Types of Poetry

Cinquain Poems
Cinquains have five lines:
Line 1: Title (noun) - 1
word Example:

Line 2: Description - 2 Mom

words Helpful, caring

Loves to garden
Line 3: Action - 3 words Excitable, likes satisfying people

Teacher
Line 4: Feeling (phrase) -
4 words
Line 5: Title (synonym for
the title) - 1 word
Diamante Poems
The Diamante is a form similar to the
Cinquain. The text forms the shape of a
diamond.
Line 1: Noun or subject - one word Example:
Line 2: Two Adjectives that describe line 1
Line 3: Three -ing words that describe line
1 Pencil
Line 4: Four nouns - the first two are Sharp, skinny
connected with line 1; the last two are
Writing, answering, erasing
connected with line 7
Wood, lead, ink, plastic
Line 5: Three -ing words that describe line
7 Drawing, smudging, leaking

Line 6: Two adjectives that describe line 7 Durable, comfortable

Line 7: Noun Synonym for the subject Pen

 Epitaph Poems
When somebody from our family and
friend dies, we want to
commemorate his/her memories. For
this, we use epitaph, which is a brief
writing or saying. Epitaph is an
inscription written on a grave.
Generally, it is a brief composition,
having figurative sense in averseor
inproseform, written to pay tribute
to a deceased person, or to
remember a past event. Strictly
speaking, epitaph is a short text on a
plaque or tombstone, honoring a
dead person. It is derived from a
Examples:
"Here lies Sam Shay,
Smoked six packs a day.
He started smoking when he was five.
Now that fool is
no longer alive.
Robert Frosts Epitaph:
And were an epitaph to be my story
Id have a short one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my
stone:
I had a lovers quarrel with the world.
Haiku Poems
Haiku is Japanese poetry that reflects on
nature and feelings.
It contains three lines.
It has five syllables in the first line,
seven in the second and five in the last
line.
It contains 17 syllables in total.
Examples:
A Haiku poem does not rhyme.
Butterflies are cool
Haiku poems frequently have a kigo or
In the big, huge, green forest.
seasonal reference.
They fly up so high!
The poem has two juxtaposed subjects
that are divided into two contrasting
parts.
In English, this division between two
parts can be shown by a colon or dash.
Limerick Poems
A limerick has five lines. Example

The last words of lines one, two,

and five rhyme.
The last words of lines three and There was an Old Man with a
four rhyme. beard,
A limerick has to have a pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables:
Who said, It is just as I feared!
USUUSUUS Two Owls and a Hen,
USUUSUUS Four Larks and a Wren,
USUUS Have all built their nests in my
USUUS beard!
USUUSUUS
From There was an Old Man with a Beardby Edward Lea
Free Verse Poems
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.
Example:
A noiseless patient spider,
I markd where on a little promontory it stood
isolated,
Markd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launchd forth filament, filament, filament, out of
itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of
space,.
Till the bridge you will need be formd, till the ductile
anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere,
O my soul
A Noiseless Patient Spiderby Walt
Whitman
Odes Example:

An Ode is a poem
An Ode To Dreamers

When dreamers dream

And lovers love

praising and glorifying Do they receive their visions

From heaven above?

a person, place or Or do they originate

Where all things start

thing. Within our minds

Within our hearts?

Typically serious or I know not all

solemn in nature.
Uses a metrical But what I do know is this

You cannot build a Kingdom

pattern or rhyme Upon a flimsy wish

So believe in your dreams

scheme. Follow them blind

Lest you loose them all,

To the hands of time.

Copyright 2000 B. R. Jording

Essence Poems
The Essence, created by
Emily Romano is a short, Example:

structured form of two- Winds howl; snow overwhelms

the owl, and cowls the elms.

lines, six syllables each Published in P.O.E.T.S., Volume II 1981 & The Ties That
with an end rhyme and Bind, 2005

internal rhyme. Copyright 1981 Emily Romano

Example #2:

Trees moan; stiff branches arch -

Pine koan: the Ides of March!

Published in And Still An East Wind Blows, 1979

Copyright 1979 Emily Romano

Sonnets
A Sonnet is a poem
consisting of 14 lines
(iambic pentameter) with
A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains
a particular rhyming and a couplet, and rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.

scheme: An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave, rhyming

abbaabba, and a sestet, rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd, or in

Examples of a rhyming
some variant pattern, but with no closing couplet.

Usually, English and Italian Sonnets have 10 syllables per

scheme: line, but Italian Sonnets can also have 11 syllables per line.
French sonnets follow in this same pattern, but normally
#1) abab cdcd efef gg have 12 syllables per line.

#2) abba cddc effe gg

#3) abba abba cdcd cd
Sonnets (cont.)
Example #1:
Sonnet of Demeter--Italian Sonnet

Oh the pirate stars, they have no mercy!

Till she is returned-- my daughter, my blood--
Masquerading as hope they tell their lies;
From the dark hand of Hades to my care.
Only the young can hear their lullabies.
With my tears these mortals shall know a flood
But I am barren and I am thirsty
To show Poseidon's realm desert and bare.
Since she has gone. No hope is there for me.
No myrtle shall flower, no cypress bud
I will roam and curse this earth and these Till the gods release her...and my despair
skies--
Death from life which Zeus sovereign denies.
Copyright 2000 Erica Fay
My heart's ill shall the whole world's illness
be
Sonnets (cont.)
To--French Sonnet

Elle est muette. Waiting in wind towards nightfall,

dawn emerges early with purple hands, eager Fingers trace Venus in the
for a song of mountains. Silhouetting meager
ground, sun throws her whispy shadow across and tall.
sky - wishes are flung
(She had never been imprisoned or subdued
beneath his lips, hands, or eyes, which roughly tasted,
and whispers are sent from
perhaps, the small of her back ere passion wasted tenderly silent tongue.
her soul, or planets quit orbits standing still - queued.)
Elle est muette. Sighing under sun - coming twilight
beckons secret sentiments unspoken; verses
promised in breaths - never to be revealed; curses Copyright 2000
against space and time for splitting the seams of night.
Christine Ann Kelley
Sonnets (cont.)
Example #3:
Sonnet--Italian Sonnet

As life is written in a hidden page

I set my soul free down the dreamers lane
I soar among all the things that will fly
Thoughts of joyful times bring my mind
I'm always seeking my soul's so lost core
aflight
Sooths all of my hate and my painful rage
Moons of memories drip so lovely light
Sorrow from all my blood dripped tears I cry
Stars above hum a tune to ease my pain
Dreams are the peace felt in life times before
I sail a sea where kings of past did reign
Thoughts buried deep burn in the stars so
bright
To see the legends only I may sight
A life of imagery that pumps in vein Copyright 2000 Emily Webber
Parody
This parody is a comical or
humorous one based on a
Mother Goose nursery
Example:
rhyme.
Minor changes are made Humpty Dumpty

Was quite tough

to the original poem. You He could even play sports

can parody any famous That were very rough!

poem.
Senryu Poems Example #1:

Brilliant words flowing

From those never knowing, how

many lives they touch....

Senryu (also called human

Copyright 2001 Connie Marcum Wong
haiku) is an unrhymed
Japanese verse consisting of Example #2:
three unrhymed lines of five,
seven, and five syllables (5, 7, A folded napkin
5) or 17 syllables in all.
Senryu is usually written in
Is not intended to be
the present tense and only A permanent thing.
references to some aspect of
human nature or emotions. Copyright 2001 Dendrobia
Tanka Poems
A tanka (or waka) is quite similar
to Japanese haiku, but consists of
a total of 31 syllables distributed
as follows: Example
Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables The birds are chirping

Quietly in the forest

Line 3: 5 syllables Watching for some worms
Line 4: 7 syllables To appear after the rain

Line 5: 7 syllables Oh, so patiently they wait.

They are usually written with

nature or mood in mind.
Sijo Poems
Originally the term referred to the music
written for a type of short poem, which
was called the tang-ka. Now sijo refers
to the poetry form composed of 44 46 Example:
sound units written in a rhythmic pattern
over three long (14 15 syllables) or six Many boats are in the harbor
short lines of six or seven syllables. The On this bright and sunny day!
form is thus very lyrical, melodic and
Waiting for a crew to arrive
uses all the regular poetry techniques.
To prepare them for a run
Like the Japanese tanka, one of the
Sails will be billowing
indications of the sijo is the twist or
turn near the end of the poem. Subject Wind will carry them all away.

matter was previously humor or love or

both, but now is open to all themes.