1. ABC poem = a poem that has five lines and creates a mood, picture, or feeling; lines 1-4 all begin with a letter in
alphabetical order and are made up of words or phrases; line 5 is a complete sentence and begins with any letter of
the alphabet not already used and doesn’t have to be in alphabetical order
2. Abecedarian = an acrostic poem that has 26 lines – each one starts with a different letter of the alphabet to begin
the first word; must make sense – can be a phrase or complete sentence for each line (not just a single word in a
line) – alphabet is done in order!!
3. Acrostic = a poem where the first letter of each line spells out a word or a phrase (like the “s---up” in my class)
4. Ballade = four total stanzas; 1st stanza is seven lines, 2nd stanza is eight lines, 3rd stanza is ten lines and 4th stanza
is four or five lines. All stanzas end with the same one-line refrain (last line of each stanza is the same)
5. Bio-poem = a poem about a person that follows this pattern:
Line 1 – first name
Line 2 – four words that describe you
Line 3 – “brother of…” OR “sister of…” – if no siblings, use “cousin of…” or son/daughter…
Line 4 – lover of (three things/ideas or people that you love)
Line 5 – who feels (three feelings)
Line 6 – who needs (three things/ideas)
Line 7 – who gives (three things/ideas)
Line 8 – who fears (three things/ideas)
Line 9 – who would like to see (three - what? Or where?)
Line 10 – resident of (where do you live? City, state, county, country… up to you)
Line 11 – your last name
6. Blank Verse = a poem written in unrhymed pattern and resembles a speech being given
7. Burlesque = poetry that treats a serious subject as humor
8. Canzone = poetry with 5 stanzas of at least 4 lines EACH stanza and then one final stanza that is shorter than the
other 5
9. Carpe diem = a poem of at least 6 lines about living in the moment and enjoying life
10. Chastushka = a Russian traditional poem of 4 lines, that can be put to music and sung like a nursery rhyme – lines
1 & 4 rhyme at the end
11. Cinquain = Line1: A noun; Line2: Two adjectives; Line 3: Three -ing words; Line 4: A phrase about the noun;
Line 5: Another word for the noun
12. Clerihew = a funny or sarcastic poem of 2 couplets about someone who is named in the poem (so 4 lines total)
My little schnauzer’s name is Sparky;
Let me tell you, he is quite barky!
While his talking is quite persistent,
His loving nature is quite consistent.
13. Collage = a poem made of words ripped from magazines/newspapers; randomly placed to form the shape of
whatever the topic is of the poem (so the words form the shape in a collage)
14. Concrete = A concrete poem is one that takes the shape of the object it describes. This is different from a Shape
poem, in that a Shape poem does NOT have to take the shape of the object it describes. (example:
Triangle
I
am
a very
special
shape I have
three points and
three lines straight.
Look through my words
and you will see, the shape
that I am meant to be. I'm just
not words caught in a tangle. Look
close to see a small triangle. My angles
add to one hundred and eighty degrees, you
learn this at school with your abc's. Practice your
math and you will see some other fine examples of me.
15. Couplet = two lines of verse that form a poem or that are part of a poem – usually rhyming
16. Crystalline = A two line image poem, often with a title, in which pleasant sound is the key factor. Each line has
either 8 or 9 syllables, but add to make a total of seventeen.
#3 (By Brian Strand)
My fingers reach to touch the sky
where swallows circle, then southwards fly.
17. Diamante = the words are arranged into a diamond shape; poem in a diamond shape that follows a pattern of
words: 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 (example:
Line 1 – one word subject (noun)
Line 2 – two adjectives describing LINE 1 noun
Line 3 – three participles ending in –ing or –ed to describe LINE 1 noun
Line 4 – four words – two related to the noun in LINE 1 and two related to the new noun in LINE 7
Line 5 – three participles ending in –ing or –ed to describe LINE 7 noun
Line 6 – two adjectives describing LINE 7 noun
Line 7 – one word subject (noun) that is either the same OR the opposite of LINE 1 noun
18. Diminished Hexaverse = A poem containing stanzas of 5 lines, then 4 lines, then 3 lines, then 2 lines, ending with
one word. The syllables in each stanza correspond to the number of lines, i.e. 5 in each line in the first stanza, 4 in
the second stanza and so on. This form may contain more than five stanzas. (example:
Love, At Last... (by Tatyana Carney)
If the ground should quake,
If the sky should fall,
If the rain lets up,
If the plants all die,
There is one thing left.
If we lose sight,
If we can't speak,
If the bow breaks,
on the last tree,
we won't cry
or resign,
for we know
there's one
thing left:
love.
19. Dodoitsu = The Dodoitsu is a fixed folk song form of Japanese origin and is often about love or humor. It has 26
syllables made of of four lines of 7, 7, 7, 5 syllables respectively. It is unrhymed and non-metrical. (example:
Buried Treasure (by Suzanne Honour)
Gemstones the size of grapefruit
hide camoflaged in the rocks
buried like a treasure chest
waiting to be found.
20. Epic = 20 line poem about a hero
21. Epigram = 2 OR 4 line poem that is sarcastic towards its topic; usually about one main idea (example: “No one is
completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.” – Groucho Marx)
22. Epitaph = either a funny OR a serious inscription for a tombstone; about 2-4 lines; if it is funny, it usually rhymes
at the end of the lines (example:
I was born.
Then I wed.
Nagging wife.
Now I’m dead!
23. Found = poem formed from words cut out of newspaper/magazine (as in the collage poem), but then put together
to create a poem that makes a weird sort-of sense (about 6 lines, minimum)
24. Free Verse = a poem of no particular length and usually non-rhyming
25. Haiku = 3 line poem that has this pattern: 5/7/5 syllables; about nature
26. Headline = cut-out a headline from the newspaper and use it as one of the lines (and the topic) of a 5 line poem
27. Idyll = a 3-6 line poem about a peaceful, relaxing place OR a longer 10-line poem about an ancient hero
28. Lantern = a poem in the shape of a Chinese lantern; 1st line: one syllable noun; 2nd line: two syllables describing
noun; 3rd line: three syllables describing noun; 4th line: four syllables describing noun; 5th line: one syllable
restatement of noun (not same word)
29. Limerick = a 5 line poem; lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4
have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other (example:
There once was a man from Peru,
Who dreamed of eating his shoe,
He awoke with a fright,
In the middle of the night,
And found that his dream had come true! (Laura Black)
30. List = at least 10 lines; literally a list (as in a grocery list) – the first line should state something indicating what
the list is about (ex: groceries)
31. Lyrical sonnet = 14 line poem that could be put to music and sung
32. Narrative = a poem that tells a story
33. Novel = a 5-6 line poem that summarizes a novel or a section of a novel
34. Palindrome = a 3 line poem that includes a word or phrase that reads the same backward and forward (such as
“racecar” OR “too bad I hid a boot”)
35. Pastoral = 8 line poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, idealized way for example of shepherds or country life
36. Pun = a play on words that involves a word (or words) that has multiple meanings (example:
The Hungry Little Giant
"I'm hungry! I could swallow Wales!"
the little giant cried.
"Tonight we're having Chile, dear,"
the giant's mother sighed.
"Can I please have Samoa, Mom?"
the little giant asked her.
"Just don't forget dessert," she said.
"We're having Baked Alaska."
"Tomorrow we'll eat Turkey,
there is truly nothing finer.
We'll cook it in the oven and
we'll serve it up on China."
37. Quatrain = a poem that has 4 lines – lines 1 & 3 rhyme with each other and lines 2 & 4 rhyme with each other
38. Senryu = 3 line poem (like a Haiku) that has this pattern: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables – but it is about a
person, not nature
39. Sestina = a 36 line poem: 6 6-line stanzas, with the last words of the first stanza lines (last word in each line)
repeated in different order in the rest of the stanzas (so each set of lines ends with the same 6 words, just in
different order) – cannot just rewrite the same lines in a different order
40. Shape = poem written in the shape of the topic
41. Spoonerism = a transposition of sounds of two or more words, especially a ridiculous one (example: “Let me sew
you to your sheet” instead of “let me show you to your seat”)
42. Tanka = 5 line poem; 1st and 3rd line have 5 syllables & 2nd/4th/5th lines have 7 syllables each
43. Terza rima = 3 lines consisting of 10 or 11 syllables in each line
44. Tongue twister = at least 5 lines; difficult to say because many of the words in the lines start with the same initial
sound or letter
45. Villanelle = 19 line poem; 3 stanzas of 5 lines each and a 4th stanza of 4 lines; the first and third lines of the 1st
stanza are repeated as the last two lines of the other 3 stanzas