The Various Coasts of Poetry

The Different Forms of Poems

Poem Form Structural Characteristics Notable Examples

Haiku One haiku is 3 lines long
One haiku has a 5/7/5 syllable count Haikus 196, 324, and 692 by Richard Wright
Multiple haikus can be combined to
make a larger poem
Acrostic When read vertically, the first letter of
each first word in each line spells a Ocean by Bianca Bowers
word or words
No specific rhyme scheme
Concrete No specific rhyme scheme
Creates a distinct shape Seal by William Jay Smith
No specific number of lines
Free Verse No specific rhyme scheme The Wide Ocean by Pablo Neruda
No specific number of lines
List Poem No specific rhyme scheme
No specific number of lines
Parallel structure in terms of context Estuary by Alexander Seal
and/or syntax (i.e., all sentences/lines
start with parallel grammatical forms
of subjects, verbs, etc.)
Limerick One limerick is 5 lines long
One limerick has an AABBA rhyme Chilling on the Coast by Carolyn Devonshire
scheme
Multiple limericks can be combined
to make a larger limerick
Sonnet Three Types
**Shakespearean/English **All sonnets have 14 lines in total**

Shakespearean/English
Shakespearean/English
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme
scheme
(i.e., four quatrains [one quatrain = Sonnet LXIV by William Shakespeare
four lined poetry sequence] + a couplet
[two lined poetry sequence; the two
lines must have the same end rhyme])
 The Various Coasts of Poetry
The Different Forms of Poems

Sonnet Three Types (continued) Italian/Petrachan

**Italian/Petrarchan ABBAABBA CDECDE rhyme scheme
**Spenserian (i.e., octave [eight lined poetry sequence] Italian/Petrachan
+ sestet [six lined poetry sequence])

Spenserian Sonnet 140 by Francesco Petrarch

ABAB BCBC CDCD EE rhyme scheme London, 1802 by William Wordsworth
(i.e., four quatrains [one quatrain = four
lined poetry sequence] + a couplet [two Spenserian
lined poetry sequence; the two lines must
have the same end rhyme])
The second end rhyme is borrowed into Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser
the following quatrain

Blank Verse No specific rhyme scheme

No specific number of lines Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens
Written using iambic pentameter (i.e.,
ten stressed/unstressed syllabic pairs per
Mending Walls by Robert Frost
line)
Villanelle 19 lined poem made up of five tercets
(one tercet = three lined poetry sequence)
and one quatrain
The first line in tercet 1 is repeated at the
Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night
end of tercets 2 and 4, while the last line by Dylan Thomas
of tercet 1 is repeated at the end of tercets One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
3 and 5 Zombie Blues Villanelle by Tim Seibles
The first line of tercet 1and the last line of
tercet 1 are the last two lines of the
ending quatrain
Sestina 39 lined poem consisting of six stanzas
that are six lines each + a seventh stanza A Miracle for Breakfast by Elizabeth Bishop
consisting of three lines
Specific rhyme scheme: Sestina by Algernon Charles Swinburne
ABCDEF FAEBDC CFDABE ECBFAD Sestina: Alaforte by Ezra Pound
DEACFB BDFECA ECA (or ACE)