12 types of poems

Writing good poetry can be incredibly challenging, and sometimes just trying to
understand it can be tiresome. But if you think writing poetry requires a minor in rocket
science, think again.
There are so many different types of poems, and many have very few rules. All you
have to do is select a style that appeals to you and let your creativity flow!
12 Different Types of Poems
Below is a list of some of the most common types of poetry, their main
characteristics, and famous examples of each.
You may prefer to read certain types of poems, while for other types you may enjoy
writing your own! Familiarize yourself with these different styles and see if any spark your
imagination.
1. Sonnet
Sonnets are practically synonymous with Shakespeare, but there are actually two
different kinds of this famous poetic form. Having originated in 13 th century Italy, the
sonnet usually deals with love and has two common forms: the Petrarchan (named for its
famous practitioner, the poet Petrarch) and the Shakespearean (also known as the English
sonnet). Each type contains 14 lines but comes with its own set of rules.
Petrarchan Sonnet
It was named after a famous Italian poet called Petrarch (1304–1374) whose best known works
include the Canzoniere , a collection of poems, mostly SONNETs , about his love for a woman named
Laura )

Characteristics and Rules:

 2 stanzas
 Presents an argument, observation, or question in the first 8 lines
 Turn (or “volta”) between 8th and 9th lines
 Second stanza answers the question or issue posed in the first
 Rhyme Scheme: ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE
Shakespearean Sonnet
 3 quatrains (4 lines each) and a couplet (2 lines)
 Couplet usually forms a conclusion
 Rhyme scheme: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
 Example of a Sonnet
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
2. Villanelle
Villanelles have even more specific rules than sonnets. Luckily, many of the lines are
repetitions, but this means you’ll have to take care to make those lines meaningful.
Villanelle Characteristics and Rules
 19 lines
 5 stanzas of 3 lines each
 1 closing stanza of 4 lines
 Rhyme scheme: ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABA, ABAA
 Line 1 repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18
 Line 3 repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19
Example of Villanelles
The Waking
BY  THEODORE ROETHKE
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?

God bless the Ground!   I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

3. Haiku / ˈhaɪkuː /
a type of Japanese poem with three lines consisting of five, seven, and
five syllables. You might remember writing a few of these back in grade
school, because not only are these poems short, but they can be very fun to
write.
The haiku originated in 17th century Japan. Although they usually refer to
nature, the only real rule applies to the number of syllables in each line, so
you can let your imagination run wild with this one.

Haiku Characteristics and Rules

  3 lines
 Line 1 contains 5 syllables
 Line 2 contains 7 syllables
 Line 3 contains 5 syllables
Example of Haiku
Matsuo Bashō, “By the Old Temple”:
By the old temple,
peach blossoms;
a man treading rice.

4. Ekphrastic Poems
Ekphrastic poems focus on works of art—usually paintings, photographs, or
statues. And modern ekphrastic poems have generally shrugged off antiquity’s
obsession with elaborate description, and instead have tried to interpret, inhabit,
confront, and speak to their subjects.
Ekphrastic poems don’t really have specific rules, but they do speak of another
work of art.
Ekphrasis comes from the Greek word for “description,” and that’s exactly what
this poem should do: vividly describe a painting, statue, photograph, or story. One
famous example is found in the Iliad, where Homer refers to Achilles’ shield.
Examples of Ekphrastic Poetry
Ekphrastic
BY  REBECCA WOLFF
there are some things up there
uptown
I want to see
I want to see    I'm going to look at that and see
I want to go up and see
that show. That show
I went to see, I went to see.
There are some things up
there   uptown
I want to
look at that and see. I'm going to see
what I look. What I look at, when I look, vessel,
 I stood to see. I went to stand to look
to see. Venturing further I went outside myself to look
at that wall. It fed! There was a box inside that was not blank, I saw it.
It was really different from an aura, the thing had
colors, the thing was talking
to itself. And spoke
to me, not incidentally.

Hagar in the Wilderness

Tyehimba Jess( Tyehimba Jess was born in Detroit, Michigan)
Carved Marble. Edmonia Lewis, 1875

My God is the living God,

God of the impertinent exile.
An outcast who carved me
into an outcast carved
by sheer and stony will
to wander the desert
in search of deliverance
the way a mother hunts
for her wayward child.
God of each eye fixed to heaven,
God of the fallen water jug,
of all the hope a vessel holds
before spilling to barren sand.
God of flesh hewn from earth
and hammered beneath a will
immaculate with the power
to bear life from the lifeless
like a well in a wasteland.
I'm made in the image of a God
that knows flight but stays me
rock still to tell a story ancient as
slavery, old as the first time
hands clasped together for mercy
and parted to find only their own
salty blessing of sweat.
I have been touched by my God
in my creation, I've known her caress
of anointing callus across my face.
I know the lyric of her pulse
across these lips... and yes,
I've kissed the fingertips
of my dark and mortal God.
She has shown me the truth
behind each chiseled blow
that's carved me into this life,
the weight any woman might bear
to stretch her mouth toward her
one true God, her own
beaten, marble song.

Edmonia Lewis (1845-1907) was an African/Native American expatriate sculptor who was phenomenally successful in Rome.
5. Concrete Poems
Concrete poetry is designed to take a particular shape or form on the page. Poets can
manipulate spacing or layout to emphasize a theme or important element in the text, or
sometimes they can take the literal shape of their subjects.
Example of Concrete Poetry
“The Altar” by George Herbert was intended to resemble a church altar:
A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
Made of a heart and cemented with tears;
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman’s tool hath touch’d the same.
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow’r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name.
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.
6. Elegy
The elegy is another type of poem that lacks particular rules, but it usually is written in
mourning following a death. They can be written for a particular person, or treat the
subject of loss more generally.
Example of an Elegy
One famous example of an elegy is Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,” which
Whitman wrote following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln:
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
 For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
7. Epigram
Epigrams are short, witty, and often satirical poems that usually take the form of a couplet
or quatrain (2-4 lines in length).
Example of an Epigram
An example of this wit is provided by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
Epigrams are not exclusive to poetry. They are also commonly used as literary devices and
in speeches. John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “Mankind must put an end to war, or war
will put an end to mankind” is one such example.
8. Limerick
Limericks are humorous poems that have a more distinct rhythm. Their subject matter is
sometimes crude, but always designed to offer laughs.
Limerick Characteristics and Rules
• 5 lines
• 2 longer lines (usually 7-10 syllables)
• 2 shorter lines (usually 5-7 syllables)
• 1 closing line to bring the joke home (7-10 syllables)
• Rhyme scheme: AABBA
Examples of Limericks
There once was an old man of Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket
His daughter, called Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
—Anonymous
A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill can hold more than his beli-can.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I’m damned if I see how the heli-can.
—Dixon Lanier Merritt
9. Ballad
Ballads usually take a narrative form to tell us stories. They are often arranged in
quatrains, but the form is loose enough that writers can easily modify it.
Ballad Characteristics and Rules
• Typically arranged in groups of 4 lines
• Rhyme scheme: ABAB or ABCB
Examples of Ballads
“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe (first two stanzas):
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
 With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
Some songs fit the ballad definition and have been passed down today. See this excerpt
from the Irish ballad “Danny Boy”:
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying
‘Tis you, ‘tis you must go and I must bide.
10. Epitaph
An epitaph is much like an elegy, only shorter. Epitaphs commonly appear on gravestones,
but they can also be humorous. There are no specific rules for epitaphs or their rhyme
schemes.
Examples of Epitaphs
From William Shakespeare’s gravestone:
Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves by bones.
“Epitaph” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Heap not on this mound
Roses that she loved so well:
Why bewilder her with roses,
That she cannot see or smell?
She is happy where she lies
With the dust upon her eyes.
11. Ode
Odes address a specific person, thing, or event. The ode is believed to have been invented
by the ancient Greeks, who would sing their odes. Modern odes follow an irregular pattern
and are not required to rhyme.
Example of an Ode
“Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
 Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
12. Free Verse
Free verse is exactly what its name implies. There are no rules, and writers can do
whatever they choose: to rhyme or not, to establish any rhythm. Free verse is often used
in contemporary poetry.
Example of a Free Verse Poem
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.