After writing about different types of poems in my last post, I decided to challenge myself and write a new poem for each of the twenty types. Well, with the exception of an epic. I do not have the patience or desire to write a poem as long as a novel. 😄 I’ll leave that up to Homer and John Milton. For my twentieth poem, I’ll find another type that wasn’t included in my list. Most of my poems will have titles, but not all.
Three poems for today!
Y oga classes
O utrageous sports bloopers
U seful how-to videos
T op ten country music playlists
U ltimate funny cats compilations
B uilding survival shelters
E asy hairstyles
Yarn over, pull through
Single, double, count stitches
Turn work and repeat.
Ode to Hot Cocoa
As water warms then boils
A mug is placed in anticipation.
Sugar, cocoa, nutmeg, and ginger
Are gathered in preparation.
Morning ritual or evening indulgence
this satisfying beverage soothes the mind,
makes cold hands happy and tastes delightful.
Circles swirl as I stir the decadent substance.
Sipping slowly, time and worries are redefined.
Savor, savor every wondrous mouthful.
What makes a poem different from a story? A story is written in paragraphs, consisting of (mostly) full sentences and some dialogue. Poetry is written in a variety of styles.
Some styles use full sentences, but often poetry consists of sentence fragments and phrases that are grouped together in stanzas*. Poetry can be used to tell a story, or simply to describe a feeling. Sometimes poems are cryptic, requiring analyzation to determine their true meaning. Poetry can be humorous or intentionally somber. Rhyming patterns* vary and are not always consistent. Meter*, alliteration*, and repetition are frequently just as important as the rhyming pattern. Some poems are very short, only a few lines long. A few famous poems are long enough to fill a large, thick book. Occasionally, poets may play with formatting to display their work creatively on the page.
When I write poetry, I typically write free verse with occasional rhyming. A few of them are formatted on the page to match the theme of the poem just for fun. I love reading poems that tell a story in a unique way, as well as compelling free verse.
Can you match the twenty kinds of poetry listed below to their descriptions? I must admit that I was previously unfamiliar with a couple of them, such as the villanelle (…??). Click on the link at the end of the article to check your answers.
Do you know of any other type of poetry not mentioned here? Let me know in the comments and share which kind of poetry is your favorite to read and which is your favorite to write. Common poetry terms (noted with an *) are defined after the poem descriptions.
Types of poetry (in alphabetical order):
Acrostic
Ballad
Blackout poetry
Concrete poetry
Ekphrastic poetry
Elegy
Epic
Epigram
Epitaph
Free verse
Haiku
Limerick
List poetry
Lyric poetry
Narrative poetry
Ode
Palindrome* poetry
Pantoum
Sonnet
Villanelle
Descriptions (in random order):
Japanese poetry consisting of three lines; may or may not rhyme:
Line 1: five syllables
Line 2: seven syllables
Line 3: five syllables
Fourteen lines; typically about love; rhyme schemes*:
ABBA ABBA CDE CDE or
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Nineteen lines; ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA rhyme scheme; certain lines are repeated:
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3 –
Line 4
Line 5
Line 6 – repeat line 1 –
Line 7
Line 8
Line 9 – repeat line 3 –
Line 10
Line 11
Line 12 – repeat line 1 –
Line 13
Line 14
Line 15 – repeat line 3 –
Line 16
Line 17
Line 18 – repeat line 1
Line 19 – repeat line 3
First letter of each line vertically spells out a name, word, or phrase
Poem with no rules
Usually short; written to praise a person, thing, or event; often ten lines
Funny or shocking; AABBA rhyme scheme; lines 3 and 4 are shorter than the other lines; the last line is the punchline.
Written in mourning after a death; often consisting of several two-line stanzas
Tells a dramatic or emotional story; ABAB or ABCB rhyme scheme
Vividly describes a painting, statue, photograph, or story
Designed to take a particular shape or form on the page; spacing or layout is often manipulated to emphasize a theme or element in the text, or sometimes make the physical shape of the poem’s subject
Short, witty, and satirical
Short phrase written in memory of a person whose died, often inscribed on a tombstone or grave marker.
Shorter, expressive, songlike poem that is centered on emotions.
Large portions of an existing text are blacked out to reveal the remaining visible words that form the new poem
Very long poem which tells a story about a character’s adventures, accomplishments, and daring feats.
Shorter yet fully developed story that focuses more on plot instead of emotion or adventure, often with a specific rhyming scheme.
Poem that consists of four-line stanzas* that repeat in a pattern; no set length; changes in punctuation, verb tense, pronouns, word order, homonyms, and plurality are allowed when repeating lines.
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4 –
Line 5 – repeat line 2
Line 6
Line 7 – repeat line 4
Line 8 –
Line 9 – repeat line 6
Line 10
Line 11 – repeat line 8
Line 12 –
Line 13 – repeat line 10
Line 14
Line 15 – repeat line 12
Line 16 – Final stanza continues same pattern but ends with a repeat of line 1 as the final line in the poem.
Poem that reads the same forward or backward with a word in the center as the reversal point
Write to Reason 