Forms of Poetry
Task: Match the correct form to its definition and example.
There are two examples missing. Can you work out which?
Challenge: Start annotating the features of each poem.
1.
Sonnet
2. Haiku
3. Villanelle
4. Sestina
5. Ekphrastic
6. Elegy
7. Limerick
8. Ballad
subject is a short, pithy tale or
description.
particular form; instead, it’s
defined by its subject, which is
death. A poem of mourning, often
for a particular person, but it can
be about a group of people or
about a broader sense of loss.
They often move from mourning
toward consolation.
10. Tanka
unlike the villanelle, they don’t have to rhyme. It
has six stanzas of six lines each, and a closing
13. Lyric
AABBA rhyme scheme, and whose
poem doesn’t have to fit a
Like the villanelle, it has a lot of repetition, but
12. Free verse
consists of a single stanza, an
Like ekphrastic poetry this type of
9. Epitaph
11. Ode
Irish form: a five-line poem that
stanza of three lines. The six words that end the
lines of the first stanza get repeated at the line
endings of each of the remaining stanzas, and all
six words appear in the poem’s final three lines.
Poetry that lacks a consistent
Much like an elegy, this
poem is a tribute to its
Japanese form that arose in the 17th
century. Typically has 17 syllables,
arranged in three lines, first five
syllables, then 7, then 5. Most
commonly about nature, often
containing a seasonal reference. They
tend to contain two juxtaposed images
or ideas.
A form of narrative verse that can
be either poetic or musical. It
(adjective: able to
rhymed quatrains.
perceive or feel things.)
love, the longing for love. They are written
in iambic pentameter. There are two types:
Shakespearean and Petrarchan. Petrarchan
typically have an ABBA ABBA CDE CDE rhyme
scheme, and Shakespearean are usually ABAB
CDCD EFEF GG.
9 lines, organized into five stanzas of three
lines each, and one closing stanza of four lines.
The rhyme scheme is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA
ABAA. Notice there are only two rhyming
sounds here! In addition, line 1 gets repeated
in lines 6, 12, and 18. Line 3 gets repeated in
lines 9, 15, and 19. So many rules!
An ancient Japanese form of poetry that is
categorised by the number of syllables in
a vivid description of a scene or,
more commonly, a work of art. Through
each line, totalling 31 syllables. These poems
traditionally are about seasons, nature,
the imaginative act of narrating and
desires, or feelings; typically present a
reflecting on the “action” of a painting
or sculpture, the poet may amplify and
whole story or picture within the 31
syllables.
expand its meaning.
rhyme scheme, metrical
pattern, or musical form.
A short poem intended for (or imagined as) an inscription on
a tombstone and often serving as a brief elegy.
about love—lost love, married love, forgotten
typically follows a pattern of
subject, although the
subject need not be dead—
or even sentient
Traditionally have 14 lines and are often
Usually short, song like poetry that expresses the poet's thoughts and
feelings.
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It does not tell a story, but it creates a mood through vivid
images and descriptive words.
may be made up of regular stanzas or they may have uneven
stanzas.
Many use images, or pictures, from nature,
A cool wind blows in
With a blanket of silence.
Straining to listen
For those first few drops of rain,
The storm begins in earnest.
Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a beard
Who said, "It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!"