Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 16

Welcome back to The Gooseberry Garden! This is our 16th week, and I, CC Champagne, is once again here to start the week off with some musings on poetry forms. Pull up a picnic blanket and join in what passes for fun where poetry form is concerned!

Have you ever suffered from writer's block? Had those days when the words just aren't there? Well, I'm going through a phase of something like that right now. Writer's block-light, if there is such a thing, but we have been doing this for 16 weeks so instead of trying to find something witty and fun to say I thought it might be the right time to do a recap. It would also be a way to gather all the poetry forms (and related information) we've gone through so far, and maybe it will make it easier to find the gaps in the information (if there are any gaps, that is).

Please note that items in italics below are not poetry forms per se, but rather poetry tools or related information. For more extensive (and sometimes more confusing) information, follow the links provided back to the original post).

Alliterative Verse:

• Uses repetition of a specific sound (alliteration) to bind a poem together.

Anacreontic Verse:

• Seven syllable lines
• Subject matter: love and wine
• Rarely used (the original text of 'The Star Spangled Banner' was written in anacreontic verse)

Bouts-Rimé:

• A sonnet (see below) with set end rhymes
• You can basically decide on the - traditionally - eight end words of a stanza and work out the poem from that. Can be (and has been) used as a poetry constructing game.

Carmen:

• A form of chant that does not adhere to any particular meter, though the number three has a special significance and phrases are often repeated three times.

Cinquain:

• Five lines (2-4-6-8-2 syllable count)
• End rhymes

Computer Generated Poetry:

• Uses the computer as a tool to decide the words of a poem.

Free Verse:

• No set meter pattern, rhyme or any other discernible pattern.
• Must have poetic structure.

Haiku:

• 17 syllables (traditionally, though not required. Must be an uneven number though). First line five syllables, second line seven syllables and third line five syllables.
• No end rhymes
• Subject matter should be nature.

Limerick:

• witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent.
• five-lines in anapestic or amphibrachic meter
• strict rhyme scheme (aabba)

Monostich:

• One line only
• Six to twelve syllables (always an even number)
• Similes not allowed, but at least one poetic devise must be used.
• No punctuation allowed, apart from the full stop at the end (and capital letter at the beginning).
• Should be a complete thought (not a fractured sentence).
• Should not be able to be broken up into several lines

Paradelle:

• Spoof form of Villanelle (please see below or link for more information)

Sonnet:

• Fourteen lines
• Each line containing ten syllables
• Iambic pentameter (five iambs (Ta-dums) to each line) is (traditionally) used
• Modern sonnets are not adhering strictly to original rules

Tanka:

• 31 syllables
• Five lines (5-7-5-7-7 syllable count)

Villanelle:

• 19 lines in all
• Set rhyming pattern: A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2 (for more information follow the link)
• 2 rhyming refrains
• usually in pentameter (five feet to a line)
• does not tell a story or work for narrative development

Iambic Pentameter:

• A metric foot (not a poetry form) dealing with the rhythm of the poem, dividing words and sentences into feet rather than syllables.
• An iamb has the same rhythm as your heart beating, with the emphasis (or stress) on the first syllable of a word or line (ta-DUM)
• Pentameter means that there are five feet (ta-DUM:s) to each line.

Metric Feet:

• what provides rhythm to the words, how they are stressed when we say them (for a list, please follow the link).

Syllables:

• Look for the vowels in the word.
• Subtract any silent vowels (like the 'e' at the end of the 'Fore!' shouted by golfers).
• If you have two vowels together, creating a diphthong, count only one of the vowels (for example the word 'you' is only one syllable).
• Compound words, words that consist of two other words but is written together (likehouseboat), along with words using prefixes (like prefix) and suffixes (like farmer) should be divided into their component words to count syllables.
• Divide words between the two middle consonants (like bas/ket) to count the syllables.
• Usually divide words into syllables before a single consonant (like e/vil or re/port).
• The '-le' at the end of a word usually forms its' own syllable (like a/ble, or indeed syl/la/ble.

15 weeks of work in one post! Wow, you would have thought we would all know much more than we really do (or perhaps I should speak merely for myself in this case?). I have already spotted some rather large holes in the above information, but we will do our very best to fill those in the weeks, months and perhaps even years to come.

Remember that I'm trying to learn this along with the rest of you, so if you have any input on the above I would be happy to hear from you. This is supposed to be fun but instructive, but I think we all remember how that could be from back when we were in school... *smile* Don't give yourselves a head-ache trying to understand everything at once! There will be no tests on this (thankfully), but hopefully one of the more obscure forms may help inspire you to delve deeper into your creative selves!

If you feel you want to share a poem, new or old, based on this or not, please feel welcome to join us over at The Gooseberry Garden's Poetry Picnic Week 15: November, Winter, Change and Hope, or rev up your poetic engines over at Thursday Poets' Rally Week 57, and perhaps end up with the Perfect Poets Award?

In the run-up to and stress before Christmas, I have to say that being here, in the peacefulness of The Gooseberry Garden really helps me keep my spirits up, and I look forward to seeing you again next week for more Poetry for Dummies and weird and wonderful Thursday Poetry Forms!

*Cheers*