Form Fitting 101

Since Walt Whitman came along, free verse has taken over. Was poetry liberated? Many fine pratictioners of free verse might argue yes. Then again, some others mistakenly believe it's easier. Perhaps this is one of the reasons form poetry is undergoing a bit of a revival. Or perhaps they just understand that sometimes contstraint can breed creativity.

There are so many different forms out there, and many more being created every day. Can you recognize these forms based on some of their major characteristics?

What is your age?
Under 18 Years Old
18 to 24 Years Old
25 to 30 Years Old
31 to 40 Years Old
41 to 50 Years Old
51 to 60 Years Old
Over 60 Years Old
What is your gender?
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Female
1. Has a rhyme scheme: a-b-a-b / c-d-c-d / e-f-e-f / g-g and usually written in iambic pentameter.
Ghazal
Limerick
(English) Sonnet
Villanelle
2. An eight line poem with rhyme scheme ABaAabAB and written in iambic pentameter. Lines 1, 4 and 7 are identical, as are 2 and 8. Note that the initial and closing couplets are therefore identical, as well.
Tercet
Triolet
Tanka
Villanelle
3. A poem with a syllable count per line of 1/1/2/3/5/8
Haiku
Fib
Clerihew
Sestina
4. A 19 line poem (five triplets and a closing quatrain), with an alternating aba aba aba aba aba abaa rhyme scheme and two refrains (the first on lines 1, 6, 12, and 18 and the second on lines 3, 9, 15 and 19).
Pantoum
Ru'bai
(Spenserian) Sonnet
Villanelle
5. A five line poem with three metrical feet in the 1st, 2nd and 5th lines and two metrical feet in the 3rd and 4th. It has a rhyme scheme of aabba.
Sijo
Tanka
Limerick
Didactic Cinquain
6. A poem which uses four lines from another poem as a 'texte', providing the concluding lines for each of its stanzas. Rhyme schemes and so forth vary but a popular approach seems to be 10 line (subsequent) stanzas, with end rhymes at lines 6, 9 and 10 in each.
Senryu
Concrete poem
Ode
Glosa
7. A 39 line poem (6 sextets followed by a tercet). The end words of each stanza are repeated in a specific but alternating order: 123456, 615243, 364125, 532614, 451362, 246531, and (62)(14)(53) as middle and end words in the tercet.
Pantoum
Ballad
Ghazal
Sestina
8. The beginning letter or word of each line can also be read vertically to reveal a different, but usually related, message.
Concrete Poem
Acrostic
Cinquain
Haiku
9. A poem composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final.
Pantoum
Blues poem
Palindrome
Epic
10. Prose followed by a haiku.
Tanka
Renga
Haibun
Senryu

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