Free Verse- Types of Poetry

Definition: A poem that is composed of rhyme or unrhyme lines that have to fixed pattern. The poet usually wants to write freely whatever that comes to their minds.

Example:

Song of Myself
by
Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

Elegy- Types of Poetry

Definition: A sad and thoughtful poem talking about the death of a person.

Example:

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
by
Thomas Gray

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Ode

Definition: A type of poem that shows how grateful and thankful the poet or someone is to something else.

Example:

Ode to Cheese

Ode to cheese,
Which makes us smile,
When camera's go clack.
Ode to cheese,
Which make us taste,
The greatest of flavors, the wackiest of whack.
Ode to cheese,
Blue, Gorgonzola,
American and Cheddar.
Ode to cheese,
Beja and Feta,
In all types of weather.
Ode to cheese,
For those on a diet,
or trying to get fatter.
Ode to cheese,
with crackers and wine,
with grapes can flatter.
ode to cheese,
when you're sad and happy,
Cheese just fits.
ode to cheese,
mountains and mountains,
or bits and bits.
ode to the cheese,
To appreciate,
eat,
and take pictures.

Sonnet

Definition: Lyric poems that have 14 lines with each line 10 syllables.

Example:

Red Blushed And All Cut UpBy Paul McCann

Talking to myself there
Someone had overheard.
I was lost for a word.
There was nothing to share.
Embarrassed I was there.
Left awkward and absurd .
A broken wingless bird.
With nowhere to fly there.
Caught red faced there was I.
Didn't want to be seen.
I just wanted to die.
I just wanted to scream.
I'm so terribly shy.
Lost for words it would seem

Lyric

Definition: A type of poem that expresses the feelings and thoughts of the poet

Example:

Dying
(aka I heard a fly buzz when I died )
by
Emily Dickinson

I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

Epic

Definition: Long, serious poems that talk about a hero

Example:

Hiawatha's Departure
from The Song of Hiawatha
by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.

Click the following link for the full version

Odyssey

Ballad

Definition: A narrative poem that tells a story about love, betrayal, friendship... often sung.

Example:

The Mermaid
by
Unknown author

Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.