Poetry Styles

Poetry cannot really be defined, you simply cannot bind the essence of it into a few sentences. The
definition of poetry changes from person to person and from time to time. One thing about poetry
that will always remain constant is that it is an art. And so, you cannot exactly tell anyone how to
write a poem. However, the styles, basic elements, and various techniques used in writing poems
can be learned.
Learning the composition of poetry is like learning to play a musical instrument. You learn all the
rules and techniques of playing the instrument before you create or compose something on it. Poetry
style is the way in which. Michigan Apparel

a poem is written, which is different from the 'type' of poem. There are many different types of
poems, and many are invented day in day out. Actually, you can easily fill a 300 page book with just
different types of poems. Here, we have tried to give you an overview of the various styles.
Acrostic

The one in which the poet uses the letters in a single word to start each line of the poem.

 Ballad

A ballad is simply a story told in the form of a poem. It is usually related to folk tales, and is easy to
sing. Example - the Hindu epic Ramayana is a ballad. Each verse of a ballad ends with the same line,
which is called 'a refrain'.

 Clerihew

It is a comical style of poetry, and is named after its inventor Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The rhyme
scheme used is usually a-a-b-b.
Damante

A Damante styled poem commonly contains seven lines that are shaped like a diamond.
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The poem is written in the following format.

Line 1: Noun or subject

Line 2: Two Adjectives

Line 3: Three -ing words

Line 4: Four words about the subject

Line 5: Three -ing words

Line 6: Two adjectives

Line 7: Synonym/antonym for the subject

Epitaph

It is a small poem that is inscribed on tombstones telling something about, or praising the person on
whose grave the stone is placed.

 Fable

A fable is a story written in verse or prose with a moral at the end. Generally, it uses animals as
characters to teach a valuable lesson.
Free Verse

This is a free form of poetry that most modern poets are following. It does not follow the
conventional elements like meters, rhymes, etc. Its emphasis is on the thought behind the poem.
Ghazal

A Ghazal is a style of poetry that is written like an odd numbered chain of couplets where every
couplet is an individual poem.
Haiku

Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry. It generally contains three unrhymed verses.

Lanturne

The Lanturne is a poem of five-line stanza that is shaped like a Japanese lantern with a definite
syllabic pattern.
Limerick

This style of poetry is witty and sometimes vulgar. It has around five lines in a verse. The first,
second, and fifth line have the same metrical structure, and they also rhyme with each other.
Minute Poetry

The Minute Poem consists of rhyming verses that have exactly 12 lines of 60 syllables written in
strict iambic meter.
Monody

In this style, the poet mourns the death of someone. It is sung by a single singer without a chorus.
Monorhyme

This kind of poems end in the same rhyme. It is very commonly in Welsh, in medieval Latin, and in
Arabic.
Nonet

A nonet poem has precisely nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line - eight
syllables, the third line - seven syllables, and so on.
An Ode

An ode is a poem that is written to praise a person or a remarkable event.

Palindrome

This type of poem reads the same forward and backward. It is taken from the Greek word
palindromos: palin which means 'again'.
Pantoum

The pantoum style of poetry uses four line stanzas, where you repeat lines. Lines 2 and 4 of a stanza
become lines 1 and 3 of the next. It is a rhythmic style.
Quatrain

The name 'quatrain' has been derived from Latin and French words that mean 'four'. The quatrain
style means writing a poem of four lines.
Shape Poetry

Also known as concrete poetry, these are poems whose shape refers to their subject. It is an old form
of poetry, and its earliest forms come from some Greek poets.
Sonnet

A sonnet is a lyrical poem consisting of fourteen lines. There are two types of sonnets Petrarchan
sonnet and Shakespearean sonnet. Both are very popular.
Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are poems that are styled as tongue twisters make use of words or combination of
words, that are hard to pronounce individually or collectively. Usually such poems use a lot of
alliteration.
Villanelle Poetry

A Villanelle has 19 lines which are grouped into five tercets, and a concluding quatrain. The first and
third line are repeated alternately.
This list gives you only the major poetry styles. There are many more kinds of poetry and new styles
that are also being invented, so the list can go on and on.