Genres of Poetry
Lyric
Narrative
Dramatic
Quiz
Quiz
Quiz
Quiz
Quiz
Types of Poems
Acrostic
Ballad
Biopoem
Cinquain
Concrete
Couplet
Diamante
Didactic
Elegy
Epic
Free verse
Haiku
Limerick
Lyric
Narrative
Ode
Parody
Sonnet
Quatrains
Tanka
I WISH…
I USED TO … BUT NOW…
Types of Poems
How many types of poems
have you counted?
Acrostic Poem
The
theme is spelled out by the
first letter in each line
Example
Ballad
 Tells
a story
 Usually written in four line stanzas
called quatrains
Example
Cinquain
Five lines:
 First line – one noun
 Second line – two adjectives separated by
comma that describe the noun
 Third line – three verbs separated by
comma telling what the noun on the first
line does
 Fourth line – write a thought in a short
phrase about the noun
 Fifth line – repeat a noun used on first line
or write a synonym or some related word

Example
Concrete Poem

A poem shaped to look like the
subject
Example
Couplet
Two
lines of verse that usually
rhyme and state one complete
idea
Example








Diamante
Seven lines
First line – one noun
Second line – two adjectives separated by comma
that describe the noun
Third line – three participles
Fourth line – four nouns related to the subject
(the third and fourth nouns may have opposite
meaning from the first two)
Fifth line – three participles indicating change or
development of the subject
Sixth line – two adjectives carrying on the idea of
change or development
Seventh line – noun – MUST be the opposite of
the noun in the first line
Example
Didactic Poem
 Any
verse to teach a specific,
academic lesson
Example
Epic Poem
A
long story poem describing the
adventures of a hero
Example
Free Verse
 Poetry
written in either rhyme or
unrhymed lines that have no set
fixed metrical pattern.
Example
Haiku
Originated
in Japan
Presents a picture of nature (original
ones)
Has three unrhymed lines
First and third line are five syllables
Second line is seven syllables
Example
Limerick
A
humorous verse of five lines.
Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme and
have three stressed syllables
Lines 3 and 4 rhyme and have
two stressed syllables
Example
Lyric Poem
A
short poem that expresses
personal feelings
Example
Parody
A
poem which is based on a wellknown poem so that a mimic of its
rhythm, rhyme scheme, or verses
are immediately recognized
Example
Sonnet
A
fourteen line poem which states
the poet’s personal feelings; each
line is ten syllables in length
Example
Quatrain
A
four line stanza or poem
 Common rhyme schemes are
aabb, abab, or abcd
Example
Example of an Acrostic Poem
Christ was born on Christmas Day.
Holidays are special.
Reindeer tow Santa's sled.
Icicles hang off my roof.
Snow comes in December.
Trees are decorated for Christmas.
Mummers go singing Christmas carols.
Angels are in the Christmas play.
Santa drinks a lot of fanta.
Example of a Ballad
Ballad of Birmingham
"Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?"
by Dudley Randall
"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren't good for a little child."
The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
"But, mother, I won't be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free."
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
"No baby, no, you may not go
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children's choir."
She
And
And
And
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?"
has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
bathed rose petal sweet,
drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
white shoes on her feet.
Example of a Cinquain
puppy
ornery, naughty
growling, jumping, chewing
a playful bundle of trouble
Boxer
penguin
black, white
waddling, swimming, leaping
a tuxedo in the cold water
emperor
Example of a Concrete Poem
Dove
Example of a Couplet
by Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school
today."
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
Example of Diamante
Seasons
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/diamantes.html
Winter
Rainy, cold
Skiing, skating, sledding
Mountains, wind, breeze, ocean
Swimming, surfing, scuba diving
Sunny, hot
Summer
Example of a Didactic Poem
Wind: Learn Adjectives (Haiku)
by Christopher Rudolph
* Bold words are adjectives.
Wisping, wistful wind (5 syllables)
Warm, rising, ethereal (7 syllables)
Evanescent coo (5 syllables)
Example of an Epic Poem
Hiawatha's Departure
from
by
The Song of Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
Full version of the poem
Example of a Free Verse
Fog
by Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Example of a Haiku
The Rose
by Donna Brock
The red blossom bends
and drips its dew to the ground.
Like a tear it falls.
Example of a Limerick
Limerick by Edward Lear
There was an Old Man in a boat,
Who said, 'I'm afloat, I'm afloat!'
When they said, 'No! you ain't!'
He was ready to faint,
That unhappy Old Man in a boat.
Example of a Lyric Poem
Dying
by Emily Dickinson
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable,-and then
There interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
Example of a Parody
A School Day
by Penman
Once upon a schoolday rotten
Came some bullies and they were plot'n
To mop my head across the bathroom floor
A mop mop mopping across the bathroom floor
Only this and nothing more
When all of a sudden there came a rapping
A tap tap tapping on the bathroom door
Only my head and nothing more
I started to scream to show my displeasure
but they wanted to open my head like some kind of treasure
and spill the contents across the bathroom floor.
Only this and nothing more
Oh won't these bullies please let me be
I promise I'll give them all of my money
and after they wiped me across the bathroom floor
they took this and nothing more.
So they just quit the beating right out of the blue
I guess it was because school's out it's five after two
but they dismissed it as if they were now bored
only this and nothing more
Example of a Sonnet
SONNET 116
by Shakespeare
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. Explanation
If this be error and upon me proved,
of
the Sonnet
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Paraphrase of the Sonnet 116
Let me not declare any reasons why two
True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love
Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances,
Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That sees storms but is never shaken;
Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be
measured.
Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Comes within the compass of his sickle.
Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.
Example of a Quatrain
The Mountain
by Donna Brock
The mountain frames the sky (a)
As a shadow of an eagle flies by. (a)
With clouds hanging at its edge (b)
A climber proves his courage on its rocky ledge. (b)
Question # 1: What
common
feature do couplet,
limerick, haiku, sonnet,
and quatrain poems
have?
Question #2: Which types
of poems could be
classified as narrative
poetry?
Question #3: What type of
poem would you write to
make your friends laugh?
Question #4
What poem would be
most appropriate for your
Valentine?
Question #5?
What is the difference
between free verse poetry
and writing non-poetry?