Poetic Forms

Limerick

• A humorous five-line poem with a rhyme scheme aabba.

• A serious poem with a rhyme scheme abab.

• A narrative poem that tells a story in three stanzas.

• A poem that consists of only two lines.

Pentameter

• A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.

• A type of poem with four stanzas.

• A rhythm pattern with six syllables per line.

• A literary device used to create alliteration.

Quatrain

• A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

• A type of poem with five lines.

• A stanza of three lines with a specific rhyme scheme.

• A narrative poem that tells a story.

Couplet

• A single line of verse with no rhyme.

• A pair of successive lines of verse, typically rhyming and of the same length.

• A stanza of four lines with alternating rhymes.

• A type of poem that tells a story.

Ballad

• A type of poem that tells a story in short stanzas.

• A musical composition with a complex structure.

• A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next.

• A narrative poem that is always written in free verse.

Haiku

• A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

• A type of Japanese painting that focuses on landscapes and nature.

• A traditional Japanese dance performed during festivals.

• A form of Japanese calligraphy that emphasizes brush strokes.

Free-Verse

• Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.

• A type of poetry that follows a strict rhyme scheme.

• A form of poetry that is always written in iambic pentameter.

• Poetry that uses a consistent meter but no rhyme.