There are so many different kinds of poems and it's almost impossible to define, but usually a poem is a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their beauty and sound and are carefully arranged, often in short lines that rhyme.
The name of the poem.
The person who writes the poem. They usually leave their signature.
A group of lines which are together and separated by an empty line from other stanzas.
Names for stanzas:
- Couplet (2 lines).
- Tercet (3 lines).
- Quatrain (4 lines).
- Cinquain (5 lines).
- Sestet (6 lines).
- Septet (7 lines).
- Octave (8 lines).
A gap between stanzas.
A single line in a poem. It gives a structure to poetry form.
Here are the most common types of verses:
- Rhymed verse: It's the most common and it usually has a metrical form that rhymes throughout.
- Blank verse: It has no rhyme scheme. However, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones.
- Free verse: It doesn't follow the rules, and has no rhyme. However, it's still an artistic expression.
Here are the 3 most common types of poems according to form:
- Lyrics poetry: It expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
- Narrative poetry: It's a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters as well.
- Descriptive poetry: It describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives.
Words that end with similar sounds; usually at the end of a line. Rhyme is principally a function of sound rather than spelling. For example, words rhyme that end with the same vowel sound but have different spellings: right, kite, and height.
Here are some types of rhyme:
- Perfect rhyme - The ending sound of each word matches exactly: soap and hope.
- Rich rhyme - It involves words that are pronounced the same but are not spelled alike and have different meanings: break and brake.
- Eye rhyme - Two words that look similar on a page, but do not actually rhyme in spoken pronunciation: move and love.
The pattern of rhymes at the end of each verse or line in poetry.
Here are some types of rhyme scheme:
- Alternate rhyme: It follows the pattern ABAB CDCD EFEF and so on.
- Ballade rhyme: It's a lyric poem that follows the rhyme scheme ABABBCBC.
- Coupled rhyme: The rhymes occur in pairs, such as AABBCC.
- Enclosed rhyme: The pattern is ABBA, in which A encloses the B.
Emotions involved in a poem.
This is what the poem is all about.
This is the way a poem is arranged on a page.
Each line of a poem must begin with capital letters.