FORM vs. FREE VERSE Mrs. DiLauro

What is the difference between a form and a free verse poem?  Form poems must follow a specific pattern or set of rules (rhyme scheme, number of lines, number of stanza, subject matter, or all of those things)  Free Verse has no rules or requirements for any of the above and had become much more popular in recent years

ACROSTIC: Each letter of the word or name begins a new line  Determined  Impressive  Laughing  Adventurous  Uplifting  Respectful  Outstanding!

Elegy: Poem of mourning about a death  Fred is dead, he got hit in the head, now  I am sad. Oh  How sad…Fred is my friend…  Was. Mine.  Or since he was invisible… Can he really ever die?  Such a crime.  Guess it was Fred’s time.

Ballad: Often sung, these tell stories and must have ABABABABA rhyme scheme The Birth of John Henry By Melvin B. Tolson The night John Henry is born an ax of lightning splits the sky, and a hammer of thunder pounds the earth, and the eagles and panthers cry! John Henry—he says to his Ma and Pa: “Get a gallon of barleycorn. I want to start right, like a he-man child, the night that I am born!” Says: “I want some ham hocks, ribs, and jowls, a pot of cabbage and greens; some hoecakes, jam, and buttermilk, a platter of pork and beans!” John Henry’s Ma—she wrings her hands, and his Pa—he scratches his head…

Concrete: Takes the shape of what it is about Valentine By Lorna Dee Cervantes Cherry plums suck a week’s soak, overnight they explode into the scenery of before your touch. The curtains open on the end of our past. Pink trumpets on the vines bare to the hummingbirds. Butterflies unclasp from the purse of their couplings, they light and open on the doubled hands of eucalyptus fronds. They sip from the pistils for seven generations that bear them through another tongue as the first year of our punishing mathematic begins clicking the calendar forward. They land like seasoned rocks on the decks of the cliffs. They take another turn on the spiral of life where the blossoms blush & pale in a day of dirty dawn where the ghost of you webs your limbs through branches of cherry plum. Rare bird, extinct color, you stay in my dreams in x-ray. In rerun, the bone of you stripping sweethearts folds and layers the shedding petals of my grief into a decayed hologram—my for ever empty art.

Sonnet: 14 lines rhyming scheme varies Anthem for Doomed Youth By Wilfred Owen What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Haiku: Each line has a specific set of syllables (5/7/5) This is a haiku You could write a better one - Go ahead and try.

Free Verse: NO FORM Good People By W. S. Merwin From the kindness of my parents I suppose it was that I held that belief about suffering imagining that if only it could come to the attention of any person with normal feelings certainly anyone literate who might have gone to college they would comprehend pain when it went on before them and would do something about it whenever they saw it happen in the time of pain the present they would try to stop the bleeding for example with their own hands but it escapes their attention or there may be reasons for it the victims under the blankets the meat counters the maimed children the animals staring from the end of the world

Your turn…  For today’s assignment, you will write a form poem (of your choosing) and then write a free verse poem about the EXACT SAME TOPIC! They must be different in every way except WHAT they are about.  They should be turned in on the same paper.  No HAIKU!!!!!! Sorry, but people are too lazy and always go for the shortest one, so I have to do that! = (

Here is an example (I kept these short for the sake of examples, yours should be longer!): My form poem: (You can’t do haiku!!!!) Haikus are funny But sometimes they don’t make sense Refridgerator My free verse poem: One cannot make sense of poetry How it moves, confusing and sometimes evil It is a monster Eating everything Like my refridgerator.