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December 19, 2014
11:26am EST

Rated: E | Outline | How-To/Advice | #405011
Definitions of the poetry formats and styles that I use.
These are the poetry formats and styles that I have studied and work with, currently.
Rubiyat is an arabic format that is a quatrain that has the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. The rhyme scheme is: a-a-b-a. A single stanza can be a poem in itself or multiple stanzas may be joined to create a larger poem.
Example of a Rubiyat poem: "Loving Red Hair
Shakespearean Sonnet may be broken into three quatrains with alternating rhyme and a heroic couplet ending it but contains only 14 lines. There are 10 syllables per line. When written there are no spaces between stanzas. The rhyme scheme is: a-b-a-b....c-d-c-d....e-f-e-f....g-g
Example of a Shakespearean Sonnet: "Death In Small Doses
Pantoum has no less than 6 quatrains, though you can have more. The second and fourth lines of each stanza become the first and third lines in the following stanza, respectively. A vital component is using the first and third lines of the first quatrain/stanza as the fourth and second lines of the last stanza. This brings the poem full circle. The rhyme scheme is this, a1-b1-a2-b2....b1-c1-b2-c2....c1-d1-c2-d2....d1-e1-d2-e2....e1-f1-e2-f2....f1-a2-f2-a1.
Example of a Pantoum poem: "The Ring On My Finger
Virelay is an ancient French format having stanzas of different string lengths and number with alternating long and short lines. The rhyme scheme is interlaced: a-b-a-b....b-c-b-c....c-d-c-d....d-e-d-e....e-f-e-f....etc.
Example of a Virelay poem: "Looking Back Upon This Road
Villanelle has 19 lines with 5 stanzas of three lines each and 1 stanza of four lines. The rhyme scheme is: a-b-a....a-b-a....a-b-a....a-b-a....a-b-a....a-b-a-a. There is one vital element to the villanelle; the first, then third line of the poem alternate as the last line of stanzas 2, 3, and 4, and then end stanza 5, and the poem itself, as a couplet.
Example of a Villanelle poem: "Forever in mind my heart and love
The Acrostic uses the first letter of each line to spell out a word, name, or phrase as you read down. Alternately, the last letters of each line may also spell out a message. Acrostics may be either rhyming or unrhymed, use meter or free verse. The letters forming the message are often highlighted in some fashion, either made bold, italicized, or changed in color.
Example of a Acrostic poem: "I Still Love You
Free Form is rhyming poetry without a set meter or syllable scheme. Rhythm and word-flow decide where to place the rhymes, although they always end the lines. Free form often makes use of feminine rhymes. Often feminine rhymes are added as an extra syllable to pieces written in iambic pentameter.
Example of a Free Form poem: "The First Battle
Free verse makes use of line breaks to accent and break up the words Free verse is somewhat like prose written rich in imagery and broken up with line breaks instead of punctuation and paragraphing.
Example of a Free verse poem: "For I See
The Raven Style is my analysis and version of the format used by Egar Allen Poe's "The Raven." There is no formal definition for this style and I will be creating a format definition after I have studied and mastered my interpretation of how he (Poe) used his logic to write that work.
Example of a "Raven Style" poem: "What can it be yet forthcoming?
The Metaphoric Barryian is a style of my own making. It would still be technically considered Free Form but this style does have a few rules. As the name suggests, it tends to utilize metaphors, similes and similarities to describe the meaning of the sentence or line in the poem. So straight forward descriptions would not qualify for this style. There are five lines per stanza and no less then four stanzas.
The rhyming scheme is rather complex:
Where b1-b2, d1-d2, etc are in the second line of each stanza. The rhyming words of b1, d1, etc appear at the caesura (the pause or interruption) in the middle of the line and b2, d2, etc appear at the end if the line. Example: “My heart had been bending until the last ending.” Bending would be b1 and Ending would be b2. The syllable count is not restricted but there should be an even flow between the medical caesura and the terminal caesura. (The pause in the middle of the line to the pause at the end of the line.)
And example of a "Metaphoric Barryian" poem: "Heartbreaking Screams
More to come...
Kactus Berry
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