Poetic Forms

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Couplet

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A pair of successive lines of verse, typically rhyming and of the same length.

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Quatrain

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A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

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Pentameter

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A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.

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Haiku

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A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

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Ballad

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A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next.

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Limerick

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A humorous five-line poem with a rhyme scheme aabba.

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Free-Verse

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Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.