Poetry lessons

"Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar."
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), English poet. A Defence of Poetry (written 1821; published 1840)

FORMS - THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
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Just like the body has a skeleton to hold its shape, poems have a structure that hold their ideas together. In poetry, that "skeleton" is called form. Over the next seven (7) lessons you will identify several different types, or forms of poetry such as Haiku, Lantrene, Couplet, Quatrain, Limerick, and Free Verse. As you practice the different forms of poetry, think about which would be most appropriate for your theme, purpose, and mood from Lesson 15, 16, and 17.
Some points to consider when choosing a "skeleton" for your poem are, of course, its theme, purpose, and mood but also think about if you want your poem to be compact or lengthy, rhymed or unrhymed, metered or unmetered.
You may know if words rhyme such as moon, June and which words do not rhyme (or are unrhymed) like city, hill. However, meter may be a new word for you. Meter deals with the rhythm of the poem. As you might clap your hands along with the rhythm of your favorite music, you can find the same type of "sing-song" pattern in poetry (This is especially evident in nursery rhymes.). This pattern, or meter may be built on accented and unaccented syllables in the lines of the poem. Check out this web site for practice finding meter.
Your poem’s form may be very restricted and limited or very free without many restrictions. Rules for form might include number of words, indention, capitalization, number of syllables, placement of rhymed words, and number and/or placement of lines. There is so much to learn about poetic form but the best way to learn is to try to put some "flesh" or "meat on your bones" on your skeleton and experience writing poetry using different poetic forms.

ALLEGORY - al·le·go·ry
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The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form. A story, picture, or play employing such representation. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Herman Melville's Moby Dick are allegories.

BALLAD
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1.Any light, simple song, esp. one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more stanzas all sung to the same melody.

2.A simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.

3.Any poem written in similar style.

4.The music for a ballad.

5.A sentimental or romantic popular song.

CINQUAIN sing-keyn, sing-keyn
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Prosody. a. a short poem consisting of five, usually unrhymed lines containing, respectively, two, four, six, eight, and two syllables. b. any stanza of five lines.

MADRIGAL mad·ri·gal
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1. a secular part song without instrumental accompaniment, usually for four to six voices, making abundant use of contrapuntal imitation, popular esp. in the 16th and 17th centuries.
2. a lyric poem suitable for being set to music, usually short and often of amatory character, esp. fashionable in the 16th century and later, in Italy, France, England, etc.
3. any part song.

SONNETS
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Prosody. a poem, properly expressive of a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment, of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to one of certain definite schemes, being in the strict or Italian form divided into a major group of 8 lines (the octave) followed by a minor group of 6 lines (the sestet), and in a common English form into 3 quatrains followed by a couplet. –verb (used without object)

FREE VERSE
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Free verse is just what it says it is - poetry that is written without proper rules about form, rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc. The greatest American writer of free verse is probably Walt Whitman. His great collection of free verse was titled Leaves of Grass and it was published in 1855.
In free verse the writer makes his/her own rules. The writer decides how the poem should look, feel, and sound. Henry David Thoreau, a great philosopher, explained it this way, ". . . perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." It may take you a while to "hear your own drummer," but free verse can be a great way to "get things off your chest" and express what you really feel.

Here is an example:

Winter Poem
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Nikki Giovanni
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once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower

QUATRAIN ((KWOT-rain)
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HEY!! Does anybody have a quarter? What's a quarter have to do with this type of poetry? Well, a quarter is 1/4 of a dollar. The word quatrain comes from Latin and French words meaning "four." See the connection? The quatrain is a poem or stanza of four lines. It is a very popular form of poetry. Famous poets like William Blake and T. S. Eliot used quatrains. Read these examples:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

-From William Blake's "The Tyger"

LIMERICK
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A limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem, then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem. The rhyme pattern is a a b b a with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that the limerick was invented by soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700's.
Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of a good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or "heart of the joke." As you work with limericks, remember to have pun, I mean FUN! Say the following limericks out loud and clap to the rhythm.

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

-Anonymous

COUPLET (CUP- let)
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You know a couple means two. So a couplet is a pair of lines of poetry that are usually rhymed. We think the idea of the couplet came from the French and English. There are lots of ways to write different types of couplets. Couplets can also be used to "build" other poems, but we'll get to that later! We are going to use a couplet for a "play on words," or a word game. This type of couplet is called a "terse verse." Here's the way you play,

"If turkeys gobble,
Do Pilgrims squabble?"

ACROSTIC
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The word acrostic if formed from the Greek word acros (outermost) and stichos (line of poetry). You can even find acrostic in the Bible in a book called the Psalms. The acrostic is a poem where the first letter of each line form a word when you read them looking downward. A very complicated acrostic would have the last letter of each line forming a separate word as you read downward, also. But let's take one step at a time and concentrate on simple acrostics. Follow the directions for completing your own.

HAIKU
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Haiku is a poetic form and a type of poetry from the Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact form. Haiku poets, which you will soon be, write about everyday things. Many themes include nature, feelings, or experiences. Usually they use simple words and grammar. The most common form for Haiku is three short lines. The first line usually contains five (5) syllables, the second line seven (7) syllables, and the third line contains five (5) syllables. Haiku doesn't rhyme. A Haiku must "paint" a mental image in the reader's mind. This is the challenge of Haiku - to put the poem's meaning and imagery in the reader's mind in ONLY 17 syllables over just three (3) lines of poetry!