The Many Forms and Rules of Poetry

Now to preface this, I would like to say there are many more forms than this and many different ways poetry can take on form; this only lists a few.

Before we get started, we need to talk about some of the language we use when describing poetry. It is different and challenging to understand if you are not accustomed to it. Like any other structured English assignment, we have words that might not make sense. Some are specific to the particular type of poetry. This guide will cover those when it finds them. Here is a list of those words and their definitions.

Stanza = a set of lines in poetry grouped together by their length, meter, or rhyme scheme.

Couplet = a two-line stanza.

Tercet = a three-line stanza.

Quatrain = a four-line stanza.

Cinquain = a five-line stanza.

Sestet = a six-line stanza.

Meter = the pattern of stressed syllables (long-sounding) and unstressed syllables (short-sounding) in poetry.

Rhyme scheme = the pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each line or verse.

Syllable = the single, unbroken sound of a spoken or written word.

Iambic pentameter = A-line with five feet containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Trochaic tetrameter = line of seven or eight syllables with alternating stress starting on the first syllable.

Let us start with the Sonnet. Now, you might have heard of this one before; however, do you know there are 4 different types of Sonnets. The more commonly known is the Shakespearean. All are divided into 14 lines where they differ in their rhyme scheme and their Stanzas. Shakespearean sonnets use 3 quatrains, and a couplet. Their rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This is also the form most associated with poetry. Each of the fourteen lines of a Shakespearean sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. Take Shakespeare’s sonnet 18.

1. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?-a

2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate.-b

3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, -a

4. And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.-b

5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,-c

6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed;-d

7. And every fair from fair sometimes declines,-c

8. By chance, or nature’s changing course , untrimmed;-d

9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade,-e

10. Nor load possession of that fair thou ow’st,-f

11. Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,-e

12. When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.-f

13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,-g

14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.-g

The next most common sonnet you’ve probably seen is the Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet. This also contains an iambic pentameter; however, the fourteen lines are split into an Octave, an 8 stanza, and 1 sestet. Following either with a scheme of ABBA ABBA CDCCDC or ABBA ABBA CDECDE. The eighth or ninth line of the poem or the first line of the sestet marks a turn in mood or stance which is called the volta. A famous poem using this form is “How do I love thee let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barret Browning.

1. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. -a

2. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height -b

3. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight -b

4. For the ends of being and ideal grace. -a

5. I love thee to the level of every day's -a

6. Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. -b

7. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; -b

8. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. -a

9. I love thee with the passion put to use - c

10. In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. -d

11. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose - c

12. With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, -d

13. Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, - c

14. I shall but love thee better after death. -d

Spenserian sonnets use the same structure as Shakespearean sonnets (three quatrains and a couplet) but use a different rhyme scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. They also include Volta from Petrarchan Sonnets and iambic pentameter. Each quatrain is used to develop a metaphor, question, idea, or conflict in a logical way. The couplet is used to make a bold statement that resolves the themes presented in the quatrains. An example of this is from Edmund Spenser

called Amoretti #75

1. One day I wrote her name upon the strand, -a

2. But came the waves and washed it away: -b

3. Again I write it with a second hand, -a

4. But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. -b

5. Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay, -b

6. A mortal thing so to immortalize, -c

7. For I myself shall like to this decay, -b

8. And eek my name be wiped out likewise. -c

9. Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise -c

10. To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: -d

11. My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize, -c

12. And in the heavens write your glorious name. -d

13. Where when as death shall all the world subdue, -e

14. Our love shall live, and later life renew. -e

Last but not least we have our modern sonnet made by more contemporary poets. They still need to have 14 lines, but they can also be written in trochees, tetrameter, blank verse, and rhyme schemes, such as AABB CCDD EEFF GG. This is best exampled in Maya Angelou’s poem Harlem Hopscotch.

1. One foot down, then hop! It’s hot. -a

2. Good things for the ones that’s got. -a

3. Another jump, now to the left. -b

4. Everybody for hisself. -b

5. In the air, now both feet down. -c

6. Since you black, don’t stick around. -c

7. Food is gone, the rent is due, -d

8. Curse and cry and then jump two. -d

9. All the people out of work, -e

10. Hold for three, then twist and jerk. -e

11. Cross the line, they count you out. -f

12. That’s what hopping’s all about. -f

13. Both feet flat, the game is done. -g

14. They think I lost. I think I won. -g

Now we've finally come out of sonnets; there are a few other poems to introduce. One very structured you might have taken a gander at is the Haiku. These poems are of Japanese descent, structured by syllables, and do not rhyme oftentimes like traditional English poems. Specifically, they have 3 lines, the first containing 5 syllables, the second 7, and the third 5, which translate to a whole of seventeen. Although with language barriers, some critics say that the 12 English syllabi are more similar to 17 On (Japanese equivalent). But that is all of the criteria for a Haiku. Haikus must also be centered around the subject of nature and or seasons. Describing the season was the original purpose of haiku, and this is how they are generally used. Traditional haiku tend to contain a kigo, a word or phrase that places it in a particular season. Some of the most classic kigo are sakura (cherry blossoms) for spring, fuji (Wisteria) for summer, Tsuki (moon) for fall, and samushi (cold) for winter. Last but not least is the use of a Kireji, which creates a pause or a break in the poem's rhythm. Matsuo Bashō can show us a great example of a haiku in “By the Old Temple”:

1. By the old temple

1 2 3 4 5

2. peach blossoms;

1 2 3

3. a man treading rice.

1 2 3 4 5

A fun, more free-form poem is an Acrostic. These poems use each line's first or last letter to spell out a specific word. That’s it no rhyme scheme, no stanza, no syllabi count. Here’s Edgar Allen Poe’s An Acrostic

Elizabeth it is in vain you say

"Love not"-thou sayest it in so sweet a way:

In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.

Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:

Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,

Breath it less gently forth-and veil thine eyes.

Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried

To cure his love-was cured of all beside-

His follie-pride-and passion-for he died.

A Blank Verse poem is one you might not have heard of before. The poems also use iambic pentameter; however, unlike the sonnet, they are unrhyming. Here is “In a London Drawingroom” by George Eliot.

The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.

For view there are the houses opposite

Cutting the sky with one long line of wall

Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch

Monotony of surface and of form

Without a break to hang a guess upon.

No bird can make a shadow as it flies,

For all is shadow, as in ways o’erhung

By thickest canvass, where the golden rays

Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering

Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye

Or rest a little on the lap of life.

All hurry on and look upon the ground,

Or glance unmarking at the passers by

The wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages

All closed, in multiplied identity.

The world seems one huge prison-house and court

Where men are punished at the slightest cost,

With lowest rate of colour, warmth and joy.

Now an Arabic poem called a Ghazal (Pronunciation: “guzzle”) deals with loss and romantic love. They also have no less than 5 stanzas which are couplets and must be able to stand alone. In the first line of the last stanza, the poet introduces themselves in the poem, generally using their own name. Take “No, I wasn’t meant to love and be loved” by Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib and translated by Vijay Seshadri.

1. No, I wasn’t meant to love and be loved.

2. If I’d lived longer, I would have waited longer. 1

1. Knowing you are faithless keeps me alive and hungry.

2. Knowing you are faithful would kill me with joy. 2

1. Delicate are you, and your vows are delicate, too,

2. so easily do they break. 3

1. You are a laconic marksman. You leave me

2. not dead but perpetually dying. 4

1. I want my friends to heal me, succor me.

2. Instead, I get analysis. 5

1. Conflagrations that would make stones drip blood

2. are campfires compared to my anguish. 6

1. Two-headed, inescapable anguish!—

2. Love’s anguish or the anguish of time. 7

1. Another dark, severing, incommunicable night.

2. Death would be fine, if I only died once. 8

1. I would have liked a solitary death,

2. not this lavish funeral, this grave anyone can visit. 9

1. You are mystical, Ghalib, and, also, you speak beautifully.

2. Are you a saint, or just drunk as usual? 10

Similar to sonnets, Villanelles have many rules. However, they have more of them, starting with the idea that they have 19 lines. In those lines, they have five Tercets and one closing Quatrain. The rhyme scheme ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABAA and line one repeats in lines six, twelve, and eighteen, while line three repeats in lines nine, fifteen, and nineteen. They also contain one of my favorite poems, “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas.

1. Do not go gentle into that good night, -a

2. Old age should burn and rave at close of day; -b

3. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -a

4. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, -a

5. Because their words had forked no lightning they -b

6. Do not go gentle into that good night. -a

7. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright -a

8. Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, -b

9. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -a

10. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, -a

11. And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, -b

12. Do not go gentle into that good night. -a

13. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight -a

14. Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, -b

15. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -a

16. And you, my father, there on the sad height, -a

17. Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. -b

18. Do not go gentle into that good night. -a

19. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -a

You might have seen a concrete poem before and never actually known it. The poems take on shapes and are written on the subject matter of those shapes. “This is a Concrete” poem by K. Wilday.

Generally, Limericks are used to make people laugh, but they also have a few rules. They contain five lines, with two being longer lines (usually 7-10 syllables), 2 being shorter lines (usually 5-7 syllables), and one closing line to bring the joke home (7-10 syllables). Their rhyme scheme is AABBA. This poem has no name and is Anonymous, but you’ll probably recognize it.

1. There once was an old man of Nantucket -a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Who kept all his cash in a bucket -a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3. His daughter, called Nan, -b

1 2 3 4 5 6

4. Ran away with a man, -b

1 2 3 4 5 6

5. And as for the bucket, Nantucket. -a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

If you took a creative writing course, you might have come across the sestina. It is also one of the most difficult. The initial six end-words of the first stanza rotate through the remaining five Sestets, culminating in a tercet envoi. An envoi is a short stanza used to close off a poem. This is “If  See No End In Is” by Frank Bidart

1. What none knows is when, not if. -1

2. Now that your life nears its end -2

3. when you turn back what you see -3

4. is ruin. You think, It is a prison. No, -4

5. it is a vast resonating chamber in -5

6. which each thing you say or do is -6

7. new, but the same. What none knows is -6

8. how to change. Each plateau you reach, if -1

9. single, limited, only itself, in- -5

10. cludes traces of  all the others, so that in the end -2

11. limitation frees you, there is no -4

12. end, if   you once see what is there to see. -3

13. You cannot see what is there to see — -3

14. not when she whose love you failed is -6

15. standing next to you. Then, as if refusing the know- -5

16. ledge that life unseparated from her is death, as if -1

17. again scorning your refusals, she turns away. The end -2

18. achieved by the unappeased is burial within. -5

19. Familiar spirit, within whose care I grew, within -5

20. whose disappointment I twist, may we at last see -3

21. by what necessity the double-bind is in the end -2

22. the  figure  for human life, why what we love is -6

23. precluded always by something else we love, as if -1

24. each no we speak is yes, each yes no. -4

25. The prospect is mixed but elsewhere the forecast is no -4

26. better. The eyrie where you perch in -5

27. exhaustion has food and is out of  the wind, if -1

28. cold. You feel old, young, old, young: you scan the sea -3

29. for movement, though the promise of  sex or food is -6

30. the prospect that bewildered  you to this end. -2

31. Something in you believes that it is not the end. -2

32. When you wake, sixth grade will start. The finite you know -4

33. you fear is infinite: even at eleven, what you love is -6

34. what you should not love, which endless bullies in- -5

35. tuit unerringly. The future will be different: you cannot see -3

36. the end. What none knows is when, not if. -1

Last but not least we have Free Verse. And it is precisely that, a Free Verse. There are no rules, no specific subjects it must cover. The only rules it adheres to are those set by the poet. If you are trying to find out what type of poem something is and can’t figure it out, most likely, it's a Free Verse. Here are a few of them.

“I Eat Breakfast to Begin the Day” By Zubair Ahmed

I create time

I cannot create time

I’m frozen in place

I cannot be frozen

I’m moving but don’t notice

I notice me moving, I pay attention

To the small yet immense yet

Small movements that guide

My limbs, my hair growth, my joint oils

I don’t think about it

I don’t feel it either

I don’t have emotions right now

I see films of divine quality

I don’t see any films

This black

This not black

To me I am

I am not to me not

I walk with this hollowness

I walk with this blooming

I’m moving outward forever

Onward eternally inward

I create all objects like shampoos

And cats, I create nothing

Like space and antimatter

I resign to the clocks that keep time

I surrender to the clocks that don’t keep time

I’m sure about it, the color white

I’m not sure about it, what is word?

Oh, the loops and unloops

Destiny unfolds in my knees

I eat breakfast to begin the day

“Mr. Darcy” By Victoria Chang

In the end she just wanted the house

and a horse not much more what

if  he didn’t own the house or worse

not even a horse how do we

separate the things from a man the man from

the things is a man still the same

without his reins here it rains every fifteen

minutes it would be foolish to

marry a man without an umbrella did

Cinderella really love the prince or

just the prints on the curtains in the

ballroom once I went window-

shopping but I didn’t want a window when

do you know it’s time to get a new

man one who can win more things at the

fair I already have four stuffed

pandas from the fair I won fair and square

is it time to be less square to wear

something more revealing in North and

South she does the dealing gives him

the money in the end but she falls in love

with him when he has the money when

he is still running away if the water is

running in the other room is it wrong

for me to not want to chase it because it owns

nothing else when I wave to a man I

love what happens when another man with

a lot more bags waves back

“Mi Historia” By David Dominguez

My red pickup choked on burnt oil

as I drove down Highway 99.

In wind-tattered garbage bags

I had packed my whole life:

two pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts,

an a pair of work boots.

My truck needed work, and through

the blue smoke rising from under the hood,

I saw almond orchards, plums,

and raisins spread out on paper trays,

and acres of Mendota cotton my mother picked as a child.

My mother crawled through the furrows

and plucked cotton balls that filled

the burlap sack she dragged,

shoulder-slung, through dried-up bolls,

husks, weevils, dirt clods,

and dust that filled the air with thirst.

But when she grew tired,

she slept on her mother’s burlap,

stuffed thick as a mattress,

and Grandma dragged her over the land

where time was told by the setting sun. . . .

History cried out to me from the earth,

in the scream of starling flight,

and pounded at the hulls of seeds to be set free.

History licked the asphalt with rubber,

sighed in the windows of abandoned barns,

slumped in the wind-blasted palms,

groaned in the heat, and whispered its soft curses.

I wanted my own history—not the earth’s,

nor the history of blood, nor of memory,

and not the job founded for me at Galdini Sausage.

I sought my own—a new bruise to throb hard

as the asphalt that pounded the chassis of my truck.

If you would like to read more poetry, I encourage you to check out the Teen Experience Through Poetry in our past issues.