"A Primer in Poetic Styles" Part 1

2/20/2025

Background Information - Literature

“A Primer in Poetic Styles” (Part 1 of 2)

Way back in the day, I took a poetry class at a local Community College. We were, of course, instructed to obtain a Norton’s Anthology of Poetry. This thick, rich history of poetry, through a wide selection of poems, was a doorway to my pursuit of this literary art form. The book included poems, written in the English language, with a timeline spanning from “current” to those penned in medieval Europe.

Note: The rhyme scheme is one easy way to analyze a poem, focusing on the end rhyme of each line. It is usually broken down into a series of letters. example: ABAB CDCD - same letters = similar word sound or rhyme ending

Another important term in poetry is the stanza.

“In poetry, a stanza (/ˈstænzə/; from Italian stanza, Italian: [ˈstantsa]; lit. 'room') is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation.[1] Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. There are many different forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains”…

Example 1

This short poem by Emily Dickinson has two stanzas of four lines each:

I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love; but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
was large enough for me.” Wikipedia

BTW - These two stanzas have a rhyming scheme of ABAB ABAB (In this case none of the A lines rhyme, but all are the same in this regard.)

It seemed that, as in most any other art forms, writers across this span of time were often intent on modifying or modernizing their poems in order to make them stand out amongst the tried-and-true styles of old. The following is a list of 12 types of poems and some examples.

1. Sonnet

Sonnets are practically synonymous with Shakespeare, but there are actually two different kinds of sonnets. Having originated in 13th century Italy, the sonnet usually deals with love and has two common forms: the Petrarchan (named for 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

• These sonnets will have 2 stanzas

• The first stanza 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

· These sonnets have 14 lines

· All written in iambic pentameter*

· 3 quatrains (4 lines each) and a couplet (2 lines)

· Couplet usually forms a conclusion

Rhyme scheme: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG

*Iambic pentameter is a type of poetic meter that consists of lines with ten syllables, arranged in five pairs called iambs, where each iamb has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. This rhythm closely resembles the natural flow of spoken English and is commonly used in English poetry, notably by Shakespeare.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia Britannica

Sample of a Sonnet

"Shall I Compare Thee To A Summers’ Day?" by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

2. Villanelle

Villanelles have even more specific rules than sonnets. Many of the lines are repetitions.

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

Sample of Villanelles

“Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

3. Haiku

The haiku originated in 17th century Japan. A haiku often features a single image which represents the essence of a brief, fleeting moment in time. Many refer to nature. The key is the number of syllables in each line.

Haiku Characteristics and Rules

• 3 lines

• Line 1 contains 5 syllables

• Line 2 contains 7 syllables

• Line 3 contains 5 syllables

Sample of Haiku

R. M. Hansard, ‘The West Wind’.

The west wind whispered,
And touched the eyelids of spring:
Her eyes, Primroses.

4. Ekphrastic Poems

Ekphrastic poems don’t really have specific rules. They generally speak of another work of art.

Ekphrasis comes from the Greek word for “description,” These poems should vividly describe a painting, statue, photograph, or story

Sample of Ekphrastic Poetry

The Starry Night by Anne Sexton

That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars. Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother.

The town does not exist

except where one black-haired tree slips

up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.

The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.

Oh starry starry night! This is how

I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.

Even the moon bulges in its orange irons

to push children, like a god, from its eye.

The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.

Oh starry starry night! This is how

I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,

sucked up by that great dragon, to split

from my life with no flag,

no belly,

no cry.

5. Concrete Poems

Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct meaning of its own. Wikipedia

Sample of Concrete Poetry

“Swan and Shadow” by John Hollander

Dusk
Above the
water hang the
loud
flies
Here
O so
gray
then
What A pale signal will appear
When Soon before its shadow fades
Where Here in this pool of opened eye
In us No Upon us As at the very edges
of where we take shape in the dark air
this object bares its image awakening
ripples of recognition that will
brush darkness up into light

even after this bird this hour both drift by atop the perfect sad instant now
already passing out of sight
toward yet-untroubled reflection
this image bears its object darkening
into memorial shades Scattered bits of
light No of water Or something across
water Breaking up No Being regathered
soon Yet by then a swan will have
gone Yes out of mind into what
vast
pale
hush
of a
place
past
sudden dark as
if a swan
sang

6. Elegy

The elegy is another type of poem that lacks particular rules. 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, as in a scene of a play or movie.

Sample 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.

At this point I will end this blog. My next entry will include more basic information and samples of six more poetic styles.

Follow your dreams. Make more art!M. True