Poetry forms

Ballads Ballads are poems that tell a story. They are considered to be a form of narrative poetry. They are often used in songs and have a very musical quality to them. The basic form for ballads is iambic heptameter (seven sets of unstressed, stressed syllables per line), in sets of four, with the second and fourth lines rhyming.

Sonnets A lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one or another of several set rhyme-schemes. Topic is usually love.

Italian sonnet The first, the Italian form, is distinguished by its bipartite division into the octave and the sestet: the octave consisting of a first division of eight lines rhyming abbaabba and the sestet, or second division, consisting of six lines rhyming cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce.

Shakespearean sonnet The English (Shakespearean) sonnet, on the other hand, is so different from the Italian (though it grew from that form) as to permit of a separate classification. Instead of the octave and sestet divisions, this sonnet characteristically embodies four divisions: three quatrains (each with a rhyme-scheme of its own) and a rhymed couplet. Thus the typical rhyme-scheme for the English sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg.

Spenserian sonnet The Spenserian sonnet combines the Italian and the Shakespearean forms, using three quatrains and a couplet but employing linking rhymes between the quatrains, thus abab bcbc cdcd ee.

Villanelle A short poem of fixed form, written in tercets, usually five in number, followed by a final quatrain, all being based on two rhymes

Sestina The lines are grouped into six sestets and a concluding tercet. Thus a Sestina has 39 lines. The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas. The repeated words are unrhymed

Sestina continued The first line of each sestet after the first ends with the same word as the one that ended the last line of the sestet before it. In the closing tercet, each of the six words are used, with one in the middle of each line and one at the end.

Acrostic Acrostic Poetry that certain letters, usually the first in each line form a word or message when read in a sequence.

Blank verse Blank verse -A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and is often unobtrusive. The iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of speech.

Cinquain Poetry with five lines. Line 1 has one word (the title). Line 2 has two words that describe the title. Line 3 has three words that tell the action. Line 4 has four words that express the feeling, and line 5 has one word which recalls the title.

Elegy A sad and thoughtful poem about the death of an individual.

Free verse Poetry written in either rhyme or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern.

Haiku A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five more, usually containing a season word.

Limerick A short sometimes vulgar, humorous poem consisting of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables, rhyme and have the same verbal rhythm. The 3rd and 4th lines have five to seven syllables, rhyme and have the same rhythm.

Pastoral A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, romanticized way.

Rondeau A lyrical poem of French origin having 10 or 13 lines with two rhymes and with the opening phrase repeated twice as the refrain.