Types of Poetry

a narrative poem of longer length; usually tells a sad or tragic story; contains many stanzas

• couplet

• haiku

• rhyme

• ballad

a poem written in the shape of its subject matter

• triplet

• ballad

• limerick

• concrete poem

a two-line poem with both lines rhyming

• bi-poem

• couplet

• narrative

• ballac

a poem that does not have rhyme and does not have meter; has no restrictions

• limerick

• quatrain

• stanza

• free verse

a 17-syllable traditional Japanese poem; unrhymed; has no title; has three lines containing syllables of 5, 7 & 5; usually about nature

• haiku

• limerick

• ballad

• concrete poem

a 4-line poem with one of several schemes (also a stanza in a longer poem); the usual rhyme schemes include ABCB, AABB or ABAB

• quatrain

• limerick

• free verse

• ballad

a group of lines that might be thought of as a "paragraph" in prose; 

• refrain

• stanza

• meter

• rhythm

a fixed pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in lines of fixed length; used to create rhythm

• refrain

• meter

• rhyme scheme

• stanza

the pattern created by placing rhyming words in specific places

• rhythm

• rhyme scheme

• rhyme

• refrain

Poem consisting of 14 lines with an intricate (complex) rhyme scheme

• Narrative

• Haiku

• Sonnet

• Lyric