Poetic Forms
By Brian Buckley
Note: all poems used in this article were written by myself (Brian Buckley) unless otherwise noted.
Welcome! What follows is a tutorial on writing the various forms of poetry. Although poetry need not (and frequently does not) follow any set 'form,' the forms do exist for those who wish to try them. This article is intended to serve as more of a reference guide to poetry than a start-to-finish tutorial, and the following table of contents is provided with that in mind.
One final note. There are some terms in this guide which, properly speaking, are not exactly 'forms,' and certainly there are many legitimate poetic forms which do not appear here. I have been somewhat arbitrary in my selection of which terms to include. My goal has been to provide information on a wide spectrum of different types of poetry.
Table of Contents
Acrostic
Ballad
Ballade
Bref Double
Cinquain
Clerihew
Diamante
Eclogue
Epic
Epigram
Ethere
Ghazal
Glosa
Haiku
Huitain
Idyl
Kyrielle
Lai
Limerick
Luc Bat
Nonet
Ode
Pantoum
Pantun
Paradelle
Quatern
Renga/Renku
Retourne
Rictameter
Rondeau
Rubaiyat
Senryu
Sestina
Sijo
Sonnet
Tanka
Terza Rima
Terzanelle
Triolet
Tyburn
Villanelle
ACROSTIC
Acrostic poems are very simple; the poet thinks of a word, name, or phrase, and writes it vertically down the page. These letters then become the first letter of each line of the poem. Acrostic poems do not have to rhyme or follow any other requirements, so they are fairly easy to write.
Notice how the word 'fountain' is formed in the following acrostic poem:
Firing upward towards the sky
On wings of foam
Unhindered by oppressive gravity
Neatly forming an arc
That frames the sun in its crescent curve
And delivers a slice of eternity
In its aquatic simplicity
Never tiring of joy.
BALLAD
(Not to be confused with ballade.)
'Ballad' is a rather vague term, but in general it refers to poems which tell a story, have a refrain (repeated verses), and are meant to be sung out loud. They are generally folk tales. Ballads vary greatly in length, from a handful of short stanzas to hundreds of lines. The sample below is from the ballad 'Lord Randal' (author unknown).
O where have you been, Lord Randal, my son?
O where have you been, my bonny young man?
I've been with my sweetheart, mother make my bed soon
For I'm sick to the heart and I fain would lie down.
And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son?
And what did she give you, my bonny young man?
Eels boiled in brew, mother make my bed soon
For I'm sick to the heart and I fain would lie down.
BALLADE
(Not to be confused with ballad.)
The ballade originated in France. In the strictest sense, it is a poem of three eight-line stanzas followed by a fourth stanza with four lines. The fourth stanza (called an 'envoy' in this case) is usually dedicated to some prince or patron. The first three stanzas all follow the same rhyme scheme (ababcbcb is a common one) and the fourth stanza also has a rhyme scheme tying it to the rest of the poem, bcbc for example. In a ballade, the a, b, or c rhyme from one stanza carries over to all the other stanzas - in other words, the stanzas are linked in rhyme. Finally, all four stanzas have the same ending line. Not all ballades follow this form exactly; some have seven-line stanzas, others have ten, and the rhyme scheme varies from one ballade to another.
The ballade below was written by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (creator of the clerihew). It is entitled 'The Ballade of Liquid Refreshment,' and it is a departure from the frequently serious subject matter of ballades.
Last night we started with some dry vermouth;
Some ancient sherry with a golden glow;
Then many flagons of the soul of fruit
Such as Burgundian vineyards only grow;
A bottle each of port was not de trop;
And then old brandy till the east was pink
- But talking makes me hoarse as any crow,
Excuse me while I go and have a drink.
Some talk of Alexander; some impute
Absorbency to Mirabeau-Tonneau;
Some say that General Grant and King Canute,
Falstaff and Pitt and Edgar Allan Poe,
Prince Charlie, Carteret, Hans Breitmann - so
The list goes on - they say that these could clink
The can, and take their liquor - A propos!
Excuse while I go and have a drink.
Spirit of all that lives, from God to brute,
Spirit of love and life, of sun and snow,
Spirit of leaf and limb, of race and root,
How wonderfully art thou prison'd! Lo!
I quaff the cup, I feel the magic flow,
And Superman succeeds to Missing Link,
(I say, 'I quaff'; but am I quaffing? No!
Excuse while I go and have a drink.)
Hullo there, Prince! Is that you down below
Kicking and frying by the brimstone brink?
Well, well! It had to come some time, you know,
Excuse me while I go and have a drink.
BREF DOUBLE
As you might guess, the bref double is a French form. It is similar to the sonnet, but it need not be written in iambic pentameter. The bref double contains three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet. Its rhyme scheme is axbc xaxc axab ab (where the x's represent lines which do not rhyme with anything else, even the other x's).
I imagine the subject matter of a bref double is normally more serious than it is in the one below, but it provides an ample demonstration of the form's structure nonetheless.
Now William Shakespeare was a man
Who did some writing (so I'm told)
Some say he had a bit of skill -
Perhaps was handy with a pen.
And thinking back now I suppose
I can remember...yes, I can
I've read a play or two of his
(A year, now? How long has it been?)
I can't say I'm his biggest fan
I think some others liked him more
For instance, Mr. Johnson. (Dan?
Was that his name? Or Ben? But still...)
His genius ink in rivers ran
A fine intrepid fellow, Will!
CINQUAIN
At its most basic level, 'cinquain' simply means a stanza (or poem) with five lines. However, the word also refers to either of two more specific types of five-line poems. The first type is usually centered to give it a diamond shape and has the following format:
First line: a one-word subject or title.
Second line: two adjectives which describe the subject.
Third line: three verbs relating to the subject.
Fourth line: four words forming a phrase, sentence, or set of feelings relating to the subject.
Fifth line: one word which summarizes the poem or restates the subject.
The second and more traditional type is simpler and requires only that the pattern of syllables per line in the poem is 2, 4, 6, 8, 2. (In other words, the first line has two syllables, the second has four, etc.)
The following example demonstrates the first specific type of cinquain:
Pharaoh
Royal, Militant
Commanding, Proclaiming, Leading
He stands for Egypt
King
CLERIHEW
Clerihews are short, fun little poems that are easy to write. Their name comes from Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who pioneered the form in his teenage years. Clerihews are four lines long and have an aabb rhyme scheme. They are about a specific person, and the second line must rhyme with the person's name. Clerihews are meant to be funny, even silly. There are no restrictions concerning rhythm or number of syllables.
This example is about Frodo Baggins, a character from The Lord of the Rings. (As a reminder, fan fiction of any kind is prohibited on Elfwood.)
There once lived a hobbit named Frodo
Whose stature resembled that of a dodo
He liked to wander, get dirty, and sing
But when he took baths, he always left a Ring.
DIAMANTE
The diamante is a poem form similar the the cinquain. It consists of seven lines, as shown below:
First line: a one-word subject that contrasts with the subject in line seven.
Second line: two adjectives which describe the subject in line one.
Third line: three verbs relating to the subject in line one.
Fourth line: two nouns related to the subject in line one, followed by two nouns related to the subject in line seven.
Fifth line: three verbs relating to the subject in line seven.
Sixth line: two adjectives which describe the subject in line seven.
Seventh line: a one-word subject that contrasts with the subject in line one.
There is also another, simpler type of diamante which contains only one subject. In this form, the first and seventh lines contain words which are two ways of saying the same thing. The example below demonstrates the former, more complex type.
Growth
Lush, Poetic
Spreading, Flourishing, Multiplying
Youth, Life, Death, Darkness
Shrinking, Dying, Shriveling
Diseased, Fetid
Decay
ECLOGUE
An eclogue is a poem about rural life, generally a conversation between shepherds, in which country life is usually portrayed in an idealistic way. Eclogues are also known as bucolics, idyls, or pastorals.
The following is the beginning of 'Eclogue I' by Virgil. In the complete poem, the conversation continues to switch back and forth between the two men.
Meliboeus.
You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad beech-canopy
Reclining, on the slender oat rehearse
Your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields,
And home's familiar bounds, even now depart.
Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you
Sit careless in the shade, and, at your call,
'Fair Amaryllis' bid the woods resound.
Tityrus.
O Meliboeus, 'twas a god vouchsafed
This ease to us, for him a god will I
Deem ever, and from my folds a tender lamb
Oft with its life-blood shall his altar stain.
His gift it is that, as your eyes may see,
My kine may roam at large, and I myself
Play on my shepherd's pipe what songs I will.
EPIC
Epics are very long narrative poems which typically feature heroic characters, noble deeds, fantastic battles or events, and a high style of writing (epics take themselves very seriously). The excerpt below is taken from a translation of Beowulf, an epic about a hero of the same name. The name of Beowulf's author is a mystery which will probably never be solved.
Soon then saw that shepherd-of-evils
that never he met in this middle-world,
in the ways of earth, another wight
with heavier hand-gripe; at heart he feared,
sorrowed in soul, -- none the sooner escaped!
Fain would he flee, his fastness seek,
the den of devils: no doings now
such as oft he had done in days of old!
EPIGRAM
An epigram is a very short poem, usually two or four lines long, with a simple rhyme scheme. The goal of an epigram is to encapulate a brief bit of wit or wisdom in poetic form. The epigram below, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge about a volunteer singer, is a case in point.
Swans sing before they die--'twere no bad thing
Should certain people die before they sing!
ETHERE
An ethere has ten lines and no pattern of rhythm or rhyme. Each line contains the same number of syllables as its line number. There is also a reverse ethere, which is the opposite (first line contains ten syllables, second has nine, etc.) and also a double ethere, which usually consists of an ethere followed by a reverse ethere. The example below is simply a normal ethere.
Fear
It rides
In the night
On shadow wings
As a specter of
Some ancient black horror
Which manifests suddenly
On the small, pale, shivering mind
And then, like a half-remembered dream
Dissolves peacefully into nothingness.
GHAZAL
The ghazal is a Middle Eastern form. It is arranged in a series of couplets, usually five or more. The couplets are independent; each can stand alone as a separate poem and still make sense. The couplets can be thematically related, but this is not a requirement. Ghazals contain a refrain - a word or a short phrase - which appears at the end of both lines of the first couplet and at the end of the second line of every subsequent couplet. The ghazal also has a rhyme which appears, not at the end of the line, but within it, directly before every repetition of the refrain. Ghazals are also required to maintain a strict meter (syllable stress pattern). Finally, a ghazal's last couplet may contain the poet's name as a kind of signature, although this is not required.
The example below does not have this 'signature.' Notice the refrain, 'today,' as well as the '-ite' sound that always precedes it.
I think I'll go outside and see the light today
I plan to grant myself the gift of sight today
No more of this uncertainty and solitude
The humming of the quiet world seems right today
The shadows fall, uncertainty is ever near
But no, the brilliant sun is clear and bright today
How often shades of gray have muddled simple things -
I want to see in crystal black and white today
Now put aside this dismal work for just an hour
I ride to see my children as a knight today!
GLOSA
In the glosa, a Spanish form, the first stanza serves as the template for the overall poem. Each subsequent stanza elaborates on one particular line from the first stanza and usually contains the line itself at least once as a refrain. (Other, stricter versions of the glosa also exist.) This example's first stanza was written as a complete poem by an anonymous poet, and the rest was added much later by Lewis Turco (writing under the pseudonym of Wesli Court) to form a glosa.
Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
That the small rain down shall rain?
Christ! that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again.
Western wind, when wilt thou blow?
When shall the rivers begin to flow
Over this ice toward the sea?
When will the branches of the tree
Drop their mantles of rime and snow?
Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
That the small rain down shall rain?
Then may the willows in their train
Loosen their limbs upon the stream;
Then may birdsong burst this dream
Of winter to seek the sprouting grain,
That the small rain down shall rain.
Christ! that my love were in my arms
Where the grass greens and the bee swarms!
She is fair as the mountain heather,
Comely and kind as Maytime's weather
Over the land after April storms--
Christ! that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again
Where gladly I have slept and lain
Upon the pillow of her hair.
When shall I once more come there,
Her breast beneath the counterpane,
And I in my bed again.
HAIKU
The word 'haiku' is Japanese in origin, and the Japanese idea of its definition is subtle and complex. In English, however, 'haiku' usually refers to a three-lined poem with no pattern of rhythm or rhyme wherein the first and third lines contain five syllables each, while the second line contains seven. For example:
Overhead the light
Is growing ever fainter
Thunder splits the deep.
Haiku are also generally nature-oriented and serious, unlike their cousin, the senryu.
For a sample of authentic Japanese poetry, consider the following haiku by the Japanese master Basho. They are not three separate poems, but rather three different translations of the exact same poem; the contrast between them is meant to illustrate the difficulty of transferring the essence of poetry from one language to another.
The old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water.
Old pond
leap - splash
a frog.
Old dark sleepy pool
quick unexpected frog
goes plop! Watersplash.
You may notice that these translations do not follow the five-seven-five syllable pattern. This is of course because they are translations; however, even in their original Japanese, the 5-7-5 rule is often brushed aside in favor of a better word choice. Furthermore, even when the rule is followed, it applies to onji, which have no real English counterpart, rather than syllables. In recognition of this, many Western haiku poets have given up the syllable rule entirely in order to follow in the footsteps of the Japanese haiku more closely. Nothing is ever simple!
HUITAIN
A Spanish form of poetry, the huitain revolves around the number eight - there are eight lines in the poem, and each line contains eight syllables. The rhyme scheme is ababbcbc. That's all there is to it!
I teeter on the rocky edge
The brink is sheer - but far below
I see another, smaller ledge
On which stands someone else I know