Wayra…
(Quechua – wind ) is a popular verse form of Peru and Bolivia. It appears it originated in an indigenous …
Category Archives: Poetry Form
A Soldier…
By: Candy Brown~ In the early hours before the dawn, when night still claims the land. A soldier rises and …
Shin’a’In Prayer…
By: LadiAri1960~ Oh Great Lady of the Stars, bend your ear unto me. Let all on the earth below, Your …
VILLANELLE….
The villanelle is a French form with a heavy emphasis on repetition. It follows the structure given below (in which …
SIJO….
The sijo, a Korean form of poetry, consists of three lines, each approximately fourteen to sixteen syllables long. There is …
SESTINA….
Sestinas, like so many other French forms, are all about repetition. A sestina contains a grand total of seven stanzas …
RENGA/RENKU….
There are many varieties of renku, each with its own particular set of requirements, but in general renku are poems …
RICTAMETER….
A rictameter is a nine-line poem. Its pattern of syllables per line goes 2,4,6,8,10,8,6,4,2. Also, the first and last lines …
ETHERE….
An ethere has ten lines and no pattern of rhythm or rhyme. Each line contains the same number of syllables …
RONDEAU….
Originating in France, the rondeau is a three-stanza poem consisting of approximately ten to fifteen lines total, generally with either …
RETOURNE….
Like so many other French forms, the retourne is all about repetition. It contains four quatrains (four-line stanzas), and each …
RUBAIYAT….
Created by Omar Khayyam, the rubaiyat – a Middle Eastern form – contains an unlimited number of four-line stanzas. The …
PARADELLE….
The paradelle is French in origin, and it is one of the more difficult forms. It consists of four stanzas, …
QUATERN….
A quatern has four stanzas, each of which has four lines. Each line contains eight syllables. It does not have …
PANTUN….
A Malay form, the pantun can consist of two, four, six, eight, or even ten lines; the most popular form …
PANTOUM….
Pantoums are composed entirely of quatrains (four-line stanzas). There is no restriction on the number of quatrains, but each quatrain …
ODE….
Odes are traditionally serious, dignified poems about a specific subject or event. There are many different types of odes, so …
NONET….
nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, and each line after that has one less, until the …
LUC BAT….
The luc bat is a Vietnamese form of poetry. It means simply ‘six eight’ due to its pattern of syllables …
LIMERICK….
Limericks are short poems not meant to be taken seriously. They consist of five lines with rhyme scheme aabba. The …
LAI….
A lai consists of stanzas with nine lines each (although some versions do not require a specific number of lines …
KYRIELLE….
The French kyrielle is composed entirely of quatrains (a quatrain is any stanza with four lines). There is no set …
IDYL….
(Also spelled idyll.) There are two separate meanings for ‘idyl.’ In the first meaning, it is simply a synonym for …
HUITAIN….
A Spanish form of poetry, the huitain revolves around the number eight – there are eight lines in the poem, …
GLOSA….
In the glosa, a Spanish form, the first stanza serves as the template for the overall poem. Each subsequent stanza …
GHAZAL….
The ghazal is a Middle Eastern form. It is arranged in a series of couplets, usually five or more. The …
EPIGRAM….
An epigram is a very short poem, usually two or four lines long, with a simple rhyme scheme. The goal …
ECLOGUE….
An eclogue is a poem about rural life, generally a conversation between shepherds, in which country life is usually portrayed …
DIAMANTE….
The diamante is a poem form similar the the cinquain. It consists of seven lines, as shown below: First line: …
CLERIHEW….
Clerihews are short, fun little poems that are easy to write. Their name comes from Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who pioneered …
CINQUAIN….
At its most basic level, ‘cinquain’ simply means a stanza (or poem) with five lines. However, the word also refers …
BALLAD….
(Not a ballade.) ‘Ballad’ is a rather vague term, but in general it refers to poems which tell a story, …
ACROSTIC….
Acrostic poems are very simple; the poet thinks of a word, name, or phrase, and writes it vertically down the …
BREF DOUBLE….
As you might guess, the bref double is a French form. It is similar to the sonnet, but it need …
BALLADE….
The ballade originated in France. In the strictest sense, it is a poem of three eight-line stanzas followed by a …
Late Night Poets 