- Theme Poem: Love
- Haiku – 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).
- Essence – The Essence, created by Emily Romano is a short, structured form of two-lines, six syllables each with an end rhyme and internal rhyme.
- Palindrome Poetry – Also Known as Mirrored Poetry. A palindrome, by definition, is a word, phrase, verse, sentence, or even poem that reads the same forward or backward. It stems from the Greek word palindromos: palin, meaning again, and dromos, meaning a running. Combining the two together, the Greek meaning gives us, running back again. The carefully placed words form the same sentence, whether it is read forward or backward. For example, ‘Mirrored images reflect images mirrored’ which includes a word in the center as a reversal point for the sentence or even the poem.
- 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
Lines 3, 4: weak, weak, STRONG, weak, weak, STRONG.
This is the most commonly heard first line of a limerick: “There once was a man from Nantucket.” - Septolet – The Septolet is a poem consisting of seven lines containing fourteen words with a break in between the two parts. Both parts deal with the same thought and create a picture.
- Sonnet – A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyming scheme:
Examples of a rhyming scheme:
#1) abab cdcd efef gg
#2) abba cddc effe gg
#3) abba abba cdcd cd
A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet, and rhymes abab cdcd efef gg. An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave, rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet, rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd, or in some variant pattern, but with no closing couplet. Usually, English and Italian Sonnets have 10 syllables per line, but Italian Sonnets can also have 11 syllables per line. French sonnets follow in this same pattern, but normally have 12 syllables per line. - Theme Poem: Death
- Epitaph– An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually with rhyming lines.
- Cascade – Cascade, a form created by Udit Bhatia, is all about receptiveness, but in a smooth cascading way like a waterfall. The poem does not have any rhyme scheme; therefore, the layout is simple. Say the first verse has three lines. Line one of verse one becomes the last line of verse two. To follow in suit, the second line of verse one becomes the last line of verse three. The third line of verse one now becomes the last line of verse four, the last stanza of the poem. See the structure example below:
a/b/c,
d/e/A,
f/g/B,
h/i/C
To make the Cascade an even longer poem, use more lines in verse one. For example, if verse one has 6 lines, the poem must have seven stanzas so that each line of verse one is reused as a refrain in each following stanza (a cascading effect). - Mini-monoverse – The Mini-monoverse is a poetry form originated by Emily Romano. Each Mini-monoverse is made up of two stanzas of five three-syllable lines. They rhyme scheme is a/a/a/a/a for the first stanza and b/b/b/b/b for the second stanza. For a double Mini-monoverse just add two more stanzas. They rhyme scheme for the third stanza should be c/c/c/c/c and for the fourth stanza, d/d/d/d/d. It is desirable that the Mini-monoverse tell a story, but this is not a hard and fast rule.
- Pantoum – The pantoum consists of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth lines of a quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the closing quatrain, and third line of the poem recurs as the second line of the closing quatrain, rhyming ZAZA. The design is simple:
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
Line 5 (repeat of line 2)
Line 6
Line 7 (repeat of line 4)
Line 8
Continue with as many stanzas as you wish, but the ending stanzathen repeats the second and fourth lines of the previous stanza (as its first and third lines), and 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.Last stanza:Line 2 of previous stanza
Line 3 of first stanza
Line 4 of previous stanza
Line 1 of first stanza - Quinzaine – The English word quinzaine come from the French word qunize, meaning fifteen. A quinzaine is an unrhymed verse of fifteen syllables.These syllables are distributed among three lines so that there are seven syllables in the first line, five in the second line and three in the third line (7/5/3). The first line makes a statement. The next two lines ask a question relating to that statement.
- Monody – A monody is a poem in which one person laments another’s death, as in Tennyson’s Break, Break, Break, or Wordsworth’s She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways.
- Theme Poem: Life
- Ode -An Ode is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing.
- Tanka – Tanka is a classic form of Japanese poetry related to the haiku with five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. (5, 7, 5, 7, 7)
- Sestina – The sestina is a strict ordered form of poetry, dating back to twelfth century French troubadours. It consists of six six-line (sestets) stanzas followed by a three-line envoy. Rather than use a rhyme scheme, the six ending words of the first stanza are repeated as the ending words of the other five stanzas in a set pattern. The envoy uses two of the ending words per line, again in a set pattern.
First stanza, ..1 ..2 ..3 ..4 ..5 ..6
Second stanza, ..6 ..1 ..5 .. 2 ..4 ..3
Third stanza, ..3 ..6 ..4 ..1 ..2 ..5
Fourth stanza, ..5 ..3 ..2 ..6 ..1 ..4
Fifth stanza, ..4 ..5 ..1 ..3 ..6 ..2
Sixth stanza, ..2 ..4 ..6 ..5 ..3 ..1Concluding tercet:
middle of first line ..2, end of first line ..5
middle of second line ..4, end of second line..3
middle if third line ..6, end of third line ..1 - 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
- Swap Quatrain – The Swap Quatrain was created by Lorraine M. Kanter. Within the Swap Quatrain each stanza in the poem must be a quatrain (four lines) where the first line is reversed in the fourth line. In addition, line 2 must rhyme with line 1, and line 3 must rhyme with line 4 and so on, BUT not repeat the same rhyming pattern on subsequent stanzas. Rhyming pattern: AABB, CCDD, and so on.
- Villanelle – A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa.The first and the third lines in the first stanza are repeated in alternating order throughout the poem, and appear together in the last couplet (last two lines).One of the most famous Villanelle is “Do not go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas.
- Theme Poem: Time
- Loop Poetry – Loop Poetry is a poetry form created by Hellon. There are no restrictions on the number of stanzas nor on the syllable count for each line. In each stanza, the last word of the first line becomes the first word of line two, last word of line 2 becomes the first word of line 3, last word of line 3 becomes the first word of line 4. This is followed for each stanza. The rhyme scheme is abcb.Variations:1. Stanzas, writers choice on the number, no rhyming, the last word, first word scheme is maintained.2. One long stanza, no limit on number of lines, no rhyming scheme, the last word, first word scheme is maintained.3. Couplets mixed with 4 line stanzas, the last word, first word scheme is maintained in the stanzas. It can also be used in the couplets. Rhyme scheme is ab, cc, defg, hh, ii, jklm, nn, oo.
- Mirrored Refrain – The Mirrored Refrain is rhyming verse form constructed by Stephanie Repnyek.The poem is formed by three or more quatrains where two lines within the quatrain are the “mirrored refrain” or alternating refrain.The rhyme scheme is as follows: xaBA, xbAB, xaBA, xbAB, etc..x represents the only lines that do not rhyme within the poem. A and B represent the refrain.
- Lanturne – The Lanturne is a five-line verse shaped like a Japanese lantern with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one.
- Rondelet – The Rondelet is a French form consisting of a single septet with two rhymes and one refrain: AbAabbA. The capital letters are the refrains, or repeats. The refrain is written in tetra-syllabic or dimeter and the other lines are twice as long – octasyllabic or tetrameter.
- Diatelle – The Diatelle is a fun, syllable counting form like the etheree with a twist. The syllable structure of the diatelle is as follows: 1/2/3/4/6/8/10/12/10/8/6/4/3/2/1, but unlike an ethere, has a set rhyme pattern of abbcbccaccbcbba. This poetry form may be written on any subject matter and looks best center aligned in a diamond shape.The Diatelle form was created by Bradley Vrooman.
- Terza Rima – A Terza Rima is a poem with an eleven syllable count in each line and a rhyming scheme of aba, bcb, cdc, dd.For even more of a challenge, try the Terza Rima Sonnet. This form of poem has an eleven syllable count in each line and a rhyming scheme of aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ee.
- Theme Poem: Nature
- 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.
All definitions and styles were copied and pasted from: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/types.html
Wow, sounds challenging… Are you going to do these all?
That’s the plan. Pray for me!