Examples
What genre of poetry is this? (content, not form)
In the quiet morning light I see/ the deep oshanas breaking round/ like a boundless oasis that is bright/ and the echoes of the cattle happily resound. Manna of the north is planted/ and the mielies grow around the homestead/ harrowed as the family toiled/ the soil swallows the breeze of the drizzle ahead. Oh, how peaceful northern life/ its addictive memory is unerasable/ as the sun tiptoes towards the West/ and the herder's whistle resurges in the lovable forest.
Pastoral
A narrative poem that traditionally follows a form of rhymed (abab) quatrains. Often, they recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories that are centered on a dramatic event.
Ballad
There was an old person of Nice,
Whose associates were usually Geese.
They walked out together, in all sorts of weather.
That affable person of Nice!
Limerick
A type of poem that idealizes rural life or the natural world.
Pastoral
What genre of poetry is this? (content, not form)
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!
Ode
A 14-line poem that traditionally uses a rigid scheme. They generally come in 2 forms named after the poets who made them famous:
Petrarchan - two stanzas and a total of 14 lines with the rhyme scheme: ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE
Shakespearean - three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a couplet. The standard rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
Sonnet
What genre of poetry is this? (content, not form)
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Elegy
A type of poem that expresses sadness or melancholy about death, but ends in consolation.
Elegy
Blank Verse or Free Verse???
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Blank Verse
What type of poetry is this (structure/ form)?
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot – Oh Christ!
That ever this should be.
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs,
Upon the slimy sea.
Ballad
Unrhymed, non-metrical lines of verse. A regular pattern of sound may emerge, but it is inconsistent. Most contemporary poems are written in free verse.
Free Verse
What type of poetry is this (structure/ form)?
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay;
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows;
And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in thy heart, and write.'
Sonnet
A poetic form that presents the speech or conversation of a person as self-conversation where the speaker reveals her/ his character. There is an internal audience that does not speak.
Dramatic Monologue
Free Verse or Blank Verse???
This Is a Photograph of Me
It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;
then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.
In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.
(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.
I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.
It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion
but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)
Free Verse
A type of poetry written in regular meter that does NOT contain rhyme. Most commonly found in iambic pentameter.
Blank Verse