Lesson One Pt. 1: Types of Poetry Pt. 1 Haiku style and format varies slightly depending on whom one is talking to, but the basic, most widely recognized form is a 3 line stanza with a 5,7,5 syllable pattern. An example of this basic form would be this: Think of me sometimes When our lives are miles apart As you promised to. - Annonymous There are however other versions: A 5,7,5,7,5 version (actually called a Tanka) is another: I most think of you When the sky is filled with stars And my heart's love-filled With emotion that's kept in To hide it from you. - Annonymous Also, a 3,5,3 version, for those who think that they can be very concise: Anger lives. In its angry wake My tears fall. - Annonymous Also you can just throw meaningful words together without worrying about how long the lines are exactly, but if you put too many words, it won't really be haiku, it will be regular blank or free verse, so be careful! Here's an example Once in the sky Seagull Calling to the wind - Annnonymous Ballads are poems that tell a story. They are often used in songs and have a very musical quality to them. The basic form for ballads is iambic heptameter (seven sets of unstressed, stressed sylables per line), in sets of four, with the second and fourth lines rhyming. This is the standard, but we do not require you to follow it rigidly in the poetry you submit to us, especially since very few people use or even know the standard! Feel free to experiment, but remember, it should have a smooth, song-like sound when you speak it aloud. Here is an example: I'll tell a tale, a thrilling tale of love beyond compare I knew a lad not long ago more gorgeous than any I've seen. And in his eyes I found my self a'falling in love with the swain. Oh, the glorious fellow I met by the ocean with eyes of deep-sea green! He was a rugged sailor man with eyes of deep-sea green, And I a maid, a tavern maid! Whose living was serving beer. So with a kiss and with a wave, off on his boat he sailed And left me on the dock, the theif! Without my heart, oh dear! And with a heart that's lost at sea, I go on living still. I still am now still serving beer in that tavern by the sea. And though the pay check's still the same, the money won't go as far For now I feed not just myself, but my little one and me! So let that be a lesson, dear, and keep your heart safely hid. I gave mine to a sailing thief with gorgeous eyes of green. Save yours for a sweeter lad who makes the land his home. Ah me! If only I'd never met that sailor by the sea! -- Annonymous Notice how "seen" and "green" in the first paragraph rhyme? This rhyming pattern, called abcb, is continued throughout the poem. "a" stands for one line ending, "b" for another, and "c" for another still. Because there are 2 "b"'s, they are the two lines that rhyme. Note also, that it does not stay strictly to the iambic heptameter, this only fits if you speed up and blend some of the words, which also adds to the flow of it. Sonnets have been a popular form of poetry for hundreds of years. There are several forms of sonnets, but the differences between them are very slim. A sonnet is made up, at it's most basic, of 14 rhymed iambic pentameter lines. The differences between sonnet styles lies in how they are partitioned off. The type of sonnet I like to use is the Shakespearean Sonnet. A Shakespearean Sonnet (named after William Shakespeare who composed several beautifully written sonnets) is blocked off in the following rhythmic pattern: abab, cdcd, efef, gg (each letter stands for a line, all lines with the same letter are supposed to rhyme). Though there are distinct divisions in the rhyming pattern (i.e., between the abab and cdcd), the divisions are not visually implicated. For example, in Shakespeare's sonnet number 30, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth lines, though the beginning and end of 2 sections of the sonnet (the last ab and first cd) they are written like so: I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes' new wail my dear times waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, They are NOT written like so: I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes' new wail my dear times waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, Here is the complete Sonnet 30, by William Shakespeare: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes' new wail my dear times waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe, And moan the expense of many a vanished sight: Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of fore-bemoaned* moan, Which I now pay as if not paid before. But if the while I think of thee, dear friend All losses are restored and sorrows end. *the last "e" in "bemoaned" is stressed. The wonderful, wonderful thing about free verse, is that it has very few distinct rules or boundries. It is similar to blank verse in that it does not rhyme, but unlike blank verse, it is not written in iambic pentameter. The rhythm or cadence of free verse varies throughout the poem. Though the words don't rhyme, they flow along their own uneven pattern. Definitely a poetry form for one who likes to march to the beat of a different drummer! For example: Running through a field of clover, Stop to pick a daffodil I play he loves me, loves me not, The daffy lies, it says he does not love me! Well, what use a daffy When Jimmy gives me roses? -- Annonymous Blank verse is a form of poetry, obviously. What sets it apart from all the other forms is the fact that blank verse does not rhyme.The meter is usually iambic (a pattern of unstressed syllables followed by stressed), and pentameter ( a line consisting of five feet). A line of blank verse would go like this: (Imagine that the "da" is stressed and the "la" is unstressed, and each "la da" equals one foot) la da la da la da la da la da or I watch the rolling hills fly by my eyes
