Types of Poetry

Types of Poetry

1.      Acrostic

A poem in which certain letters of the lines, usually the first letters, form a word or message relating to the subject:

Curled up in a corner

At peace

Taking a nap

2.      Ballad

A poem that tells a story, usually about a hero that can be passed down through generations.  Most are suitable for singing.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Keats, as shown on Bob's Byway Glossary of Poetic Terms Site

3.      Blank Verse

Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter

The qua / lity / of mer / cy is / not strain'd,

It drop / peth as / the gen / tle rain / from heaven

Upon / the place / beneath; / it is / twice blessed:

It bles / seth him / that gives / and him / that takes;

From the Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare 

4.      Cinquain

5 lined unrhyming poem (1-2-3-4-1)- 1 word on the top row, 2 on the second, 3 on the third, 4 on the fourth and one on the last- another version is in form of syllabic meter- two syllables on the first line, four on the second, six on the third and two on the last.

Sun

Bright shining

Orb of gold

Warming the whole world

Star

5.      Diamante

7 lined unrhyming poem (1-2-3-4-3-2-1)- 1 word on the top line, 2 adjectives describing the first word on the second line, 3 words ending in "ing" about the first word on the third line, 4 words on the fourth line: 2 about the first word and 2 about the very last word, 3 words ending in "ing" on the fifth line about the last word, 2 adjectives describing the last word on the sixth row, and a word opposite of the word on the first line on the seventh row

Earth

brown, soft

growing, living, hiding

tunnels, holes, waves, foam

moving, sinking, flooding

blue-green, smooth

Sea

6.      Elegy

This type of poem alternates hexameter and pentameter lines, is usually about the death of someone and has a sad tone :

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray, as shown on Bob's Byway Glossary of Poetic Terms Site

7.      Epic

This is a long narrative poem usually about the adventures and bravery of a hero.

For Example:

The Illiad by Homer, as shown on the Internet Classics Archive

8.      Free Verse

Also called open form poetry, free verse refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza.

For Example:

leaves falling, soaring,

trying to defy gravity, dancing with the wind

short-lived flight

9.      Haiku

This type has three unrhymed lines in a 5-7-5 syllabic meter- the first line has 5 syllables, the second seven, and the last 5.

For Example:

            majestic mountain

                                                                        towering up above me

                                                                        insignificance

10.  Heroic Couplet

This poem has lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme in pairs (aa, bb, cc)

For Example:

          Roses are red

Violets are blue

(you didn't know you were making

 heroic couplets, did you?!)

11.  Limerick

5 lines with a rhyme scheme of (aa, bb, a). The first line explains the situation, the second tells what happened, the third and fourth tell what went wrong, and the fifth tells the significance (the so what?!) These poems were popularized by Edward Lear.

For Example:

There was a young lady of Niger

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

  They returned from the ride

  With the lady inside

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

  -- Anonymous

12.  Ode

This is a relatively lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style. Odes are characterized by a serious topic, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of life; their tone tends to be formal.

Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats, as shown on Bob's Byway Glossary of Poetic Terms Site

13.  Sonnet

14 lined poem in iambic pentameter that usually deals with love, religion or some other serious concern. The Italian sonnet rhyme scheme is (abbaabba-cdecde-aa or abbaabba-cdccdc-aa). The English (Shakespearian) has 3 quatrains w/ a concluding couplet.

Sonnet XVIII by 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 owest, 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.”

14.  Quatrain

A poem, or part of a poem, with 4 lines; usually rhyming alternately. It is the most common stanzaic form.

Once there was a cat

Being chased by a dog

But they came across a mat

Where there was a log

15.  Villanelle

6 stanzas, 5 three line stanzas, and ending with one four line stanza. There are only two rhymes in the usual villanelle, placed stratgetically in the poem

The House on the Hill by Edwin Robinson, as shown on Bob's Byway Glossary of Poetic Terms Site