Types of Poetry

ABC poem

Definition of ABC poem

An ABC poem has a series of lines that create a mood, picture, or feeling. Lines are made up of words and phrases. The first word of line 1 begins with an A, the first word of line 2 begins with a B etc.

Example of ABC poem - author unknown
A lthough things are not perfect
B ecause of trial or pain
C ontinue in thanksgiving
D o not begin to blame
E ven when the times are hard
F ierce winds are bound to blow

Analogy Poetry Type

Definition of Analogy Poetry Type

An Analogy is a likeness or similarity between things (a subject and an analog) that are otherwise unlike. Analogy is the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.

Example of Analogy Poetry Type

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

By use of analogy the third term in the poem takes on the character of the first two thus
gold is green, flower is leaf and Eden is grief.

Ballad Poems

Definition of Ballad Poems

Ballad Poems are a poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. A ballad is often about love and often sung. A ballad is a story in poetic form. A collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, were collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century - an example is shown below.

Example of Ballad Poems - Excerpt

The Mermaid by Unknown author

Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.

Ballade Poetry Types

Definition of Ballade Poetry Types

Ballade Poetry Types are a French verse form, usually with three stanzas of seven, eight, or ten lines and a shorter final stanza of four or five lines. All stanzas end with the same one-line refrain. One of the most famous ballades is "Ballade des pendus" ("Ballade of the hanged men") by Francois Villon (1431 - c. 1463)

Example of Ballade Poetry Types - Excerpt

"Ballade des pendus" ("Ballade of the hanged men") by Francois Villon

Freres humains qui après nous vivez,
N'ayez les cuers contre nous endurcis,
Car, se pitié de nous povres avez,
Dieu en aura plus tost de vous mercis.

Cacophony

Definition of Cacophony

Cacophony is a technique which was used by the famous poet and author Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll makes use of cacophony in the poem 'Jabberwocky' by using an unpleasant spoken sound created by clashing consonants. The word cacophony originates from the Greek word meaning "bad

sound". The term in poetry refers to the use of words that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds.

Example of Cacophony - Excerpt

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Classicism Types

Definition of Classicism Types of Poetry

Classicism Types of poetry contain the principles and ideals of beauty that are characteristic of Greek and Roman art, architecture, and literature. Classicism concerns itself with form and discipline as opposed to emotional impact as in Romanticism. Examples of classicism in poetry can be found in the works of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, which are characterized by their formality, simplicity, and emotional restraint.

Example of Classicism Types - Excerpt
The poem is an example of a genre represented in Latin by Ovid's Heroides.

Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope

In these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing melancholy reigns;
What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?
Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?

Conceit Poetry Type

Definition of Conceit Poetry Type

Conceit Poetry Type is where an image or metaphor likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different. Poets often use a far-fetched simile or metaphor in this style. An example of a conceit can be found in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?".

Example of Conceit Poetry Type - Excerpt

Shall I compare thee to a summer's 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.

Couplet Poetry Type

Definition of Couplet Poetry Type and Term

A Couplets is a Stanza of only two lines which usually rhyme. Shakespearean (also called Elizabethan and English) sonnets usually end in a couplet and are a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought. William Shakespeare makes use of couplets in more complex rhyme schemes

Example of Couplet Poetry Type - Excerpt

Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare

...Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never write, nor no man ever loved.

Dactyl Poetry Type

Definition of Dactyl Poetry Type

The Dactyl Poetry Term is a metrical foot of three syllables, one long (or stressed) followed by two short (or unstressed), as in 'happily'. The dactyl is the reverse of the Anapaest. An example of the dactyl from "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson is: Half a League, Half a League, Half a League, onward

Example of Dactyl Poetry Type

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Blank Verse

Definition of Blank Verse

Blank Verse is Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is often unobtrusive and the iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of ordinary speech. William Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

Example of Blank Verse

Excerpt from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.