted by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib:

The source text is Virginia Woolf’s suicide letter to her husband, Leonard. Hanif’s erasures have created a new text, wherein the speaker is saved by the madness of love, yet the poem is still haunted by the heaviness of grief. It’s a beautiful, mesmerizing piece.

Great blackout poetry creates intertextuality, reacting to the source text while still crafting a wholly new poem.

Found poetry refers to poetry that’s either been discovered in real life, or poetry that’s been stitched and collaged from various media. If this interests you, check out the Frankenpo form invented by Kenji C. Liu.

Learn more about blackout poetry here:

https://writers.com/what-is-blackout-poetry-examples-and-inspiration

Explore More Forms of Poetry at Writers.com

Truthfully, there are hundreds of types of poetry forms that we haven’t included in this article. The history of poetry supersedes geography and language, so we have yet to touch on poetry from South Asia, East Asia, Latin America, Africa, as well as the many forms that emerged from just the 20th and 21st centuries.

Here’s the good news: your exploration of form has only just begun! A poetry course at Writers.com will help you further explore poetry forms and poem structure. Take a look at our upcoming poetry classes , and in the meantime, try your hand at the sestina or the limerick. Better yet, invent your own poetry form!

Sean Glatch

17 comments.

Excellent information, simply expressed. Thanks very much.

We’re happy you learned something!

Your site has explained the features of poetry in such a simple, lucid and relatable manner! Truly grateful to be able to refer this site for all poetry study related queries . Keep up the great work.

[…] a very simple definition (not mine, but one from writer’s.com) is that “Poetry forms are defined as poetic structures used across multiple poems, generally by […]

Astute,yet complete…..Food for thought.

This article was pretty crazy tbh. I’m definitely learning from this!

Thanks much. The content is very comprehensive and easy to understand. Kudos to the team!

This is so educative, informative and easy to understand. Thank you

Sean, this is a very helpful piece! Thank you for posting this. And on a personal note, now I see how to revise my pantoum. So thanks for that, too. 🙏🏻

You’re very welcome, Lynne!

Very details and informative article and very helpful English literature students

Brilliant! You are an excellent teacher, Sean. If only other teachers/authors got straight to the essence of things as you do, instead of losing us on the byways. What classes do you teach?

i got everything i needed, am giving me email address for more updates concerning poetry

Awesome its really very useful for English literature students

Wow… I’ve written my own poetry for 30 years as basically free verse with a rhyming scheme… anywhere from 4 stanzas to 18 with the last word of the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyming and sometimes the first and third lines rhyming… But I never learned anything about poetry until now. I just loved finessing words to make my rhyming points… Thanks for the lessons…I learned quite a bit.

I’m glad this was helpful, Scottie!

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18 poetic forms every poet should know

By BBC Maestro

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There are lots of different poetic forms, which come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. From the compact haiku to the novel-length epic, from the freedom of free form to the strictness of the sestina, these different formats each serves their own purpose.

Which poetic form will best allow you to express yourself?

18 different poetic forms

Let’s take a look at some of the best-known and most popular poetic forms used in the English language. Many aren’t British or American in origin, and some are centuries old. We’ve included a few examples as well as links to the longer works (see: Epics).

1. Acrostic

This poetic form spells out a word in a vertical line, most commonly using the initial letter from each line. This popular primary-school exercise dates back hundreds of years, with even the Ancient Greeks and Romans trying their hands at acrostic poetry. The best-known example is An Acrostic by Edgar Allen Poe, which spells out “Elizabeth”, the subject of the poem.

The ballad tells a story, typically in a series of quatrains with an ABAB or ABCB rhyming scheme. Expect thrills and spills, with a plotline, characters and a ‘proper’ ending. For a great example of a ballad in English literature, read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Not to be confused with the “ballade”, a French poetic form with 28 lines.

3. Blank verse

Blank verse is best known as Shakespeare’s format of choice. It’s made up from unrhymed iambic pentameter. This is a 10-syllable line with every other syllable stressed (say the opening line from Sonnet 18 in your head to get the idea of the rhythm: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”). Milton also used blank verse in his epic Paradise Lost.

Canzone means “song” in Italian. This poetic form dates back to medieval Italy, where it was used by writers including Petrarch and Dante before evolving into the sonnet. It has anywhere between seven and 20 lines with ten or eleven syllables each. W.H. Auden wrote a poem simply named Canzone.

5. Cinquain

This is also known as a quintain or quintet, and as its names suggest, it has five lines. It can be an entire short poem or a stanza in a longer work. It was developed into the “American Cinquain” in the early 20th century by poet Adelaide Crapsey, who was inspired by the Japanese tanka poem (more about this shortly). Her revised version is unrhymed and has a set number of syllables per line: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2. Here’s an example by Crapsey, November Night:

Listen… With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees And fall.

A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines, which are usually the same length and have the same metre. Entire poems are written in rhyming couplets, including large sections of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” (which uses “heroic couplets”, written in iambic pentameter). Shakespearean sonnets finish in a couplet, which serves to emphasise the importance of the message in the final lines. Other famous examples include Blake’s “The Tyger.”

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night; 

What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

An elegy is traditionally a poem of sorrow and mourning that marks a death. Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” sees the poet reflecting on the many lives and deaths buried there, and finishes with his own imagined epitaph. Walt Whitman’s  O Captain! My Captain ! was written in memory of Abraham Lincoln, and gained a more recent resonance after featuring in the film, Dead Poets Society.

Settle down comfortably before reading an epic poem, which are often the same length as a novel and just as full of set pieces, plot lines and characters. Classic epics such as Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey launched a thousand other poems, while in early medieval Europe, epics like Beowulf were entrancing the mead halls. Later poems in this tradition include The Divine Comedy, The Faerie Queen and Paradise Lost.

9. Free verse

Free verse has no formal rhyming scheme (although this isn’t to say that it doesn’t have any rhymes) and no set metre. It generally has stanzas, but these don’t have to be regular. This popular modern form of poetry uses “the natural music of the human voice”, as poet Carol Ann Duffy beautifully puts it in her BBC Maestro course. Here’s an excerpt from her poem, The Way My Mother Speaks:

I say her phrases to myself 

in my head 

or under the shallows of my breath,

restful shapes moving. 

The day and ever. The day and ever. 

The train this slow evening 

goes down England 

browsing for the right sky, 

too blue swapped for a cool grey. 

For miles I have been saying 

What like is it 

the way I say things when I think. 

Nothing is silent. Nothing is not silent. 

What like is it

The free verse form perfectly captures her memories of how her mother spoke, naturally and poignantly.

This traditional form of Japanese poetry is just three lines long, with 17 syllables arranged in a 5 – 7 – 5 format. The philosophy of the haiku is to capture a specific moment in time, followed by a realisation or feeling that’s expressed in the final line. Traditionally, the haiku[1]  deals with themes of nature, time and the seasons, although this has widened somewhat with modern haikus. This 17th-century Haiku from Matsuo Bashō (“the Master of Haiku”) has a fresh and contemporary feel.

The early summer rain.

Gathering it and fast

Mogami River.

The observation of the rain becomes the reflection about the cycle of water, and how these drops feed the fast-flowing Mogami River.

11.  Limerick

The limerick has to be one of the most famous styles of poetry, made popular by Edward Lear in the 19th century (although arguably dates back to 18th-century Ireland). These five-line poems always have an AABBA rhyming scheme, although their most significant characteristic is their humour. Here’s a witty example from Lewis Carroll:

There was a young man of Oporta, Who daily got shorter and shorter. The reason, he said, Was the hod on his head, Which was filled with the heaviest mortar.

12. Monostich

If you thought a couplet was short, meet the monostich. This is a single-line stanza, which can even make up the entire poem. Gyles Brandreth’s  Ode to a Late ,  Lamented Goldfish  simply reads “O wet pet!”. However, most monostich poems are more serious, their stand-alone form clearly revealing their message with no excess words to spare. Rabindranath Tagore wrote this single line:

If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.

An ode is type of lyric poem, which in turn is a poem that expresses emotions, usually written in the first person. The ode usually addresses a person, place, event, object or idea and is quite formal in its tone. John Keats wrote two of the best-known odes in English literature,  Ode to a Nightingale  and  Ode on a Grecian Urn .

14. Prose poem

This sounds like an oxymoron; however, a prose poem is most definitely a poetic form. It simply doesn’t have conventional line breaks but does use other poetic devices such as elaborate figurative language. If you read the opening lines of Amy Lowell’s Bath`, you’ll soon be immersed in the poetic language and forget that it doesn’t ‘look like’ a poem:

The day is fresh-washed and fair, and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus in the air.        The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water in the bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish-white. It cleaves the water into flaws like a jewel and cracks it to bright light.

15. Sestina

If you enjoy trying your hand at different types of poetry and like following rules, think about penning a sestina. This is a seven-stanza poem comprising six sestets and a final tercet. It rotates the same six words at the line ends in a strict pattern, with two of the words featuring in each of the three lines in the last stanza. Here’s a complete sestina by Algernon Charles Swinburne, just Sestina, which demonstrates how a complex-seeming scheme actually creates something of beautiful simplicity:

I saw my soul at rest upon a day

      As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,

Among soft leaves that give the starlight way

      To touch its wings but not its eyes with light;

So that it knew as one in visions may,

      And knew not as men waking, of delight.

This was the measure of my soul’s delight;

      It had no power of joy to fly by day,

Nor part in the large lordship of the light;

      But in a secret moon-beholden way

Had all its will of dreams and pleasant night,

      And all the love and life that sleepers may.

But such life’s triumph as men waking may

      It might not have to feed its faint delight

Between the stars by night and sun by day,

      Shut up with green leaves and a little light;

Because its way was as a lost star’s way,

      A world’s not wholly known of day or night.

All loves and dreams and sounds and gleams of night

      Made it all music that such minstrels may,

And all they had they gave it of delight;

      But in the full face of the fire of day

What place shall be for any starry light,

      What part of heaven in all the wide sun’s way?

Yet the soul woke not, sleeping by the way,

      Watched as a nursling of the large-eyed night,

And sought no strength nor knowledge of the day,

      Nor closer touch conclusive of delight,

Nor mightier joy nor truer than dreamers may,

      Nor more of song than they, nor more of light.

For who sleeps once and sees the secret light

      Whereby sleep shows the soul a fairer way

Between the rise and rest of day and night,

      Shall care no more to fare as all men may,

But be his place of pain or of delight,

      There shall he dwell, beholding night as day.

Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light

      Before the night be fallen across thy way;

Sing while he may, man hath no long delight.

Swinburne has made this even harder for himself than it has to be, as there’s no requirement for the end words in a sestina to rhyme. The use of iambic pentameter is typical of more traditional sestinas.

If you ask anyone to name different types of poetry, “sonnet” must be one of the top five answers. This much-loved poetic form was popularised by William Shakespeare in the 16th and 17th centuries, although they originally date from far earlier than that (they were called “little songs” in medieval Italy).

These poems always have 14 lines, with different types of sonnet having slightly different structure. The Shakespearean sonnet, for example, is made up from three quatrains and a final couplet. The change in structure towards the end is significant. This is called the “volta” in a sonnet, and it’s a turning point in the narrative where an idea is explained or the poet has a change of perspective. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129 has a famous volta in its final couplet:

Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,

Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight,

Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had

Past reason hated as a swallowed bait

On purpose laid to make the taker mad;

Mad in pursuit and in possession so,

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

The first section of the sonnet deals with lust in no uncertain terms – it’s “savage, extreme, rude, cruel” among other things, and any pleasure is fleeting. However, in the closing couplet, the poet is resigned that everyone knows this, but nothing will change.  

The tanka poem  is another traditional Japanese poetic form, which is slightly longer than the haiku. The tanka has 31 syllables over 5 lines, with a 5 – 7 – 5 – 7 – 7 structure. Like the haiku, the first part of the poem is descriptive, while the second section (usually the last two lines) is a reflection or realisation about the earlier part. For a modern take on this classic poetic form, try June Jordan’s powerful poem,  On Time Tanka .

18. Villanelle

The villanelle follows a strict format. It consists of five tercets and concludes with a quatrain, with a rigid pattern of repetition. The first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated, alternately, as the last line of the following four tercets. Then, the lines appear as a concluding couplet in the final quatrain. Dylan Thomas’  Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night  is a perfect villanelle.

Which poetic form appeals to you, as a writer? Carol Ann Duffy advises to play around with forms and see what happens.

In her BBC Maestro  course, she says, “Experimenting with form is part of your apprenticeship. We should certainly have a go, as I did, at a villanelle. We should certainly have a go, as I have, at a sestina… These are necessary exercises for a poet and will come out of your own reading.” 

For more wise words from Carol Ann Duffy, explore her  BBC Maestro poetry course . She covers all sorts of poetic forms, as well as taking you through a range of different poetry techniques.

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What is poetry? Definition, characteristics and types

• by Domestika @domestika

Poetry, a genre that captivates with its beauty and emotions, holds a special place in literature. This article explores the essence of poetry, delving into its characteristics, types and origins. Join us on this poetic journey as we unravel the depths and significance of this writing form .

What is Poetry?

Poetry is an enchanting realm of artistic expression that penetrates the depths of human emotions and unveils profound thoughts. It serves as a channel through which individuals can navigate the intricate landscapes of the human experience.

Definition of Poetry

Defining poetry is akin to capturing the intangible essence of beauty. It is a genre of literature that defies conventional boundaries , encompassing a myriad of styles, forms, and thematic explorations. Poetry transcends the limitations of straightforward prose, weaving together words, rhythm, and imagery to create a tapestry of emotions, experiences, and perspectives.

Characteristics of Poetry

Poetry possesses distinctive characteristics that set it apart from other forms of literature. It encompasses emotional expression, provoking deep feelings within the reader, and boasts aesthetic qualities that make it a captivating art form.

Qualities in Poetry

Poetry possesses aesthetic qualities that contribute to its allure and impact. These qualities pertain to the form, language, and overall artistic composition of the poem.

- Rhythm and Meter: Poetry often utilizes distinctive rhythms and patterns, whether through structured meter or free verse. These rhythmic elements create a musicality and cadence that accompany and enhance the words, evoking a sensory experience for the reader.

- Imagery and Symbolism: Poets employ vivid imagery and symbolic language to evoke sensory perceptions and engage the reader's imagination. Metaphors, similes, and other figurative devices help paint vivid mental pictures, elevating the artistic quality of the poem.

- Sound Devices: Poets harness the power of sound through techniques such as alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia. These devices create melodic effects and enhance the auditory experience ofeins  the poem.

- Concision and Precision: Poetry often thrives on brevity and concise expression, carefully selecting words to convey precise meaning. This economy of language ensures that each word holds significance, making every line potent and impactful.

Characteristics such as emotional expression and aesthetic qualities define the essence of poetry, making it a unique and captivating form of literary art. Through its ability to express emotions with profound impact and create aesthetically pleasing compositions, poetry continues to inspire and resonate with readers.

The Origins of Poetry

The origins of poetry can be traced back to ancient civilizations, where it emerged as a distinct form of artistic expression. Understanding the historical background is crucial in grasping the evolution and diversity of poetry styles we encounter today.

Historical Background

Poetry has existed since the earliest civilizations, with traces found in the works of ancient Sumerians and Egyptians. These civilizations used poetry to express their beliefs, religious practices, and historical events. The oral tradition played a significant role in the preservation and dissemination of poetic works, as they were recited and transmitted from one generation to another.

In Ancient Greece and Rome, poetry held a prominent place in society. Renowned poets like Homer, with his epic poems such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, shaped the foundations of Western poetry. The ancient Greeks also introduced the concept of meter and rhythm, emphasizing the musicality of poetic language.

Evolution of Poetry Styles

As civilizations evolved, poetry underwent transformations, adapting to the changing social, cultural, and literary landscapes. Different periods witnessed the emergence of unique styles and movements that reflected their distinctive characteristics.

Renaissance and Romanticism

The Renaissance brought a renewed interest in the classical traditions of poetry. Poets like William Shakespeare and John Donne shaped the literary landscape with their mastery of sonnets, plays, and metaphysical poetry. Later, the Romanticism movement emphasized individualism, intense emotions, and a deep connection with nature. Esteemed poets like William Wordsworth and Lord Byron became prominent figures during this era.

Modern and Contemporary Poetry

The 20th century witnessed a radical shift in poetic styles, with the advent of various movements such as Imagism, Surrealism, and Beat Generation. Poets like T.S. Eliot, Pablo Neruda, and Allen Ginsberg pushed the boundaries of poetic expression, breaking free from traditional forms and experimenting with language, imagery, and themes.

Postmodernism and Beyond

In recent times, postmodernism has challenged conventional notions of poetry, emphasizing fragmentation, intertextuality, and self-reflexivity. Poets like Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine have embraced diverse forms and interdisciplinary approaches, blurring the boundaries between poetry and other art forms.

The evolution of poetry styles is a testament to the ever-changing nature of artistic expression and human creativity, reflecting the cultural, social, and historical contexts in which they emerge.

Types of Poetry

The world of poetry is a diverse and captivating realm, offering various forms and styles to explore. Let's delve into the different types of poetry, each with its own unique characteristics and thematic focus.

Lyric Poetry

Lyric poetry is a deeply personal and emotional form of expression. It provides a means for poets to convey their innermost thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Through lyrical verses, poets create vivid imagery and evoke powerful emotions in the readers. This type of poetry often explores themes of love, loss, nature, and self-reflection. It embraces the beauty of language and the musicality of words, allowing for a captivating and immersive reading experience.

Epic Poetry

Epic poetry is a grand and immersive form that narrates heroic tales, legends, and historical events. These epics capture the imagination with their sweeping narratives, larger-than-life characters, and extraordinary feats. Through epic poetry, poets transport us to ancient times and distant lands, recounting legendary battles, heroic quests, and the triumphs and tragedies of civilizations past. With their meticulous attention to detail and rhythmic storytelling, these poetic epics offer a window into the rich tapestry of human history and the timeless themes that shape our collective consciousness.

Haiku is a type of traditional Japanese poetry that is often cited as one of the most popular and influential poetic forms in history. It is composed of 17 syllables divided into three lines, with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern, and it usually focuses on nature or the seasons. The form has its origins in the Chinese tanka form, but it has become uniquely Japanese in its structure and style. Haiku is known for its simple but evocative language, which often contains a hint of humor or irony. 

A sonnet is a type of poetry that traditionally consists of fourteen lines structured in a specific way. Its rhyme scheme usually follows the form of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, although variations are not uncommon. Sonnets typically focus on one or more themes and have an elevated, formal tone. They are often used to express emotion, love, or philosophy.

A limerick is a type of lighthearted poem consisting of five lines and traditionally written with AABBA rhyme scheme. The first, second, and fifth lines are typically made up of three metrical feet and have the same rhyme. Both the third and fourth lines have two metrical feet and also have the same rhyme as each other. These poems usually have silly, lighthearted rhymes and often deal with topics such as love, relationships, and everyday life. 

Free verse is a type of poetry that lacks traditional patterns of meter and rhyme. It has no set line lengths, metrical structure or regular rhymes, which makes it different from other types of poetry such as sonnets or haikus It can be seen as more natural and organic than other forms of poetry, as it allows modern poets to express themselves in a way that feels more authentic and free.

Elements and Techniques in Poetry

Exploring the art of poetry unveils a captivating world where elements and techniques intertwine to create profound literary masterpieces. These elements and techniques add depth, beauty, and layers of meaning to poetic expressions. Let's delve into the intriguing world of poetry to unravel the fascinating aspects of its composition.

Symbolism and Literary Figures in Poetry

Symbolism is a powerful tool utilized in poetry to convey abstract ideas and emotions. Poets skillfully use symbols, objects, or images to represent deeper meanings and evoke specific sensations within the reader. Symbolism creates a rich tapestry of associations, allowing the poet to explore profound themes and transcend the boundaries of literal language.

Moreover, literary figures enhance the poetic experience by infusing the text with vivid imagery and imaginative devices. Metaphors, similes, personification, and other figures help to paint a picture with words, enabling readers to perceive the essence of the poet's emotions and experiences in a captivating manner.

Figurative Language and its Effects

Figurative language enables poets to create powerful imagery, heighten the impact of their words, and evoke specific responses in readers. It adds layers of complexity, creating a multi-dimensional experience that engages both the intellectual and emotional spheres.

- Analogies: Drawing connections between seemingly unrelated concepts to provide insight and deepen understanding. - Hyperbole: Exaggerating for emphasis, intensifying emotions or descriptions to evoke a strong reaction. - Synecdoche: Using a part to represent the whole or vice versa, allowing for a more nuanced portrayal of ideas. - Irony: Employing irony to convey a deeper meaning, often subverting expectations or highlighting contrasts.

These figurative language techniques infuse poetry with richness and enable poets to transcend the limitations of literal expression, bringing forth profound insights and emotions.

Do you want to learn how to write poems?

In this creative writing online course , poet Ben Clark teaches how to write poems designed to be posted on social media, as well as compiled in a book. Learn the secrets to digital creative writing and increase the viral potential of your poems.

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Poetry Explained

10 Important Elements of Poetry

Poetry, as a distinct and interesting art form, comprises a number of elements that are worth considering while analyzing and understanding a poetic text.

Poetry is an intricate literary form that incorporates rhyme , figurative language , sound devices , and meter in order to evoke a wide array of meanings. The language of poetry is not always straightforward. It guides readers to reach a conclusion but never gives out any details explicitly. Such is the beauty of a poetry text that demands readers’ attentive and creative participation. With the knowledge of the important poetry elements, we can understand a poem’s message and appreciate the text more effectively.

The Elements of Poetry

• 1 Structure and Form
• 3 Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme
• 4 Sound and Rhythm
• 7 Figurative Language and Poetic Devices
• 9 Tone and Mood
• 12 Other Resources

Structure and Form

Poetry comes in a variety of forms and in each form follows a specific structure. For example, the sonnet form containing a set structure is different from odes . A free verse poem does not have the metrical regularity, which can be found in a blank verse poem.

The structural elements found in poetry are:

• Stanza : is a group of lines set off from others by a blank line or indentation.
• Verse : are stanzas with no set number of lines that make up units based on sense.
• Canto : is a stanza pattern found in medieval and modern long poetry.

Some of the important poetry forms include:

• Sonnet : is a fourteen-line poem with a set rhyme scheme , often divided into quatrains , octaves , and sestets .
• Ode : is a formal lyric poem written in celebration or dedication of something with specific intent.
• Lyric : is a personal piece of poetry that tends to be shorter, melodic, and contemplative.
• Elegy : is a mournful poem, especially a lament for the dead.
• Villanelle : is a nineteen-line poem comprising five triplets with a closing quatrain .
• Limerick : is a humorous piece of poetry that consists of five lines with the same rhythm .
• Haiku : is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry containing three sections with a total of 17 syllables arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern.

Meter is the definitive pattern found in verse . Some of the important metrical feet in English poetry include:

• Iamb : consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in des- pair , ex- clude , re- peat , etc.
• Trochee : is a metrical foot containing one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in sis -ter, flow -er, splin -ter, etc.
• Dactyl : comprised one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in si -mi-lar.
• Anapest : consists of three syllables, where the first two are unstressed and the last one is stressed, as in com-pre- hend .
• Spondee : contains two stressed syllables, like “ drum beat ”.
• Pyrrhic : is the opposite of spondee and contains two unstressed syllables.

Poets utilize these metrical feet to create a pattern, which is called a metrical pattern or metrical scheme. Some of the important metrical patterns include:

• Iambic pentameter : occurs when the lines of a poem contain five iambs each. Shakespeare’s sonnets are written in this meter.
• Iambic tetrameter : is another important metrical pattern. It occurs when the lines have four iambs each, as in Robert Frost ‘s poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ .
• Trochaic tetrameter : is the recurring pattern of four trochees per line. In ‘The Song of Hiawatha,’ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow uses this meter.
• Trochaic octameter : occurs when verse lines contain eight trochees each. Edgar Allan Poe ’s best-known poem ‘The Raven’ is written in this meter.

Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme is the repetitive pattern of sounds found in poetry. They are used to reinforce a pattern or rhyme scheme. In specific poetry forms such as ballads , sonnets , and couplets , the rhyme scheme is an important element. The common types of rhymes used in poetry are:

• End Rhyme : is a common type of rhyme in poetry that occurs when the last word of two or more lines rhyme.
• Imperfect Rhyme : is a type of rhyme that occurs in words that do not have an identical sound.
• Internal Rhyme : occurs in the middle of lines in poetry.
• Masculine Rhyme : is the rhyming between stressed syllables at the end of verse lines.
• Feminine Rhyme : is the rhyming between unstressed syllables at the end of verse lines.

Sound and Rhythm

Sound and rhythm are other important elements of poetry. The sound of a poetic text means how a line or what sounds some specific words evoke in readers’ minds. Rhythm is a set pattern that is formed by these sounds. In poetry, rhythm refers to the metrical rhythm that involves the arrangement of syllables into repeating patterns called feet. For example, the following lines from William Shakespeare’s ‘ Sonnet 116 ’ contain an iambic rhythm with a few variations:

Let me/ not to/ the mar /-riage of/ true minds Ad- mit / im- pe /-di- ments ./ Love is/ not love Which al /-ters when / it al /-te- ra /-tion finds , Or bends / with the / re- mo /-ver to / re- move :

The subject or content of poetry differs across a variety of forms. A subject is what the poem is about. For instance, the subjects of sonnets include love and admiration for one’s beloved, heartache and separation. Whereas divine sonnets include the subjects of devotions to God, enlightenment , and salvation. Elegies are written in memory of someone who is no more. Therefore, the subject of these poems is a dead person.

Speaker is one who narrates the poem. In poetry, we tend to think that the poet is the speaker himself. However, it is not always the case. Sometimes, poets assume an imaginative character and write the poem from their perspective . Generally, the poem is told from the perspective of a first-person speaker or a third-person speaker. Poets also use the second-person point of view in order to communicate directly with readers. Understanding the speaker helps us to know the poem’s tone and mood .

Figurative Language and Poetic Devices

Poetry uses figurative language and different poetic devices to suggest different interpretations of words or to evoke other ideas that are not literally connected with the words. The sound devices such as alliteration , assonance , consonance , and onomatopoeia are used to create musical effects. Elements of poetic diction such as irony , symbolism , and juxtaposition leave a poem open to several interpretations. In the same way, poetic devices such as metaphor and simile are used to build a relationship between different images previously not perceived.

Some important poetic devices in poetry include:

• Simile : is a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”.
• Metaphor : is an implicit comparison between different images or ideas without the use of “like” or “as”.
• Repetition : is a poetic technique that refers to the reuse of words, phrases, and images several times in a poem.
• Enjambment : occurs when a line is cut off before its natural point.
• Irony : occurs when an outcome is different than what is expected.
• Personification : is a poetic device that refers to the projection of human characteristics into inanimate objects.
• Onomatopoeia : occurs when a word imitates a natural sound.
• Hyperbole : occurs when one statement is elevated for a certain poetic effect.

The theme is a recurring idea or a pervading thought in a work of literature. Poetry themes include some common ideas such as love, nature, beauty, and as complex as death, spirituality, and immortality. An understanding of the theme helps readers to identify the core message of the poem or the poet’s purpose for writing the poem. For example, the following lines of Robert Burns’ ‘A Red, Red Rose’ exemplify the theme as well as the underlying message of the entire poem:

O my Luve is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune.

This piece is written in admiration of the speaker’s beloved. Therefore, the main themes of the poem are beauty, love, and admiration.

Explore some of the important themes in poetry .

Tone and Mood

Diction is another significant aspect of poetry. It refers to the language, sound, and form used in a particular piece of poetry. The tone or attitude of a poem’s speaker and the mood of the entire text is part of poetic diction. To understand the speaker’s attitude or tone to the subject, readers have to look for the poet’s choice of words, figurative language, and sound devices. The mood is related to the impression of the text upon readers. Explore these lines from Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ :

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness, That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated case.

In these lines, the speaker describes the nightingale’s song in an elevated language. He is awe-struck after listening to its intoxicating song. Thus, the tone is emotive, pleasant, and elated. The mood of the poem is happy and positive.

The syntax is the ordering of words into meaningful patterns. Poetry has a distinct syntax compared to prose , fiction, and other forms of literature. Poets manipulate the conventional syntax to emphasize specific words. The purpose of adopting a specific syntax and diction is to achieve certain artistic effects such as tone, mood, etc. For instance, in Dickinson’s ‘ A Narrow Fellow in the Grass ,’ the speaker describes her surprise and amusement upon the discovery of a snake. To convey her feelings, Dickinson uses a specific syntax:

A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides; You may have met him-did you not His notice sudden is,

The most important elements of poetry are structure, form, syntax , figurative language , rhyme , meter , theme, diction, etc.

The 12 elements of poetry include structure, form, speaker , sound devices , figurative language , rhyme , meter , theme, tone , mood , syntax , and diction.

Diction is the poet’s use of language, word choice, and syntax . The poetic diction is a significant poetry element as it sets a poetry text apart from other forms of literary writing.

In poetry analysis, one has to study the poem’s structure, form, rhythm , rhyme scheme , meter , themes, diction, and syntax .

Other Resources

• Watch: Elements of Poetry for Beginners
• Learn: About the Rhyme Schemes in Poetry
• Explore: a list of the greatest poetry

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Gupta, SudipDas. "10 Important Elements of Poetry". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/poetry-explained/elements-of-poetry/ . Accessed 3 July 2024.

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