Poetic Forms

From epics and sonnets to haikus and villanelles, learn more about 40 of literature’s most enduring types of poems.

1. Acrostic

Like haikus, you’re likely to encounter acrostic poems at school! But that doesn’t mean they’re boring – in fact, far from it! This type of poetry spells out a name, word, phrase or message with the first letter of each line of the poem. It can rhyme or not, and typically the word spelt out, lays down the theme of the poem. Why not try it with the silliest word you can think of – it can be really fun!

2. Alphabet Poetry

Alphabet poems are known as Abecedarian and ABC poems and are related to the Acrostic poem. In this poem, the first letter of each line begins with the letter A, B, C, D, and follows sequentially through the alphabet to Z. Each line focuses on the subject of the poem and builds to create a specific story or mood.

3. Ballad

A ballad is a form of narrative verse that can be either poetic or musical. It typically follows a pattern of rhymed quatrains. From John Keats to Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Bob Dylan, it represents a melodious form of storytelling.

• Ballad – The ballad is another old and traditional form of poetry that typically tells a dramatic or emotional story. They came from Europe in the late Middle Ages and were initially passed down from one generation to another, and often with music. Ballads do have a set form; they are typically four lines (quatrain) and have a rhyme scheme of ABAB or ABCB. However, this form is looser than others so can be modified to suit a writer’s (that’s you!) needs. Most modern pop songs you hear nowadays can be referred to as ballads!

4. Ballade

The ballade was one of the principal forms of music and poetry in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century France. Not to be confused with the ballad, the ballade contains three main stanzas, each with the same rhyme scheme, plus a shorter concluding stanza, or envoi. All four stanzas have identical final refrain lines. The tone of the ballade was often solemn and formal, with elaborate symbolism and classical references.

5. Blackout Poetry

Blackout (or erasure) poetry is a form of found poetry, wherein you take an existing text and cross out or black out large portions of it. The idea is to create something new from what remains of the initial text, creating a dialogue between the new text and the existing one. This form is great for experimentation as you can use books, magazines, newspapers, anything you can think of. A great example is Doris Cross’ Dictionary Columns.

6. Blank verse

Blank verse is a literary term that refers to poetry written in unrhymed but metered lines, almost always iambic pentameter. “Iambic pentameter” refers to the meter of the poetic line: a line of poetry written this way is composed of five “iambs,” groups of two syllables that fall into an “unstressed-stressed” pattern: famously, like a heartbeat: buh-BUM, buh-BUM.

Additionally, iambic pentameter refers to the foot and meter of the line. An iamb is a foot, or a pattern of syllables, that stands for one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A pentameter is a meter, or the number of feet in the line. The Greek prefix “penta” means five and thus indicates that in pentameter, there are five feet. When determining what is blank verse, look for 10 “unstressed/stressed” syllables.

7. Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry is designed to create a particular shape or form on the page which echoes the poem’s message. This form of poetry uses layout and spacing to emphasise certain themes, and they sometimes take the shape of their subjects. For instance, a poem about the moon may have a decidedly crescent shape. Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree by George Starbuck is a wonderful concrete poem (and is a sonnet too; poems often belong in several poetic groups).

8. Diamante Poetry

A diamante poem (dee-uh-mahn-tay) is an unrhymed poem that follows a specific format of seven lines. The first and last lines are short while the middle lines are longer so that the poem takes the shape of a diamond once complete (hence the name diamante, the Italian word for diamond).

9. Ekphrastic

The term ekphrastic poetry refers to any poem that uses a visual image or work of art as inspiration. Ekphrastic poetry is not about form, rigidity, or structure, but the connection between poetry and art. It’s often created by poets writing down details about an art form and how it makes them feel, or imagining when and how the art form was created. Self-Portrait with Sylvia Plath’s Braid by Diane Seuss is a contemporary example of an ekphrastic poem.

10. Elegy

An elegy is a poem that reflects upon death or loss. Traditionally, it contains themes of mourning, loss, and reflection. However, it can also explore themes of redemption and consolation.

• Elegy – An elegy doesn’t have rules like some of the other forms of poetry but it does have a set subject: death – eek! They are usually written about a loved one who has passed away, but can also be written about a group of people, too. Although they can sound sad, elegies often end on a hopeful note, hooray!

11. Epic

An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems typically detail the extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past.

12. Epitaph

An epitaph is a short lyric written in memory of someone who has died. Sometimes, epitaphs serve as elegies.

13. Found Poem

A found poem is a form of poetry that comprises borrowed text from different sources. Poets borrow words, phrases, or passages from sources like novels, newspaper, articles, letters, street signs or even other poems.

14. Free verse

Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or musical form.

• Free verse – Free verse is a popular style of modern poetry, and as its name suggests there is a fair amount of freedom when it comes to writing a poem like this. Free verse can rhyme or not, it can have as many lines or stanzas as the poet wants, and it can be about anything you like! So, while free verse may sound simple enough, the lack of rules makes this form of poetry tricky to master!

15. Ghazal

The ghazal is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. Ghazals often deal with topics of spiritual and romantic love and may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation from the beloved and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. Poetically, ghazal is a type of poem that is constructed with couplets, repeated words, and rhyming words.

16. Haiku

A haiku is a three-line poetic form originating in Japan. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line again has five syllables.

• Haiku – The haiku (or hokku) is an ancient form of Japanese poetry that has become very popular all over the world. Renowned for its small size, haikus consist of just three lines (tercet); the first and third lines have five syllables, whereas the second has seven. Haikus don’t have to rhyme and are usually written to evoke a particular mood or instance. So, you can have a lot of fun with them! You may have written or will find yourself writing your own haiku at some point in school, or you can get creative and try it at home, too.

17. Horatian ode

Horatia ode take its name and form after the Roman poet Horace. It is a lyric poem that expresses feelings of joy, pleasure, or appreciation for a particular subject. The Horatian ode is made up of either two or four-line stanzas and has a consistent rhyme scheme and meter.

18. Limerick

A limerick is a five-line poem that consists of a single stanza, an AABBA rhyme scheme, and whose subject is a short, pithy tale or description.

• Limerick – Limericks are funny (and sometimes rude!) poems which were made popular by Edward Lear in the 19th century. They have a set rhyme scheme of AABBA, with lines one, two and five all being longer in length than lines three and four. The last line is often the punchline. Their sound is very distinctive, it’s likely you’ve heard or read one before!

19. Lullaby

A lullaby is a soothing song that is sung to put children to sleep. Lullabies are often used in the evening, just before bedtime. The most common type of lullaby is one that has a slow and gentle rhythm.

20. Lyric

Lyric poetry refers to the broad category of poetry that concerns feelings and emotion. This distinguishes it from two other poetic categories: epic and dramatic.

21. Narrative

Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need to rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relate to may be complex. It is normally dramatic, with various characters.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” exemplify this form.

22. Occasional Poetry

An occasional poem is a poem written to document or provide commentary on an event. It is often intended to be read or performed publicly.

23. Ode

Much like an elegy, an ode is a tribute to its subject, although the subject need not be dead—or even sentient, as in John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.

• Ode – The ode is one of the oldest forms of poetry and believed to have come from ancient Greece. Yep – yonks ago! The word ‘ode’ is derived from the Greek word ‘aeidein’ which means ‘to sing or chant’, and these poems were originally performed with a musical instrument. An ode is typically written to praise a person, event or thing (you could write an ode to your pet or favourite food!) and they are usually quite short in length.

24. Palindrome Poetry

This type of poetry combines poetic form with palindromes, so the words reflect back upon themselves, hence why they are also referred to as mirror poems. These poems start with an initial set of lines and then hinge on a line that usually repeats directly in the middle of the poem before they work through the rest of the lines in reverse order.

This is another complicated form which seems less daunting once you read an example of it. Try Doppelgänger by James A. Lindon.

25. Pantoum

Pantoums are a more complicated type of poetry. They are poems of any length and are composed of quatrains. Within these quatrains, the second and fourth lines of each stanza are used as the first and third lines of the following stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first. An example of a pantoum is Charles Baudelaire’s Harmonie du Soir.

26. Pastoral poetry

A pastoral poem is one that concerns the natural world, rural life, and landscapes. Pastoral poems idealize rural life and the countryside. Despite writing about rural life, pastoral poets were usually not from the countryside. Instead, urban poets used pastoral poetry to portray rural life as a fantasy, a society of shepherds who were free from the complexities of city life.

These poems have persevered from Ancient Greece (in the poetry of Hesiod) to Ancient Rome (Virgil) to the present day (Gary Snyder).

27. Prose

Prose poetry, as the name suggests, combines elements of the poetic form with those of the prose form. It tends to look like a standard paragraph of prose with standard punctuation and a lack of line breaks, though it utilises poetic elements such as meter, alliteration, repetition, rhyme, and rhythm.

As some of these devices/elements feature in other forms of writing too, a combination of them must be used in the writing in order for it to be determined as a prose poem. If you’re looking for an example of a prose poem, Bath by Amy Lowell is a great one.

28. Renga

The renga is a unique collaborative Japanese style of poetry in which multiple poets write alternating stanzas. The form is incredibly complicated and requires an intricate understanding of the rules governing its form.

29. Rhymed

In contrast to blank verse, rhymed poems rhyme by definition, although their scheme varies.

30. Rondeau

Originating in France, a mainly octosyllabic poem consisting of between 10 and 15 lines and three stanzas. It has only two rhymes, with the opening words used twice as an unrhyming refrain at the end of the second and third stanzas. The 10-line version rhymes ABBAABc ABBAc (where the lower-case “c” stands for the refrain). The 15-line version often rhymes AABBA AABc AABAc. Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Now welcome, summer” at the close of The Parlement of Fowls is an example of a 13-line rondeau.

A rondeau redoublé consists of six quatrains using two rhymes. The first quatrain consists of four refrain lines that are used, in sequence, as the last lines of the next four quatrains, and a phrase from the first refrain is repeated as a tail at the end of the final stanza.

31. Sestina

The sestina is a complex French verse form which usually features unrhymed lines of poetry. It has six sestets, and an ending tercet. The ending words of each line from the first stanza are repeated in a different order as ending words in each of the subsequent five stanzas. The closing tercet contains all six of these ending words, two per line, and they are placed in the middle and at the end of these three lines.

The sestina is one of the most complicated types of poetry, but its intricacies create beautiful poetry. It often helps to look at examples of complicated poetic forms, so you can see how they’re structured. A Miracle for Breakfast by Elizabeth Bishop is a great example of a sestina.

32. Soliloquy

A soliloquy is a monologue in which a character speaks to him or herself, expressing inner thoughts that an audience might not otherwise know. Soliloquies are not definition ally poems, although they often can be—most famously in the plays of William Shakespeare.

33. Sonnet

A sonnet is a 14 line poem, typically (but not exclusively) concerning the topic of love. Sonnets contain internal rhymes within their 14 lines; the exact rhyme scheme depends on the style of a sonnet.

• Sonnet – This very old form of poetry was made famous by none other than William Shakespeare, but the sonnet actually originated in 13th century Italy where it was perfected by the poet Petrarch. The word ‘sonnet’ is derived from the Italian word ‘sonnetto’ which means ‘little song’. Traditionally, sonnets are made up of 14 lines and usually deal with love. As a rule, Petrarchan (Italian) sonnets follow an ABBA ABBA CDE CDE rhyme scheme, whereas Shakespearean (English) sonnets are typically ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. But of course, rules are made to be broken!

34. Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. There are many different forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains.

35. Terza Rima

Terza rima is an Italian stanza form popularized by Alighieri after the publication of his The Divine Comedy. The pattern, ABA BCB DED, is known as an interlocking rhyme scheme. Aside from this pattern, there are no other elements that define a terza rima poem. Poets do not need to use a specific metrical pattern or use a certain number of lines. Despite this, the majority of the English examples make use of iambic pentameter.

36. Tetractys

Tetractys, a poetic form invented by Ray Stebbing, consists of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). Tetractys can be written with more than one verse, but must follow suit with an inverted syllable count. Tetractys can also bereversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2, 1.

37. Triplet

A triplet is a poetic form that occurs when a writer uses three lines together, all of which use the same rhyme scheme.

38. Tyburn

Tyburn is a six line poem consisting of 2, 2, 2, 2, 9, 9 syllables. The first four lines rhyme and are all descriptive words. The last two lines rhyme and incorporate the first, second, third, and fourth lines as the 5th through 8th syllables.

Example #1: By Diana Dalton

Willful
wistful
playful
peaceful
she can have a willful wistful day
yet she has a peaceful playful way

Example #2: By Judi Van Gorder

Contrite
tonight
midnight
finite
A church bell rings contrite tonight, thrice.
Tyburn gallows midnight finite price.

Example #2: By Judi Van Gorder

Obtain,
retain,
constrain
mundane.
To write in form, obtain, retain prime
words. Practice to constrain mundane rhyme.

39. Villanelle

A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with a highly specified internal rhyme scheme. Originally a variation on a pastoral, the villanelle has evolved to describe obsessions and other intense subject matters, as exemplified by Dylan Thomas, author of villanelles like “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

• Villanelle – The villanelle is another very old form of poetry that came from France and has lots of rules. It is made up of 19 lines; five stanzas of three lines (tercet) each and a final stanza of four lines (quatrain). As you can see from the rhyme scheme; ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA, this type of poem only has two rhyming sounds. Plus, there is a lot of repetition throughout the villanelle. Line one will be repeated in lines six, 12 and 18; and line three will be repeated in lines nine, 15 and 19. So although this takes out the extra work of having to write 19 individual lines, the real challenge is to make meaning out of those repeated lines!

40. Waka poetry

Waka poetry is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that has been practiced for over a thousand years. The term “waka” means “Japanese poem” and is also known as “tanka,” which means “short poem.”