Poetic Forms

The sonnet does not stand alone!

Lyric Poetry
A poem, usually short, that expresses some basic emotion or state of mind. It usually creates a single impression and is highly personal. It may be rhymed or unrhymed, in any of a number of forms.

The Words to many Modern Day Songs Can be Considered Lyric Poetry

Think of songs that have lyrics of literary merit. Some names that come to mind are: Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen Simon and Garfunkel? OMG

The Ode
Ode - a lyric poem with a dignified theme that is phrased in a formal, elevated style. Its purpose is to praise and glorify. Odes describe nature intellectually rather than emotionally and usually consist of a succession of stanzas in lines of varying length and meter.
Ode to Billie Joe Ode on a Grecian Urn

The term comes from the Greek oide or aoide, which was derived from aeidein, meaning to sing. Originally, an ode was a poem meant to be sung. The earliest ode-like poems were written by Sappho c. 600 B.C. and Alcaeus c. 611 580 B.C., while the modern ode dates from the Renaissance. Interest in this poetry form revived in the Twentieth Century. John Miltons On the Morning of Christs Nativity is an ode.

The Elegy
An Elegy is a sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person. An example of this type of poem is Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

Solemn and Reflective Written in formal style

The Ballad
A narrative (tells a story) song or poem passed on in the oral tradition. The Ballad of John and Yoko Get Up and Bar the Door

Makes use of repetition Makes use of dialogue Utilizes symbol

The Sestina
A 39 line poem consisting of six stanzas of six lines each followed by an envoi (short stanza at the end of a poem) of three lines. Ezra Pound Sestina: Altaforte

There is no rhyme within the stanza, nor do the lines follow any metrical pattern, although they are traditionally cast in iambs The form of the sestina works by a recurrent pattern of the words that end each line, a technique known as "lexical repetition. Here is the rhyme scheme 1. ABCDEF 2. FAEBDC 3. CFDABE 4. ECBFAD 5. DEACFB 6. BDFECA 7. (envoi) ECA or ACE

The Villanelle
The villanelle is a nineteenline poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines.
Elizabeth Bishop One Art

Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
-Relates and episode in a speakers life through a controversial format that reveals the character of the speaker Mending Wall Robert Frost

The Dramatic Monologue is written in the first person, apparent either at the beginning or disclosed somewhere within the poem. This is often an historical personage, who becomes the persona of the poem. This will often be the case with the Whitehern material since the monologue may be spoken by one of the members of the family, as in a letter. In the Dramatic Monologue there is an explicit or an implied listener, and the listener is sometimes addressed in the poem. In the Dramatic Monologue the persona of the poem reveals or betrays something of his/her own character in the telling, often a negative aspect, and certainly an ironic or dramatic aspect. The form of a Dramatic Monologue varies, but is usually a lyric poem, and can be a strictly structured poem like a sonnet, or can be a prose poem, or blank verse.