Types of Poetry

Tasting a Raindrop

If I was a raindrop that was to fallMaybe I would just blend in and stall I might drift around the sky for a rideAnd land softly on a tongue that can't hide My taste may have an artistic blendBut an honest soul that would never bend Lean your head back when you’re in the pouring rainTo see fluttering eyes that are the same

Couplet:

A poem that has rhyming stanzas made up of two lines

Concrete:

A poem whose shape or visual appearance contributes to its meaning

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and ideal GraceI love thee to the level of everyday'sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.I love thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood's faithI love thee with a love I seem to loveWith my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

Lyric:

A poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet; has a song-like quality.

Also: Sonnet

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed,And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet:

A type of lyric poem that consists of 14 lines which usually have one or more typical rhyme schemes.

Falling to the ground,I watch a leaf settle downIn a bed of brown.

Haiku:

A Japanese poem composed of three lines and 17 syllables - five, seven, and five (5-7-5); usually about nature (though not always)

Carefully I walkTrying so hard to be braveThey all see my fearDark glasses cover their eyesAs mine flow over with tears

Tanka:

A Japanese poem, similar to a Haiku, which consists of a total of 31 syllables in 5 lines (5-7-5-7-7); usually about nature (though not always)

After School

Lie beneath a spreading treeWith golden flowers in the sun. Count to five on all the petals,Never think of five plus one.Watch the building-crammed horizon,Sky no longer meeting ground.Watch the golden flowers witherWatch the golden dreams fall down.

Rhyme:

When two or more words at the end of lines of poetry have the same or similar sounds; have an obvious rhyme scheme.

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”

Limerick:

A five-line poem with the rhyme scheme a-a-b-b-a, and is intended to be funny

WHAT THE LIVING DO by Marie Howe

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up 

waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of. It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through 

the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off. For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking, 

I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve, 

I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it. Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning. 

What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss--we want more and more and then more of it. 

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass, say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep 

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless: I am living. I remember you.

Elegy:

A sad and thoughtful poem about the death of an individual

Found:

A poem created from words and phrases selected from other sources (i.e. newspapers, magazines, menus, signs, etc) which are then strung together in lines and stanzas

StartlingPretty scaryIt has lots of eyesDeadlyEverywhereReally it is just like us.

Acrostic:

A poem that is written in a series of lines, where the first letter of each line spells another word

The Fisherman and the Flounder(Excerpt)

A fisherman, poor as poor can be,Who lived in a hovel beside the sea,Was fishing one day, when "Lo!" he cries,"I've caught a flounder of wondrous size!As fine a flounder as one could wish!""O no! you haven't!" exclaimed the fish;"In spite of my scaly skin," he said,"I am not a fish, but a Prince instead;Condemned to suffer this watery woe;So I beg, good man, you will let me go!"The fisherman, frightened at what he heard,Let the flounder go with never a wordExcept "Goodbye! I'd rather eschewThan cook a flounder who talks like you!"

Ballad (Narrative Poem):

A poem that tells a story which usually has a song-like form that talks about love, an historical event, or a heroic tale; similar to folktales and legends

My Fluorescent Flow

I may be compactAnd fairly new on the scene,But I’m lighting up the world in waysThomas Edison had only begun to dreamIn the innumerable machines in his mind.My light shines and intertwinesAnd twists, and turns, and burnsWith an energy-saving glowAnd just so you know,I’m leaner, and greener, and cleanerThan ever before.Mr. Edison would’ve been pleasedWith what we’ve achievedWith the idea he conceivedI wonder if he knewThat what he impartedHelped get us startedOn the road to inventTubes of glassThat contain a gasThat glows when electric currentPasses through it.I wonder if he knew itWas gonna beAn idea with a bright future.

Free Verse:

A form of modern poetry that does not follow a set pattern or rhythm (but may still have rhyme)

When you see a childIn a costume scary and wildYou know it is Halloween.

When kids go trick-or-treatsAnd get lots and lots of sweetsYou know it is Halloween.

When the trees give up their yellow leavesAnd the dead give back their R.I.P.sYou know it is Halloween.

An Ode to scrumptious snacksAn Ode to skeletons that clack

An Ode to DraculaAn Ode to tarantulasAn Ode to Halloween

An Ode to the year’s best timeAn Ode to clocks that chimeAn Ode to Halloween

Ode:

A lengthy lyric poem (usually much longer than the example!) that is written for an occasion or on a particular subject. It usually praises a specific person or thing, which may be indicated in the title (Ode to...)

The Tooth Fairy

They brushed a quarter with glueand glitter, slipped in on barefeet, and without waking mepainted rows of delicate goldfootprints on my sheets with a loveso quiet, I still can't hear it.

My mother must have beena beauty then, sittingat the kitchen table with him,a warm breeze lifting herembroidered curtains, waitingfor me to fall asleep.

It's harder to believethe years that followed, the palmscurled into fists, a floorof broken dishes, her chain-smokingthrough long silences, himpunching holes in his walls.

I can still remember her printdresses, his checkered Taxi, the dayI found her in the closetwith a paring knife, the nighthe kicked my sister in the ribs.

He lives alone in Oregon now, dyingof a rare bone disease.His face colored gray, his anklesclotted beneath wool socks.

She's a nurse on the graveyard shift,Comes home mornings and calls me,Drinks her dark beer and goes to bed.

And I still wonder how they did it, slippedthat quarter under my pillow, made thoseperfect footprints...

Whenever I visit her, I ask again."I don't know," she says, rocking, closingher eyes. "We were as surprised as you."

Narrative:

A poem that tells a story. It has a plot, setting, characters, conflict, resolution,

etc. Narrative poems can be of any length but tend to be longer. They

usually have an identifiable beginning, middle, and end.