Types of poetry

1. Acrostic Poetry Acrostic Poetry is where the first letter of each line spells a word, usually using the same words as in the title. 2. Ballad A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but most frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legends. They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing and, while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming. 3. Cinquain Cinquain is a short, usually unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines. It was developed by the Imagist poet, Adelaide Crapsey. Another form, sometimes used by school teachers to teach grammar, is as follows: Line 1: Noun Line 2: Description of Noun Line 3: Action Line 4: Feeling or Effect Line 5: Synonym of the initial noun. 4. Clerihew A Clerihew is a comic verse consisting of two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme, aabb invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) at the age of 16. The poem is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme. In most cases, the first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name of the person. 5. Diamante A Diamante is a seven-lined contrast poem set up in a diamond shape. The first line begins with a noun/subject, and second line contains two adjectives that describe the beginning noun. The third line contains three words ending in -ing relating to the noun/subject. The forth line contains two words that describe the noun/subject and two that describe the closing synonym/antonym. If using an antonym for the ending, this is where the shift should occur. In the fifth line are three

more -ing words describing the ending antonym/synonym, and the sixth are two more adjectives describing the ending antonym/synonym. The last line ends with the first noun's antonym or synonym.To make it a bit simpler, here is a diagram. Line 1: Noun or subject Line 2: Two Adjectives describing the first noun/subect Line 3: Three -ing words describing the first noun/subect Line 4: Four words: two about the first noun/subect, two about the antonym/synonym Line 5: Three -ing words about the antonym/synonym Line 6: Two adjectives describing the antonym/synonym Line 7: Antonym/synonym for the subject 6. Didactic Poetry Didactic Poetry is a form of poetry intended for instruction such as for knowledge or to teach. 7. Epic An Epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation.examples: Beowulf, The Iliad and the Odyssey, and Aeneid 8. Epitaph An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually with rhyming lines. 9. Epigram Epigrams are short satirical poems ending with either a humorous retort or a stinging punchline. Used mainly as expressions of social criticism or political satire, the most common forms are written as a couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in the same meter. Practioners of this poetic expression include John Dunne, Ben Jonson, William Blake and Robert Frost. Etheree

The poetry form, Etheree, consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. Etheree can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Get creative and write an Etheree with more than one verse, but follow suit with an inverted syllable count. Reversed Etheree: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Double Etheree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...Triple Etheree, Quadruple Etheree, and so on! 10. Free Verse Free Verse is an irregular form of poetry in which the content free of traditional rules of versification, (freedom from fixed meter or rhyme).In moving from line to line, the poet's main consideration is where to insert line breaks. Some ways of doing this include breaking the line where there is a natural pause or at a point of suspense for the reader. Following the direction of Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot, many modern day poets use this particular form of expression Ghazal A Ghazal is a poem that is made up like an odd numbered chain of couplets, where each couplet is an independent poem. It should be natural to put a comma at the end of the first line. The Ghazal has a refrain of one to three words that repeat, and an inline rhyme that preceedes the refrain. Lines 1 and 2, then every second line, has this refrain and inline rhyme, and the last couplet should refer to the authors pen-name... The rhyming scheme is AA bA cA dA eA etc. Haiku Most popular definition, but there is more to haiku than meets the eye: Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons). The 5/7/5 rule was made up for school children to understand and learn this type of poetry. For an in depth description of Haiku, please visit the Shadow Poetry Kyrielle 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. Kyrielle Sonnet A Kyrielle Sonnet consists of 14 lines (three rhyming quatrain stanzas and a non-rhyming couplet). Just like the traditional Kyrielle poem, the Kyrielle Sonnet also has a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (usually appearing as the last line of each stanza). Each line within the Kyrielle Sonnet consists of only eight syllables. French poetry forms have a tendency to link back to the beginning of the poem, so common practice is to use the first and last line of the first quatrain as the ending couplet. This would also re-enforce the refrain within the poem. Therefore, a good rhyming scheme for a Kyrielle Sonnet would be: AabB, ccbB, ddbB, AB-orAbaB, cbcB, dbdB, AB. Lanturne The Lanturne is a five-line verse shaped like a Japanese lantern with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one. Limerick A Limerick is a rhymed humorous or nonsense poem of five lines which originated in Limerick, Ireland. The Limerick has a set rhyme scheme of : a-a-b-b-a with a syllable structure of: 9-9-6-6-9. The rhythm of the poem should go as follows: Lines 1, 2, 5: weak, weak, STRONG, weak, weak, STRONG, weak, weak, STRONG, weak, weak Lines 3, 4: weak, weak, STRONG, weak, weak, STRONG, weak, weak Minute Poetry The Minute Poem is rhyming verse form consisting of 12 lines of 60 syllables written in strict iambic meter. The poem is formatted into 3 stanzas of 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4 syllables. The rhyme scheme is as follows: aabb, ccdd, eeff

Mirrored Refrain The Mirrored Refrain is rhyming verse form constructed by Stephanie Repnyek.
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat.[1] Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, mentions lyric poetry (kitharistike played to the cithara, a type of lyre) along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis. The lyric poem, dating from the Romantic era, does have some thematic antecedents in ancient Greek and Roman verse, but the ancient definition was based on metrical criteria, and in archaic and classical Greek culture presupposed live performance accompanied by a stringed instrument Poetry is one of the best forms to express and manifest the spontaneous emotions of a poet. When emotions find the right words to express themselves a poem is born. A poem takes it origin from the emotions that are recollected in tranquility and expressed in words. Poetry can be written in different styles. The birth of poetry can be traced back to prehistoric times, when people passed down their history in the form of narrative poems and songs. With its rich and glorious history, there are many kinds of poetry, one such popular kind is dramatic poetry. Let's see about some famous illustrations taken from literature, along with its explanation. What is Dramatic Poetry Dramatic poetry, also known as a dramatic poem, is an emotional piece of literature which includes a story which is recited or sung. It refers to the dramatic genre of poetry. Till the nineteenth century dramas were written in the form of verses. The definition of this piece of literature can be quoted as, 'a form of poetry where a story is narrated in the form of a lyrical ballad.' This kind of poetry has come from Sanskrit dramas and Greek tragedies. The method adopted in this form is that the story is usually narrated in the form of a recital or song. Soliloquy and dramatic monologues are the main instruments of this form of poetry. There are also many examples of dramatic poetry for children. They are written in such a manner that they can be easily understood, and enacted. The history of poetry can be traced back to the Shakespearean era, where different settings of a play were written in verse which would rhyme. The discourse of the story and characters of the play would be told in the form of poetry. Epic poetry is also one of these kinds, which can be mostly seen in Greek literature. Epics are usually narrations of deeds and events, usually heroic, of a particular country or culture. Plays were enacted on stage and dialogs delivered were in the poetic form. This technique could be seen in Greek plays, which were written in verse so that the lines could be easily memorized. This method was also adapted in the Renaissance theater, where modern free verse was used in combination with the ancient form of poetry.

Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter.[1] Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays. Some narrative poetry takes the form of a novel in verse. An example of this is The Ring and the Book by Robert Browning. In terms of narrative poetry, a romance is a narrative poem that tells a story of chivalry. Examples include the Romance of the Rose or Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although these examples use medieval and Arthurian materials, romances may also tell stories from classical mythology. Shorter narrative poems are often similar in style to the short story. Sometimes these short narratives are collected into interrelated groups, as with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Some literatures contain prose narratives that include poems and poetic interludes; much Old Irish poetry is contained within prose narratives, and the Old Norse sagas include both incidental poetry and the biographies of poets. An example is "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service.