Types of Poems
Poetry can take many different
forms. Each for comes with its
own unique rules and limitations
that can affect numerous
elements.
Identifying the Types
Let’s take a look at some of the
more popular types of poems and
their various restrictions,
limitations, criteria, etc.
Allegory
An Allegory is a narrative having a second
meaning beneath the surface one - a story
with two meanings, a literal meaning and
a symbolic meaning.
(Think Avatar...only a poem)
Example of Allegory
Time, Real and Imaginary: An Allegory
On the wide level of a mountain's head,
(I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place)
Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread,
Two lovely children run an endless race,
A sister and a brother!
This far outstript the other;
Yet ever runs she with reverted face,
And looks and listens for the boy behind:
For he, alas! is blind!
O'er rough and smooth with even step he passed,
And knows not whether he be first or last.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Blank Verse
Blank Verse is Poetry that is written in
unrhymed iambic pentameter (ten syllables per
line, one stressed, one unstressed).
Blank verse often resembles the rhythms of
ordinary speech. William Shakespeare wrote
most of his plays in blank verse.
Example of Blank Verse
The Ball Poem
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
John Berryman
Epic Poetry
Epic Poems are long, serious poems that tell
the story of a heroic figure.
Two of the most famous epic poems are the
Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer.
Example of Epic Poetry
Hiawatha's Departure
from The Song of Hiawatha
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
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Free Verse
Free Verse is a form of poetry which uses fewer
rules and limitations using either rhymed or
unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical
pattern.
The early 20th-century poets were the first to
write what they called "free verse" which
allowed them to break from the formula and
rigidity of traditional poetry.
Example of Free Verse
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbour and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Carl Sandburg
Haiku
Haiku Poetry Type is a Japanese poem
composed of three unrhymed lines of five,
seven, and five syllables.
Haiku poetry originated in the sixteenth
century and reflects on some aspect of nature
and creates images.
Example of Haiku
the first cold shower
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw
Bashō
Limerick
Limericks are short, humorous poems of
consisting of five lines.
Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a Limerick 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 of a Limerick
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!‘
Edward Lear
Lyric Poetry
Lyric Poetry consists of a poem, such as a
sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts
and feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now
commonly referred to as the words to a song.
Lyric poetry does not tell a story which
portrays characters and actions. The lyric poet
addresses the reader directly, portraying his or
her own feeling, state of mind, and
perceptions.
Example of Lyric Poetry
Dying
(aka I heard a fly buzz when I died )
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.
Emily Dickinson
Sonnet
A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of
14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and
written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern
of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable is repeated five times.
The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet
is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two lines
are a rhyming couplet.
Example of a Sonnet
Sonnet #71
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O! if, I say, you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse;
But let your love even with my life decay;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
William Shakespeare
And that’s not all...
but that’s all we’ll
look at today.
Activity
In groups of 4, please read through the poems
provided.
Please attempt to identify:
1 – The Type of Poem
2 – What the poem is about
3 – The theme of the poem
4 – Any thoughts and feelings?
Activity
In pairs, please read through the poems provided.
Use Think, Pair, Share
Think about the poem to yourself after reading
Pair up and discuss the poem
Share with the class
Please attempt to identify:
1 – The Type of Poem
2 – What the poem is about
3 – The theme of the poem
4 – Any thoughts and feelings?
Activity #1
Using the form of a Haiku, construct your own haiku poem based off of the
following image.
Remember, a true Haiku has to do with imagery (all five senses) of nature.
Activity #2
Using one of your earliest childhood memories,
construct a poem that could be analyzed using
DRIFT.
This poem can be in any form but it must be a
minimum of 12 lines. Use every tool in your
Poetry tool belt. Both poems will be handed
in at the end of class today.