Formatted Poetry
Sonnets
A popular poem in the 13th and 14th century, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem set by a rhyme
scheme (usually a-b-a-b) and a organized structure. The poem has two sestets and then ends
with a final couplet. The sonnet has multiple forms, but the traditional English sonnet,
popularized by Spenser and Shakespeare, use iambic pentameter. Sonnets are usually love
poems, with vivid imagery.
Examples:
Shakespeare: Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Limericks
A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict form (AABBA), which intends to be witty or
humorous, and is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. It may have its roots in the 18th
century in Ireland, but there are examples of limericks found in England found during the AngloSaxon era. The limerick became very popular in English by Edward Lear in the 19th century.
Examples:
There was an Old Man of Kilkenny,
Who never had more than a penny;
He spent all that money,
In onions and honey,
That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny.
There was an Old Person of Ischia,
Whose conduct grew friskier and friskier;
He dance hornpipes and jigs,
And ate thousands of figs,
That lively Old Person of Ischia.
Haikus
Haiku is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, which became popular in the 17th century. The
poem is structured in a 5-7-5-syllable count pattern. They can be either formatted all on one line
or on three separate lines. These poems often depict a scene from nature, but the subject can
vary. The final line is often a cutting line that wraps up the poem.
Examples:
Written by Basho (a famous haiku poet):
old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water’s sound
the first cold shower
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw
Cinquain
Cinquain ("cin-kain") is a five-line form that uses a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2. The form was
based off of the Japanese haiku. A "cinquain" (from cinq the French word for five) usually
follows this organization:
Line 1: a one-word line, a noun that gives the poem its title
Line 2: two adjectives that describes what the poem is about
Line 3:three action -ing verbs that describe something the subject of the poem does
Line 4:a phrase that indicates a feeling related to the subject of the poem
Line 5:a one-word line, noun, that sums about the poem is about, essentially
renaming it
Examples:
penguin
black, white
waddling, swimming, leaping
a tuxedo in the cold water
emperor
facebook
connected, creepy
posting, procrastinating, poking
a student’s vice
stalker