TYPES OF POETRY

SONNET

A lyrical poem of 14 lines. Shakespearean sonnets

use specific structural limitations (iambic

pentameter, 3 quatrains, 1 couplet, and a rhyme

scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG).

Example:

-Shakespearean

-Petrarchan

SONNET: “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.

FREE VERSEA poem that does not use meter or rhyme to

mimic music; a poem that, if read out loud,

sounds like natural speech. The lines have no

set of fixed metrical pattern and can be either

rhymed or unrhymed. Patterns can be based

on repetition and parallel structure rather

than rhythm.

FREE VERSE: “I, TOO” BY

LANGSTON HUGHES

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the table

When company comes

Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.

Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--

I, too, am America

BLANK VERSE

Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, similar

to the English sonnet.

BLANK VERSE:“RAIN” BY EDWARD THOMAS

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain

On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me

Remembering again that I shall die

And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks

For washing me cleaner than I have been

Since I was born into this solitude.

Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:

But here I pray that none whom once I loved

Is dying to-night or lying still awake

Solitary, listening to the rain,

Either in pain or thus in sympathy

Helpless among the living and the dead,

Like a cold water among broken reeds,

Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,

Like me who have no love which this wild rain

Has not dissolved except the love of death,

If love it be towards what is perfect and

Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

LYRIC POEM

A poem, sonnet, or ode that expresses the

thoughts and feelings of the poet.

“BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH”

BY EMILY DICKINSON

Because I could not stop for Death – 

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –The Dews drew quivering and chill –For only Gossamer, my Gown –My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground –The Roof was scarcely visible –The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses’ HeadsWere toward Eternity – 

BALLAD

A simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed

in short stanzas and adapted for singing.

Subjects are often tragic love.

Example:

-“The Ballad of Jesse James”

-“Everytime” by Britney Spears

BALLAD: “WE REAL COOL” BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

LIMERICK

A funny, five-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme.

Example:

There was an old man with a beard

Who said, "it’s just how I feared! 

Two owls and a hen 

Four larks and a wren 

Have all built their nests in my beard.”

- Anonymous

HAIKU

A poetic form of a type of poetry from the

Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content,

and language in a meaningful, yet compact form.

The most common form for Haiku is 3 short lines.

Five (5) syllables

Seven (7) syllables

Five (5) syllables

Friends are folks who

know

You so well they see

your faults

But, moreso, see you.

ELEGY

A formal lament for the death of a particular

person.

lament - a passionate expression of grief or

sorrow.

Example:

- “O Captain! My Captain!” – Walt Whitman

ELEGY – “O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!” BY WALT WHITMAN

O

Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

T

he ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

T

he port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

W

hile 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.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

R

ise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,

F

or you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,

F

or you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

 

                        Here Captain! dear father!

 

                           This arm beneath your head!

 

                              It is some dream that on the deck,

 

                                You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

                            But I with mournful tread,

                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,

                                  Fallen cold and dead.

ODEA long lyric poem that praises a person or object, addressed

to that person or object; sometimes with a serious subject

written in an elevated style. Odes often represent the poet’s

serious passion about something important to him or her.

Example:

-“Hymn to Duty” – Wordsworth

-“Ode to a Grecian Urn” – Keats

-“Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots” – Twain

-http://allpoetry.com/poem/1049959-Ode-to-Shopping-by-Victoria-Lynn

ODE: “ODE TO A SKYLARK” BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!                     

Bird thou never wert -                 

That from Heaven or near it                    

   Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

                H

igher still and higher                   

   From the earth thou springest,                

Like a cloud of fire;                     

The blue deep thou wingest, A

nd singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

               

In the golden lightning                    

Of the sunken sun,                

O'er which clouds are bright'ning,                  

   Thou dost float and run,

Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

EPIC POEM

A large-scale poem (in both length and topic), and

tends to use an elevated style of language and

supernatural beings take part in the action.

Example:

-The Odyssey

-Aeneid

-Paradise Lost

THE ODYSSEYS

ing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story

of that man skilled in all ways of contending,

the wanderer, harried for years on end,

after he plundered the stronghold

on the proud height of Troy.

                                           He saw the townlands

and learned the minds of many distant men,

and weathered many bitter nights and days

in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only

to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.

But not by will nor valor could he save them,

for their own recklessness destroyed them all —

children and fools, they killed and feasted on

the cattle of Lord Hêlios, the Sun,

and he who moves all day through the heaven

took from their eyes the dawn of their return. . . .

DIDACTIC POETRY

Poetry used to teach something, such as how-to

instructions, or to impart moral, theoretical, or

practical knowledge.

“ADVICE TO A GIRL” BY SARA TEASDALE

No one worth possessingCan be quite possessed;Lay that on your heart,My young angry dear;This truth, this hard and precious stone,Lay it on your hot cheek,Let it hide your tear.Hold it like a crystalWhen you are aloneAnd gaze in the depths of the icy stone.Long, look long and you will be blessed:No one worth possessingCan be quite possessed.

OTHERTYPES OF POETRY

LIGHT VERSE

A poem written mainly to entertain or amuse.

Example:

- Dr. Seuss

“YERTLE THE TURTLE” DR. SEUSS

I

’m Yertle the Turtle!

Oh, marvelous me!

For I am the ruler

of all that I see!

Y

our Majesty. Please…

I don’t like to complain.

But down here below,

we are feeling great pain.

DOGGEREL

Unsophisticated, basic poetry, often created on a

whim or without great consideration.

Example:

-What we did Monday with our class sonnet (sort

of)

-Often forced rhymes, or “bad” poetry

Life is a treacherous abyss,

It will leave you so amiss,

Like a bird trying to find its lover,

Or looking for a bit of cover

From the storm, we keep trying

To figure out our calling

And yet we're left

Cold and bereft.

FLYTING

A type of poetry that has a rhyme scheme and

meter that heaps abuse on a person. (think “rap

battle”)

SHAPED VERSE

Poetry in the shape of the topic about which the

poem was written.

CONCRETE POEM

A poem in which shape relates to/mirrors the

subject or purpose. Concrete poems use word

placement to convey as much meaning and

emotion as the words themselves.

CONCRETE POEM: “THE MOUSE’S TALE”

BY LEWIS CARROLL

NONSENSE POEM

P

retty much any Lewis Carroll poem, for example…

T

HE JABBERWOCKY

“THE JABBERWOCKY”’

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

     Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:A

ll mimsy were the borogoves, 

     And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 

     The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!B

eware the Jubjub bird, and shun 

     The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand; 

     Long time the manxome foe he sought—S

o rested he by the Tumtum tree 

     And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its head      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves,      And the mome raths outgrabe.