What is a Poem?
“You don’t write because you want to say something; you write because you’ve got something to say.”
free verse
and blank verse are easy to confuse, but the difference is meter: free verse doesn’t have any and blank verse does. More specifically, blank verse is unrhymed poetry, usually in iambic pentameter.
There’s more to free verse than a sudden thought recorded on paper. It’s not that no rules apply to free verse; rather, the poet makes up the rules for each poem. Free verse done well will have rhythm, though it may not have a regular beat. Free verse can be compared to a song that doesn’t rhyme. There is still a lyric quality to it.
It may be more difficult to write free verse than any other form, simply because the poet has more decisions to make. With a haiku, you know the exact measurement of the poem; your task is easily defined. You need only follow the rules of the pattern. With free verse, there is no pattern until the poet creates one.
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Blank verse
or unrhymed iambic pentameter, is one of the best known and most widely used metrical patterns in English poetry, probably because it is so close to the natural rhythms of English speech and so easy to adapt to different levels of language, as Shakespeare does, for example, by having characters from clowns to kings speak in blank verse, but still in distinctive and appropriate voices.
Blank verse was introduced into English verse by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who along with his older friend Sir Thomas Wyatt also introduced the sonnet and other Italian poetic forms into English poetry in the sixteenth century.
Blank verse must not, however, be confused with English “free verse” (“vers libre” open form poetry), which lacks both a rhyme scheme and an identifiable metrical pattern, whereas blank verse has a very specific metrical pattern. The structure of blank verse differs from that of rhymed verse, which tends to break into stanzas. Poems written in blank verse are often divided into paragraphs of varying lengths distinct from stanzas, which usually have regular lengths.
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Haiku
is 5-7-5 sylibles, and usualy about nature, though not necessarily. The 300 year old Haiku Poem has its own distinct discipline. Each complete poem has only three lines, totalling 17 syllables. The first line must be five syllables, the second line must be seven syllables and the third line must be five syllables
It’s a contemplative poetry that values nature, colour, season, contrasts and surprises. Usually it has 3 lines and 17 syllables distributed in 5, 7, 5. It must indicate a moment, sensation, impression or drama of a specific fact of nature.
It’s almost like a photo of some specific moment of nature. Haiku show us the world in a tiny lens through which to glimpse the miracle and mystery of life. Combining close observation with a moment of reflection.
Traditional Japanese haiku have seventeen syllables divided into three lines of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables respectively. These syllable counts are often ignored when haiku are written in other languages, but the basic form of three short lines, with the middle line slightly longer than the other two, is usually observed.
Haiku divide into two parts, with a break coming after the first or second line, so that the poem seems to make two separate statements that are related in some unexpected or indirect way. a sense of discovery, a feeling of sudden insight.
Haiku should include what Japanese poets call a kigo, a word that gives the reader a clue to the season being described. The kigo can be the name of a season or a subtle clue, such as a reference to the harvest or new fallen snow. The kigo is also important to the haiku’s effect, anchoring the experience it describes, that helps sharpen the imaginative focus.
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A Sonnet
A Sonnet has 14 lines of 10 syllables each, a strict rhyme scheme and is written in iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme of: a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.
This rhyme sequence sets the structure of the sonnet as 3 quatrains (sets of 4 lines) concluding with 1 couplet (a pair of lines).
The sonnet was introduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) following his various European diplomatic positions, including Italy, in the court of Henry VIII. The form was then developed by Henry Surrey (1517-47) and became very popular with several Elizabethan sonneteers, particularly during the 1590’s, among them Shakespeare.
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A Villanelle
A Villanelle is a nineteen line poem with the following very specific rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa. The first and third lines of the first stanza are alternated as the last line of each verse throughout the poem and appear together as the last two lines.
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An Etheree
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.
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A palindrome
A palindrome is a mirror image of itself. A carefully planned poem is written and then, after a good dividing word in the middle, the poem above is written exactly backwards and must still make perfect sense.
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A pantoum
A pantoum consists of a series of rhymed verses in which the second and fourth lines of each verse recur as the first and third lines in the next verse. The last stanza also repeats the third line of the first stanza as its second line and the first line of the first stanza as its fourth, so the first line of the poem is also the last.
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A cinquain
A cinquain is a verse form consisting of five lines of two, four, six, eight and two syllables and can also be written in sequences of more than one verse but with each verse having the above pattern.
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A triolet
A triolet is a poetic form consisting of only 8 lines. Each line is 8 syllables in length and written in iambic tetrameter. Within a Triolet the 1st, 4th, and 7th lines repeat and the 2nd and 8th lines do as well. The rhyme scheme is as follows: ABaAabAB with capital letters representing the repeated lines
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A Tanka
A Tanka is a Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the other seven.
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A Senryu
A Senryu is a short Japanese style poem, similar to haiku in structure that treats human beings rather than nature: Often in a humorous or satiric way.
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A Terza Rima
A Terza Rima is a type of poetry consisting of 10 or 11 syllable lines arranged in three-line tercets.
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An Elegy
An Elegy is a sad and thoughtful poem about the death of an individual.
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An Epigram
An Epigram is a very short, ironic and witty poem usually written as a brief couplet or quatrain. The term is derived from the Greek epigramma meaning inscription.
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An Epic
An Epic is an extensive, serious poem that tells the story about a heroic figure.
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An Idyll
An Idyll is poetry that either depicts a peaceful, idealized country scene or a long poem telling a story about heroes of a bye gone age.
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A Memoriam stanza
A Memoriam stanza is a quatrain in iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abba — named after the pattern used by Lord Tennyson.
~~~~~A Quatrain
A Quatrain is a stanza or poem consisting of four lines. Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme while having a similar number of syllables.
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A Rondeau
A Rondeau is a lyrical poem of French origin having 10 or 13 lines with two rhymes and with the opening phrase repeated twice as the refrain.
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A Sestina
A Sestina is a poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.
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An ABC
An ABC is a poem that has five lines that create a mood, picture, or feeling. Lines 1 through 4 are made up of words, phrases or clauses while the first word of each line is in alphabetical order. Line 5 is one sentence long and begins with any letter.
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A Canzone
A Canzone is a Medieval Italian lyric style poetry with five or six stanzas and a shorter ending stanza.
