Forms of poetry include sonnets, odes, ballads, narratives, and epics. Sonnets have 14 lines in a particular rhyme pattern, often ending in a rhyming couplet. Odes are lyric poems that praise or celebrate a person, thing, or experience. Ballads tell stories through a steady rhythm and simple rhyme scheme. Narratives recount a story, while epics are long poems about the deeds of a heroic figure that embody cultural values. Different forms of poetry have distinguishing characteristics in their structure, rhyme, subject matter, and purpose.

1. Forms of
Poetry
Reading Standard 3.1
Determine and articulate the relationship between the
purposes and characteristics of different forms of poetry
(e.g., ballad, epic, lyric, couplet, ode, and sonnet).
I love
poetry!

2.  Sometimes poetry has no particular form or rhyme
scheme; these types of poems are called free verse poems.
 Traditionally, however, poems have a particular
format and/ or rhyming pattern.
The subject matter and form of a poem may put it in
a particular category like ballad, epic, lyric, sonnet,
ode, elegy, narrative, haiku etc.

3. Rhyme Scheme
Rhyme Scheme- a pattern of rhyme in a poem. For
instance, if there are 4 lines, or a quatrain, and the
first and third lines rhyme, it has the pattern of
a-b-a-b.
If all four lines rhyme with each other, it has the
rhyme scheme of a-a-a-a.
If only the second and fourth lines rhyme, the
pattern is a-b-c-b.

4. Rhyme Scheme
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though:
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up the snow.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

5. The Sonnet:
A fourteen-line poem
Expresses author’s feelings
Has a particular end rhyme pattern (ABABCDCD…)
Usually ends in a rhymed couplet (two lines with end rhyme)
Shakespeare wrote over 100 sonnets

6. Lyric Poem
Lyric Poem- a short poem in which a single speaker expresses
personal thoughts and feelings

7. The Ode:
It’s a lyric poem usually addressed to a
particular person or thing.
It generally deals with one main idea and can be
written as a song of praise or to celebrate an
experience, thing or a person.
Ode to a Fountain Pen:
“Oh beloved pen of
midnight black ink,
How I love to roll
you down my nose.”

8. Ode to My Thumb:
“Delicious appendage on my
left hand. You are my favorite
finger, my most tasty dessert.”
Ode to Dancing:
“’Kick up your heels
Wave your hands in the air.
There’s nothing as joyful as
dancing in pairs!”

9. Ode to My Teeth:
Little white molars
Striped with braces
Help me make
amusing faces

10. A ballad is a songlike poem that tells a story, often a sad story
of betrayal, death, or loss.
•Ballads usually have a regular, steady rhythm, a simple
rhyme pattern, and a refrain, or a repeated part of a poem, all
of which make them easy to memorize.
•Usually follows a-b-c-b rhyme scheme.
•Historically ballads were passed down orally from person to
person rather than in writing.
Steady rhythm,
simple rhyme pattern,
and refrain.
That’s easy!!

11. Narrative Poem: Tells a story
Elegy: A poem written for someone who has died, often a
tribute. Most are written in formal writing and a serious tone.
Couplets: two rhyming lines of poetry that are consecutive.
Haiku: consists of 17 unrhymed syllables, organized into three
lines, and doesn’t rhyme:
Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables
Most describe nature, a moment of beauty which keeps you
thinking or feeling.

12. Lymerick: an amusing verse of five lines:
Lines 1, 2, and 5 ryhme and lines 3 and 4 rhyme.
Line 5 refers to line 1
Lines 3 and 4 are usually shorter than the other lines.
The rhyming pattern is AABBA
EX: There once was a musical king
Who suddenly started to sing.
The birds of the sky
All started to fly
Right over that talented king

13. Concrete Poem: a poem that creates a picture
Acrostic poem: a poem that is vertical and spells out a word
and usually describes that word.
Ex:
A: antsy
M: merry
Y: young

14. An epic is a long narrative poem about the many
deeds of a great hero.
•Closely connected to a particular culture. The hero of an epic
embodies the important values of the society he comes from.
•Essentially, an epic is a long story about the quests of a
hero.
•Think Hercules, and Shrek in poetic form.