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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Blank Verse. Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter—almost always iambic pentameter—that does not rhyme. William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and John Milton are among the most famous purveyors of blank verse.
- Rhymed Poem. In contrast to blank verse, rhymed poems rhyme by definition, although their scheme varies. Learn more about rhymed poetry here. Couplet-based poetry contains pairs of rhyming lines.
- Free Verse. Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or musical form. While free verse poems are not devoid of structure, they allow enormous leeway for poets, particularly when compared to more metrically strict forms like blank verse.
- Epic. An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems typically detail extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past.
- Ballad: A ballad is a narrative poem traditionally set to music and passed down orally. It is comprised of multiple 4-line stanzas (quatrains) that follow either an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme.
- Blank Verse: Blank verse consists of any number of unrhyming lines that contain five beats of stressed and unstressed syllables (iambic pentameter). Classical playwrights often used blank verse within their dramatic works.
- Elegy: In an elegy, the poet or speaker expresses grief due to a loss of some kind. Elegies consist of multiple quatrains written in iambic pentameter with an ABAB rhyme scheme.
- Epic: An epic poem is a narrative typically the length of a novel. These poems focus on characters with extraordinary abilities who commit themselves to a journey.
Poetry. 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.
- Sonnet
- Ode
- Ballad
- Elegy
- Epic
- Alexandrine
- Blank Verse
- Villanelle
- Free Verse
- Acrostic
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. Mo...
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, the...
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 i...
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 fi...
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 eve...
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 formbut a metrical structure — referring to the rhythm and length of a single line. Though the French alexandrine and the English alexandrine are, by ...
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 c...
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 pa...
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. Whe...
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 form is the way text is arranged in a poem, short story, novel, etc. There are a wide variety of forms in literature, explored here.
Cinquain A cinquain is a poetic form that makes use of a pattern of five lines. Closed Form The term “closed form” in literature refers to poems that use a closed, specific structure or pattern. This includes poems written in the form of a sonnet, villanelle, haiku, limerick, and more.
