Module 6

TYPES OF POETRY

1. ACROSTIC. In acrostic poems, certain letters of each line spell out a word or message. Usually, the
letters that spell the message will be the first letter of each line, so that you can read the secret word right
down the margin.
Example:
“Hope in a Dream” by Adalia Medina
Hold onto your dream while mindful of time.
Optimism required, let your light shine.
Persistence prevails, while some may cast doubt.
Expectation desired is what it's about.

2. BLANK VERSE. Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter, often iambic pentameter (ten
syllables), but it doesn’t rhyme.
Example:
“Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (First stanza)
The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
'Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate

3. CINQUAIN. A cinquain is a five-line poem consisting of twenty-two syllables: two in the first line, then
four, then six, then eight, and then two syllables again in the last line (2-4-6-8-2). These are deceptively
simple poems with a lovely musicality that make the writer think hard about the perfect word choices.
Example:
“November Night” by Adelaide Crapsey
Listen… (2)
With faint dry sound, (4)
Like steps of passing ghosts, (6)
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees (8)
And fall. (2)

4. DIAMANTE. A diamante poem is a poem made of seven unrhymed lines of words that are arranged in
a special diamond-like form.
• The first and last lines have just one word.
• The second and sixth lines have two words.
• The third and fifth lines have three words.
• And the fourth line has four words.
• Lines 1, 4, and 7 have nouns.
• Lines 2 and 6 have adjectives.
• Lines 3 and 5 have verbs.
Here’s how to visualize a diamante:

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun
Examples:
Sun
Fiery, Yellow
Burning, Blinding, Exploding
Shining, Orbiting, Reflecting
Cold, Silver
Moon

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Cat
Gentle, Sleepy
Purring, Meowing, Scratching
Whiskers, Fur, Collar, Leash
Barking, Licking, Digging
Slobbery, Playful
Dog

5. ELEGY. An elegy is like an ode in that it celebrates a person or idea, but in this instance is the poem
centers around something that has died or been lost.
Examples:
“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” by W. H. Auden
He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness

The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,
The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;
By mourning tongues
The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman for Abraham Lincoln

“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”

6. FREE VERSE. Free verse is the type of poetry most favored by contemporary poets; it has no set meter,
rhyme scheme, or structure, but allows the poet to feel out the content of the poem as they go.
Example:
[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in] by E. E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

7. HAIKU. A haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry consisting of three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable
pattern. It often captures nature, seasons, or fleeting moments.
Examples:
“An Old Silent Pond” by Matsuo Bashō
"An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond—
Splash! Silence again."

"Over the Wintry" – Natsume Sōseki

"Over the wintry
Forest, winds howl in rage
With no leaves to blow."

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8. LIMERICK. A limerick is a short, famous poetic form consisting of five lines that follow the rhyme form
AABBA. Usually these are quite funny and tell a story. The first two lines should have eight or nine
syllables each, the third and fourth lines should have five or six syllables each, and the final line eight or
nine syllables again. (8-8-5-5-8)
Examples:
"There Was an Old Man with a Beard" – Edward Lear
"There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!’"

"There Once Was a Man from Peru" – Anonymous

"There once was a man from Peru,
Who dreamt he was eating his shoe.
He awoke with a fright,
In the middle of night,
To find that his dream had come true!"

9. ODE. An ode is a poetic form of celebration used to honor a person, thing, or idea. They’re often
overflowing with intense emotion and powerful imagery.
Example:
"Ode to a Nightingale" – John Keats
"Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown."

"Ode to a Nightingale" – John Keats

"Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown."

10. SONNET. A sonnet is a lyric poem that always has fourteen lines. The oldest type of sonnet is the
Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, which is broken into two stanzas of eight lines and six lines. For the
Petrarchan sonnet, the first stanza has a consistent rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA and the second
stanza has a rhyme scheme of either CDECDE or CDCDCD. On the other hand, Shakespearean sonnet
has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
Example:
“Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” By William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
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With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
11. TANKA. A Japanese form of five lines with 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables—31 in all originating in Japan.
Japanese poets historically wrote these in one unbroken line, but now they commonly write tanka poems
in three lines. When poets write tanka in English, they utilize five lines, similar to a cinquain.
Examples:
"Spring's Departure" – Ki no Tsurayuki
"Spring has passed away
Yet mischievous dewdrops fall
On soft cherry buds,
And I wonder who remains
In the house I used to know."

"The Changing Leaves" – Masaoka Shiki

"Scattering blossoms,
Falling leaves drift on the wind—
Seasons pass quickly,
Yet your voice still lingers here,
A whisper among the trees."

12. VILLANELLE. A villanelle is a type of French poem made up of nineteen lines grouped into six
separate stanzas. The first five stanzas have three lines each, and the last stanza has four lines.
Each three-line stanza rhymes ABA, and the last one ABAA.
Example:
“Mad Girl's Love Song” by Sylvia Path
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

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