Poetic Forms

A short poem in one voice, expressing a personal thought or feeling rather than telling a story.

Fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, in the Italian (8 + 6) or Shakespearean (4 + 4 + 4 + 2) pattern.

A poem of mourning for a person, a time or a way of life, often moving from grief to consolation.

A story told in short rhyming stanzas, usually four lines, with roots in folk song.

A formal, elevated poem that addresses and praises its subject: a bird, an urn, the west wind.

A poem that tells a story, with characters, events and often a narrator.

One speaker talks to a silent listener and gives away more about themselves than they mean to.

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, the line of Shakespeare's plays, Paradise Lost and Tintern Abbey.

Poetry without a fixed meter or rhyme scheme, shaped by the rhythms of speech.

Nineteen lines on two rhymes, with two lines repeating as refrains throughout.

An idealised picture of country life, shepherds and simple love.

A French form of fifteen lines on two rhymes, with the opening words returning as a refrain.

A three-line Japanese form built on a single image from nature, traditionally 5, 7 and 5 syllables.