Monday 15 April 2013

Types of Poems

There are many different types of poems - from haiku to acrostic, from ballad to ode. If you're going to read, study, or write poetry, it's good to be able to tell the difference between them. Hopefully this will help.

Acrostic
    An acrostic poem is one where the letters (first or last) spell out a word or a phrase.
Ballad
    A poem that tells a story.
Blank Verse
    A poem in iambic pentameter (lines of 5 feet when each foot is two syllables long: one stressed, one unstressed).
Cinquain
    A cinquain is made up of 5 lines that do not rhyme. It looks like this:
    Line 1: 2 syllables
    Line 2: 4 Syllables
    Line 3: 6 Syllables
    Line 4: 8 syllables
    Line 5: 2 Syllables
Epic
    An epic is a long poem that tells a story that usually has to do with heroes and heroic deeds.
Epigram
    A short, satirical poem that is witty and usually has a funny ending.
Free Verse
    Free verse can be rhymed or unrhymed but doesn't have any set meter.
Haiku
    A haiku is a short, unrhymed poem that originated in Japan. It looks like this:
    Line 1: 5 syllables
    Line 2: 7 syllables
    Line 3: 5 syllables
Limerick
    A limerick is a funny, light hearted poem and can be nonsensical. It is made up of five lines that rhyme. The rhyme scheme is aabba (Lines 1,2, and 5 rhyme and lines 3 and 4 rhyme).
Lyric
    Lyric poems express the feelings and emotions of the writer.
Ode
    An ode is written to be sung in honour of a particular thing.
Sonnet
    A sonnet is made up of 14 lines. Each line is 10 syllables long. The rhyme scheme is ab ab, cdcd, efef, gg.

There are lots of other types and subcategories, of course, but this list should give you a basic understanding of the different types of poems. (And maybe give you an idea if you're stuck?) Check out poets.org for more info on any of the poems listed here and for the ones I didn't mention.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing the different poem types. My personal favorite is the pantoum:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantoum

    Keep up the great work!

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