Types of Poems

Poetry can take many different forms. Each for comes with its

own unique rules and limitations that can affect numerous

elements.

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular types of poems and

their various restrictions, limitations, criteria, etc.

Identifying the Types

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)

Allegory

Example of AllegoryTime, 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 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.

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 goMerrily bouncing, down the street, and thenMerrily over-there it is in the water!

John Berryman

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.

Epic Poetry

Example of Epic Poetry

Hiawatha's Departurefrom 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 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.

Free Verse

Example of Free Verse

Fog

The fog comeson little cat feet. It sits lookingover harbour and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

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.

Haiku

Example of Haiku

the first cold showereven the monkey seems to wanta little coat of straw

Bashō

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.

Limerick

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 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.

Lyric Poetry

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 formWas like the stillness in the airBetween the heaves of storm.

Emily Dickinson

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.

Sonnet

Example of a SonnetSonnet #71

No longer mourn for me when I am deadThan you shall hear the surly sullen bellGive warning to the world that I am fledFrom this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:Nay, if you read this line, remember notThe 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.

In groups of 4, please read through the poems provided.

Please attempt to identify:

1 – The Type of Poem2 – What the poem is about3 – The theme of the poem

4 – Any thoughts and feelings?

Activity

In pairs, please read through the poems provided.

Use Think, Pair, ShareThink about the poem to yourself after reading

Pair up and discuss the poemShare with the class

Please attempt to identify:1 – The Type of Poem

2 – What the poem is about3 – The theme of the poem

4 – Any thoughts and feelings?

Activity

Activity #1Using 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.