what is Poetic Forms

Forms

Specific poetic forms have been developed by many cultures. In more developed closed or "received" poetic forms, the rhyming scheme, meter and other elements of a poem are based on sets of rules, ranging from the relatively loose rules that govern the construction of an elegy to the highly formalized structure of the ghazal or villanelle. Described below are some common forms of poetry widely used across a number of languages, Additional forms of poetry may be found in the discussion of the poetry of particular cultures or periods and in the glossary.

Sonnet

Among the most common forms of poetry through the ages is the sonnet, which by the thirteenth century was a poem of fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. A sonnet's first four lines typically introduce the topic. A sonnet usually follows an a-b-a-b rhyme pattern. The sonnet's convention has changed over its history, and so there several different sonnet forms. Traditionally, in sonnets English poets use iambic pentameter, the Spenserian and Shakespearean sonnets being especially notable.
In the Romance languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely used meters, though the Petrarchan sonnet has been used in Italy since the 14th century. Sonnets are particularly associated with love poetry and often use a poetic diction heavily based on vivid imagery, but the twist and turns associated with the move from octave to sestet and to final couplet make them a useful and dynamic form for many subjects. Shakespeare's sonnets are among the most famous in English Poetry.   

Sestina

The sestina has six stanzas, each comprising six unrhymed lines, in which the words at the end of the first stanza's lines reappear in a rolling pattern in the other stanza. The poem then ends with a three-line stanza in which the words again appear, two on each line.

Sijo

Sijo is a short musical lyric practised by Korean poets. It is usually written as three lines, each lines averaging- 44-46 syllables. There is a pause in the middle of each line and so, in English, a sijo is sometimes printed in six lines rather than three.

Ode

Ode was first developed by poets writing in Ancient Greek, such as Pindar and Latin, such as Horace. Forms of odes appear in many of the cultures that were influenced by the Greeks and Latins. The ode generally has three parts: an antistrophe, and an epode. The antistrophes of the odes possess similar metrical structure and depending on the tradition, similar rhyme structures. In contrast, the epode is written with a different scheme and structure. Odes have a formal poetic diction and generally deal with a serious subject. The strophe and antistrophe look at the subject from different, often conflicting, perspective with the epode moving to a higher level to their view or resolve the underlying issues. Odes are often intended to be rejected or sung by two choruses with the first reciting the strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the epode.

Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in an alphabetic script in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. A form of constrained writing an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval.