Types Of Poetry ©

BALLAD

DEFINITION

Poems that brings music.

EXAMPLE

And from the graves, where names were carved in
stone, came a mournful Ballad, of life gone by.

A Ballad sang by mothers, whose children left behind,
and left to sing their ballads, of tears that did remain.

And what of Fathers Ballad, whose job was not complete,
who died and sang his song, of things that could not be.

In a smaller voices, still weeping and confused, the children
sang their Ballad, of parents never knew.

NARRATIVE

DEFINITION

Poems that tell a story

EXAMPLE

With tresses all seaweed-y and shell-strewn
but barely brushing her breasts,
and her tail clinging to rocks all wave-hewn,
as her scales glisten with bubbles and brine,
she misses her freshwater step-sister,
the voluptuous vamp of the Rhine.

Splashing down like a swift-diving sea loon,
a semi-manned space capsule floats, rests –-
now cracks like a metal egg hatched on a moon.
Steel-skinned, he wades out, while whirring a whine:
Wanting his mama, this sky-sailing mister,
Crying dry tears for the mother-lode mine.

Such presence of mutual absence: a common boon?
Half-girl + demi-boy, sea with sky nests.
Fabled anatomy and automaton, both smitten, thus swoon
Into marriage-mix mystery, a miracle sign:
No human hearts to meld, nor Cupid’s wounds to blister,
When myth-born maid and man-made parts entwine.

ODE

DEFINITION

Thankful, grateful, greeting style of poem. It usually tell how grateful someone/something is for someone/something else.

EXAMPLE

The bed, mother of sleep,
wife to the sandman, father
of sleep.  As I arrive from
a long, grueling day, I look
to the mother of sleep and
fall into her arms,
a limp leaf.
There is no other
place I would rather be,
than in her loving, caring
grasp.  She enriches my body
with the potion of sleep.
She charges my energy battery.
She is the sanctuary of strength.
Ode, to bed, mother of sleep.

EPIC

DEFINITION

A poem that's dedicated for heroes and their journey story.

EXAMPLE

In a corner of the world

There was a land called Sumer

Whose waters once reached...

The Euphrates valley and the

Syrian desert, its high plateau,

As a result, the mud of two northern streams

Created a delta, with a pitiless sun

But rich was the soil, as anywhere

On earth...and God created man

And man here made his home:

This was the beginning, diversified

By marshes and reed-beds,

Rivers flush with their banks...

After the Great Flood, retreating

Waters and cultivating took place.

Hence, into Sumer the giants of old

Went, degreed a civilization, among

The dark-haired people...sporadically

Circumstances would promote social unity.

And there was Susa, Musyan, Elam

And the Persian Gulf--Mesopotamia;

And Queen shub-ad created style, and

Pottery formed, and temples were born.

And kings came and left, like King

Gilgamish; and thus came, gold vases,

And royal graves at UR, and the

Sumerian hymn, and they hummed

To the gods; and the villagers wore

Garments of sheepskins, and molded

Clay figurines, roughly chipped

From crystal, they wore necklaces

Of this kind, and beads;

This was the lost millennium.

LYRIC

DEFINITION

A poem that expresses feelings/emotions.

EXAMPLE

In the song of life, all lyrics need a melody.
You are the lyric and you are the melody.
You are the lyric of my heart and of my soul.
The beauty of the rose, speaks a lyric of love.
Love, speaks a lyric of you.
The silent lyric of goodness, echoes from within you.
My heart, speaks the lyric of love...to only you.
Let the words...the lyric...that bind, pass between us.
Let the lyric, of you...of me...be as one.
A million words I can speak of you and the lyrics
would be the same...I love you now. I always will

SONNET

DEFINITION

Poem with 14 lines and 10 syllables.

EXAMPLE

I stroll along a fragrant country lane
With honeysuckle perfume on the air –
And feathered crooner’s warble to revere –
Then cross a golden sea of flowing grain
In empathy – it seems to sense my pain
Of knowing all was done with my affair –
Her empty meaning now the solitaire
She cast away – betrothment all in vain.
But oceans team with many fish to catch
So I must up and hoist another sail
And seek the one that really waits for me,
For soon auspicious breezes will prevail
In guiding forth to find a truer match:
The one to take my hand as wife to be.

ELEGY

DEFINITION

A poem that's for expressing feelings of loss and sadness. Mostly about death.

EXAMPLE

The foul stench of burning flesh permeates the air,
Rotten, putrefying bodies lie in the baking sun,
Bright crimson death everywhere,
Frightened masses on the run

Wide-eyed terror on the prowl,
Africa rent asunder,
Can be seen Death’s scowl,
Sheer madness in Rwanda

Frenzied killing unabated,
A fevered orgy of blood,
Hate and bloodlust not sated,
A vile and incessant flood

FREE VERSE

DEFINITION

A poem that can follow any pattern and using any thing in the poem. It doesn't necessary need any figure of speech, periods, comma,... but it needs words, lines, meaning, and theme.

EXAMPLE

Dance with me.

We'll invent a Finnish tango

and wow all the cool people

at the Copacabana, or

slide a lunar waltz under disco starlight with every

eye watching you.

SIGNIFICANCE

Different types of poetry brings different feelings, meanings, and interpretation to the poem. Poems are creative and they exist under many forms and styles. Some might like one type, some might hate it. But types of poem are created to divide the poems up into different sections and people can easily recognize the poems by the differences between them.

Assonance ©

DEFINITION
When vowels in words are repeated more than once. 


EXAMPLE
And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along


SIGNIFICANCE
It's fun for readers to recite the poem with assonance because it could become a really fun tongue twister. A poem can become really interesting and exciting.

Elegy ©

DEFINITION
A poem that was written to deal with loss of a person, or something dramatic that occurred.


EXAMPLE
O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered 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.


SIGNIFICANCE
Elegy brings STRONG feeling to the readers. It brings a feeling of sadness and depression dramatically. It's one of the type of poems existing.

Symbol ©

DEFINITION
When something represents something else. Can be used in a metaphor.


EXAMPLE

Horizons where we look,
a chin bowed down to knee.
The shadows on a gentle brook,
to be mistook for trees.

SIGNIFICANCE
Symbols bring to a poem its creativity and the meaning of the poem can be as colorful as how the readers imagine and interpret the poem. The readers' imagination can be very delightful with symbols we use.

Line ©

DEFINITION
When words are put together and form a line


EXAMPLE
(Line 1)I'm the boss
(Line 2) You do not cross
(Line 3) The king of my domain
(Line 4) For the day
(Line 5) No work, all play
(Line 6) Is found in my refrain


SIGNIFICANCE
A poem needs line in order to become a poem. Lines bring meaning to a poem. It doesn't need to end with a comma, period, question marks, etc. Lines are one of those essential needs for a poem to be created. 

Couplet ©

DEFINITION
When two lines next to each other that rhyme.


EXAMPLE

let me be ur umbrella, I'll shelter u from the rain.
Let me be ur teddy bear, I'll hug u when you are in pain.
Let me be ur hanky, I'll dry ur tears away.
Let me be ur friend and I'll never go away



SIGNIFICANCE
Couplet makes rhyming easy to be recognized in a poem because it's very obvious by the sound it makes when readers recite the poem. It sounds better and more interesting.

Meter ©

DEFINITION
Pattern in a poem


EXAMPLE
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.


ABAB Poem


SIGNIFICANCE
Meter makes the sound of a poem becomes well organized and it creates some kind of music for the poem. Meter can also helps to catch attention and helps to reduce boredom.

Alliteration ©

DEFINITION
When two or more consecutive words have the same first letters that also sound the same.


EXAMPLE
She sells seashell by the sea shore. 


SIGNIFICANCE
Alliteration can create a tongue twist effect to readers that are reciting poems. It can also helps poem to become exciting. And usually a poem with lots of alliteration makes readers to re-read the poem over and over and over again. It can becomes very memorable if a poem reader kept reading the poem all over again and again. 

Rhyme ©

DEFINITION
When each and every sentence in a stanza sound the same at least with one other sentence at the last word. 


EXAMPLE

I look at the moon and a single star
Its making me crazy wondering where you are.
I reach out and touch that heavenly face,
open my hand and there's empty space



SIGNIFICANCE
Rhyme makes the poem sounds artistic, colorful, and interesting. 

Speaker ©

DEFINITION 
The narrator of a poem

EXAMPLE

Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
leader beloved, and long he ruled
in fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.
Then, one after one, there woke to him,
to the chieftain of clansmen, children four:
Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave;
and I heard that -- was -- 's queen,
the Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear.

SIGNIFICANCE

A poem can feel different in different person perspective. For instance, if the poem is in first person perspective, then the story/poem will all be about that person and his/her feelings. The descriptive details might focus only into one person. And sometimes, we can feel sympathize for the narrator. If it's third person perspective, then the narrator will tell us about the story and its details from a point of view of a person that haven't been in the story's situation. First person perspective is more expressing and flashback, when the third person perspective is just simply telling the story. Third person perspective allows us to interpret the poem in different way with first person.

Tone ©

DEFINITION
The up and down pitch of your voice that adds mood into your poem. 


EXAMPLE
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; (light, informing tone) 
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away ("only" tone - reservation) 
And wait to watch the water clear, I may: (supplementary, possibility voice) 
I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. (free tone, assuring) (after thought, inviting) "Rather well for me" -- 

I'm going out to fetch the little calf (Similar, free, persuasive, assuring) 
That's standing by the mother. It's so young, (inviting tones)
It totters when she licks it with her tongue. 
I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. 

by Robert Frost


SIGNIFICANCE
If the author is trying to express some feeling and some mood to the poem, tone is one needed element while reciting the poem. You can feel what the author is trying to express through the tone of the poem. Reading with tone makes the reader sounds more natural and dramatic.

Rhythm ©

DEFINITION

The up and down voice while reciting a poem.

EXAMPLE

I can't tell you what it really is

I can only tell you what it feels like

And right now it's a steel knife in my windpipe

I can't breathe but I still fight while I can fight

As long as the wrong feels right it's like I'm in flight

High off of love, drunk from my hate,

It's like I'm huffing paint and I love it the more I suffer, I suffocate

And right before I'm about to drown, she resuscitates me

             ~Love The Way You Lie - Eminem 

SIGNIFICANT

Rhythm while reading poem can create music and beats. Without Rhythm, a poem would be as tedious and unnatural. Poems need rhythm in order to sound like one, or else it'd sound like a long piece of written work.