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.

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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.

Narrative

Narrative

Definition: Poems that have a plot & tells a story

Example:

What The Doctor Said

He said it doesn't look good
he said it looks bad in fact real bad
he said I counted thirty-two of them on one lung before
I quit counting them
I said I'm glad I wouldn't want to know
about any more being there than that
he said are you a religious man do you kneel down
in forest groves and let yourself ask for help
when you come to a waterfall
mist blowing against your face and arms
do you stop and ask for understanding at those moments
I said not yet but I intend to start today
he said I'm real sorry he said
I wish I had some other kind of news to give you
I said Amen and he said something

it
and me to have to fully digest it
I just looked at him
for a minute and he looked back it was then
I jumped up and shook hands with this man who'd just given me
something no one else on earth had ever given me
I may have even thanked him habit being so strong

- Raymond Carver

Lines

Definition: A group of words forming a single connected mark

Example:
Two lovers, one parachute, no survivors.

Explanation: Having too many short lines don't give any more confusions to the readers if the poem is too long. If there is one continuous long line, the readers might lose track of where they were reading.

Symbol

Definition: Something that represents something else

Example:
"One perfect Rose" ~ by Dorothy Parker, 1926

A single flower he sent me, since we met.

All tenderly his messenger he chose;

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet--

One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;

"My fragile leaves," it said, "his hear enclose."

Love long has taken for his amulet

One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?

Ah no, it's always just my luck to get

One perfect rose.

Explanation: To make the poem more interesting and to let the readers think about the poem after reading it. The readers will have to find out the meaning of the symbol in the poem, and it is easy to remember.

PeAcE (:

Onomatopea

Definition: The sound effect of a poem using words.

Example:
KABOOM!Kaboom!
Ka-blast
Way in the past
the miners mined for ore.
They searched for copper, iron and salt,
for that and much, much more.
[...]

Explanation: To capture the attention of the reader. It also makes the hearing sense and imagery more real.

Assonance

Definition: The repitition of vowels of a phrase or line (like rhyme)

Example:
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.

Explanation: This helps catch the readers' attention when it is read aloud. It sounds like music and it's like the author's trying to make the meaning of the words deeper.

Alliteration

Definition: The same sound at the beginning of two or more close words.

Example:
Dewdrops Dancing Down Daisies-By Paul Mc Cann-

Don't delay dawns disarming display .
Dusk demands daylight .
Dewdrops dwell delicately
drawing dazzling delight .
Dewdrops dilute daisies domain.
Distinguished debutantes . Diamonds defray delivered
daylights distilled daisy dance .

Explanation: This catches the attention of the readers when it's read aloud when the author use alliteration to play with words.

Meter

Definition: The rhythmic structure of a verse using stressed and unstressed syllables

Example:
The As SYR..|..ian came DOWN..|..like the WOLF..|..on the FOLD,
........1.......................2..........................3....................4
And his CO..|..horts were GLEAM..|..ing in PUR..|..ple and GOLD; 

Explanation: To make the poem more catchy and rhythmic when the readers read aloud.