Poetical forms

Submitted by diaskeaus on Wed, 02/15/2006 - 02:01
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  1. Abecedarius: Poem arranged according to alphabet, starting with "A" and ending with "Z." Often prayers, hymns, and oracles. (1)
  2. Abstract Poetry: Sounds, textures, rhymes to convey an emotion rather than words. Aspires to be non-representational, not objects, nor subjects, but arrangements of "pigments, color, slashes, and swirls." (2)
  3. Accentual Verse: Verse in which the metrical system is based on the count or pattern of accented syllables, which establish the rhythm. The accents must be normal speech stresses rather than those suggested by the metrical pattern. The total number of syllables may vary. (3)
  4. Acephalous: "Headless," when an initial syllable is missing from a line of verse. Ex: Chaucer, the Canterbury Tales. (1)
  5. Acmeism: "Spirit of Music," tendency to achieve maximum emotional suggestiveness at expense of lucidity and sensory vividness -- graphic sharpness of outline, texture of things rather than inner soul... poet not a seer or prophet, but craftsman. Semantically dense and phonically saturated... flamboyantly exotic and romantic. (1)
  6. Acrostic: Initial letters of the line/stanza spell out a message or other parts of the poem spell out a message. Ex: Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass. (2)
  7. Adonic: Dactylic clausula taking hexameter. -UU-- (1)
  8. Adynoton: Impossibility device; magnifying an event by comparing with something impossible -- impossibility in the line, of something happening, of an event... exploring an event that is impossible but is magnified or magnifies something else. (1)
  9. Aeolic: Class of lyric meters, with the common meter: -UU-U-
  10. Some groups are - ARISTOPHANEUS -UU-U-X, TELESILLEAN X-UU-U-, GLYCONIC XX-UU-U-, LESSER ASCLEPIAD XX-UU--UU-U-, SAPPHIC "FOURTEENER" XX-UU-UU-UU-U-, PHERECTATEAN XX-UU-X (shortened), REIZIANUM X-UU-X (shortened), CHARIAMBIC DIMETER XX-X-UU- (shortened), ANACREONTIC UU-U-U-- (changed). (1)
  11. Afflatus: A creative inspiration, as that of a poet; a divine imparting of knowledge, thus it is often called divine afflatus. (3)
  12. African Epic: Poem about an individual or individuals, where the adynoton is stressed highly, often in strange un-defined abstract ways, often in allusion or allegory. (1)
  13. Afro-American Poetry: Identificative, lyric poetry emphasizing the known and hope for a liberalized future. (1)
  14. Ai Fhreisligi: Four heptasyllabic lines, first and third ending in trisyllables, second and fourth ending in disyllables. Rhyme between two trisyllables, and between two disyllabic words. "Lying down poetry." (1)
  15. Alba: "Dawn Song." Two lovers expressing regret the day has come to separate them. Counterpart – Serenade, "Evening Song." Narrator usually a night watchman, or a dialogue between lovers, when the day is announced to have arrived; Aubade – Poem set at sunrise, about parting of lovers. "Dawn Poem." (1)
  16. Albanian Poetry: (1)Tosk – octasyllabic(8) and hendecasyllabic(11) per line, often in abababcc (Italianate), abababab (Sicilian), written in quatrains, dealing with Albanian nationalism and theological difference. (2)Gheg – typical octasyllabic, with stresses falling on 3rd and 7th, a break after 3rd or 4th. (1)
  17. Alcaic Stanza: U-U-U-UU-U-/U-U-U-UU-U-/U-U-U-U-U/-UU-UU-U-U (2)
  18. Alcmanic Verse: -UU-UU-U--, -UU-UU-UU- (1)
  19. Alexandrianism: the code, (1)allusionary to previous poets in pastoral mode, (2)"poet is a water drinker," (3)poet treads a narrow, difficult, original path, (4)refusal to meet conventional expectations, (5)the audience envies the poet, (6)poor poet, rich rival, (7)irony and play legitimate poetic ideals, yet the poetry as unfinished work. (1)
  20. Alexandrine: Iambic hexameter; caesura after sixth syllable. (2)
  21. Allaestrophia: Verse in irregular stanzas. (1)
  22. Allegory: Characters, images, events stand for something abstract; concepts as things. (2)
  23. Alliterative Meter: Four stresses, caesura in middle of line. Uses parallelism, "Whale Road" instead of "sea," "Earth-Shaker" instead of "Poseidon." Uses alliteration (alliteration, consonance, parallel alliteration, polyptopon, submerged alliteration, suspended alliteration). (1)
  24. Allusion: Reference to a literary work, story, historical event, cultural artifact. (2)
  25. American Indian Poetry:
  26. North American - (1)Songs, that of lullabies, complaints, curses, war-cries, and death songs. (2)Narrative songs, or bodies of narration with songs interspersed within. (3)Ceremonial poetry, healing chants, political consolidation, and propitiation of deities. Expressively repetitive and parallel, brevity and compression of lyrics, intensely visual, persistently figurative in forms of synechoche, all form the construct of North American native poetry. "The state of human being is an idea, an idea which man has of himself. Only when he is embodied in an idea, and the idea is realized in language, can man take possession of himself." (1)
  27. Central American - (1)Lyric, concentrating on major themes of religion, war and heroic, philosophical speculation, and biographical accounts. (2)Epic, concerned on the pilgrimage to Anahuac, theme poems on gods, and the history of people. (3)Dramatic, versified forms of intense narration, such as the "Death of Nezahuacoyotl." Use of parallelism and dualism, rhetorical questions, prophecies, riddles, allegory, personification, question and answer, insults, metaphorical strings, euphona and onomatopoeia. Central American poetry is based on the shaman's trance and communicating a sense of self unbound, or a "flowering" of articulated individual experience. (1)
  28. South American - (1)Song lyrics, repetitive chants, call-and-response couplets, work songs, love songs, wedding songs, and social songs. (2)Myths and legends, in a structurally repetitive form, with "rhyme of meaning" rather than language rhyme. (2)Epic traditions, dramas written in verse which are repositories of culture, prescribed social behaviors, mythology, and revisionist history. (1)
  29. American Poetry:
  30. Puritanism - Plain style, with art being false, deceptive, seductive, an appeal to the carnal and irrational. (1)Types, which reveal spiritual truths inherent and made manifest in the phenomenal world by divine constitution. Types present God-made symbolism of the objective reality, beyond the verbal skill or interpretive powers of the artist. Types are directly intrinsic truths. (2)Tropes, or figures or speech, similitudes, allusions gestated by the fertile fancy. Tropes represent reality in poet-made metaphors. Tropes are indirect imaginative inventions. (1)
  31. Transcendentalism - The philosopher as poet, and poet as seer, "trusting their powers of intuitive insight [would] discover in their own experience, rather than doctrines or institutions, their harmony with nature and with the Oversoul immanent in Nature." (1)Words are the signs of natural facts. (2)Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts. (3)Nature is a symbol of Spirit. "The individual in his world." Basically, the individualizing of experience, within the overpowering sense of Nature. "Every word was once a poem. Every new relation is a new word." (1)
  32. Modernism - Declination of the religious ideal, with the acknowledged precariousness of human predicament, and increasingly violent world, the rejection of romantic idealism and a found disjunction between art and life: meaning not revealed, but meaning created by the individual. (1)Symbolism - The turn inward to a subjective consciousness and absorbtion of external world impressions, into the expressions of moods and feelings of increasing subtlety. In symbolism, modernism validates the subject (symbol) and seeks the multivalent suggestiveness of metaphor and the rich impression of music. (2)Imagism - The countertendancy to fix consciousness in its encounter with the phenomenal world. In imagism, modernism validates the object (image) and seeks a clean-edged delineation of image and a painterly disposition of elements. Imagism: "1)Direct treatment of the 'thing,' whether subjective or objective, 2)to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation, 3)to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome." (1)
  33. Amphigouri: A verse composition which, while apparently coherent, contains no sense or meaning. (3)
  34. Anacreontic: A poem in the style of the Greek poet, Anacreon, convivial in tone or theme, relating to the praise of love and wine. (3)
  35. Anapestic Meter: Two unstressed syllables, followed by a stress. Can be with monometer (1), dimeter (2), trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6), heptameter (7), octameter (8). (2)
  36. Anaphora: Several successive lines, phrases, clauses, sentences beginning with the same word or phrase. (2)
  37. Animal Poem: Observes, describes, contemplates, or speaks from the viewpoint of a creature that is not human. (2)
  38. Anti-Poem: Rebels against conventions, pretensions, formality, diction, imagery, rhythms, and/or traditions of poetry; a poem in spite of itself... protest or prank... parody of poetics... a new kind of poem stripped of fakery, phoniness, and elevated language. (2)
  39. Anthology
  40. Aphorism: A brief statement containing an important truth or fundamental principle. (3)
  41. Apolelymena: "Released," "free" verse, not exhibiting a repeated pattern of any sort. (1)
  42. Apologue: An allegorical narrative, usually intended to convey a moral or a useful truth. (3)
  43. Arabic Poetry
  44. Archaism
  45. Archilochian
  46. Areopagus
  47. Argument: Preceding note to a poem, summary, synopsis, sequence. (2)
  48. Armenian Poetry
  49. Ars Poetica: Poem exploring/explaining poets view of poetry. (2)
  50. Arzamus
  51. Assyro-Babylonion Poetry
  52. Austrailian Poetry
  53. Austrian Poetry
  54. Automatic Writing: Writer does not pause but writes as quickly and unhesitatingly as possible. (2)
  55. Auto Sacramental
  56. Avant-Garde: The innovating artists or writers who promote the use of new or experimental concepts or techniques. (3)
  57. Awdl
  58. Balada
  59. Ballad: "Dance," a song that tells a story, a narrative poem in ballad stanza, or a slow love song.
  60. The ballad stanza - 1st and 3rd lines contain 4 stresses, 2nd and 4th lines contain 4 stresses (4-3-4-3). 2nd and 4th lines rhyme (XaXa).
  61. The hymn stanza - 1st and 3rd lines rhyme as well (abab). Long meter (4-4-4-4) and short meter (3-3-4-3-) are both tetrameter. (2)
  62. Ballade: Three stanzas rhymed ababbcbC, where bcbC is refrain and the last "C" is identicle. A french form of the ballad. (2)
  63. Baroque: Elaborate, exotic and grotesque, complex style of artistic expression. (3)
  64. Basque Poetry
  65. Bathos: Shift from sublime to ridiculous, resulting in elevated language to describe trivial subject matter. (3)
  66. Beast Epic
  67. Beat Poetry: Fast-paced, associative free verse, like "jazz," referring to a rhythmic beat in the line. (2)
  68. Belgian Poetry
  69. Bestiary
  70. Biblical Verse: Long-lined, unmetrical verse, governed by repetition and variation of words and phrases, use of synonyms and antonyms, likeness and opposites, parallels and antithessis. Rhymed thesis in line. (2)
  71. Biedermeier
  72. Black Mountain School: "Organic form," a "sense of seeking out inherent, though not immediately apparent form;" not prescribed forms, and a preference for free verse. The poets breath determines rhythm of poem, and the page is an open space to transcribe breath rhythms. Also known as "projective verse," registering directly on the page during composition rather than through the design of previous forms. (2)
  73. Blank Verse: Un-rhymed iambic pentameter. (2)
  74. Blason: "Shield," a poem composed in lines of 8 to 10 syllables, concluding with an epigram on a theme of praise or blame about an object. (2)
  75. Blues: Song form, first two lines almost identical, and third line rhyming with them. (1)Hughes - 6 shorter lines, the rhyme on even lines. (2)Williams - Single line breaks into halves, seperated into two lines with blank space on each of the seperate halves. (2)
  76. Bob and Wheel: Five line stanza, rhymed ababa, first line (bob) contains 1 or 2 metrical stresses and each of the next 4 lines (wheel) contain 3 metrical stresses. (2)
  77. Bouts-Rimes: Game where a list of rhyming words are handed to players. The goal is to make a poem from the list, keeping rhymes in original order. (3)
  78. Brazilian Poetry
  79. Breton Poetry
  80. Bulgarian Poetry
  81. Burlesque: Poem meant to ridicule a subject of great importance using grotesque and grave exaggeration. (3)
  82. Burmese Poetry
  83. Burns Stanza: "Habbie stanza," a six-line stanza rhyming aaabab with a metrical accent-count of 4-4-4-2-4-2. (2)
  84. Byelorussion Poetry
  85. Bylina
  86. Byzantine Poetry
  87. Caccia
  88. Cacophony: Discordant sounds by juxtaposing harsh letters or syllables, used as affect. (3)
  89. Canadian Poetry
  90. Cancion
  91. Canso
  92. Cantar
  93. Cante Jondo
  94. Cantiga
  95. Canto: A section or chapter in a longer poem, a "song." (2)
  96. Canzone: "A composition of words set to music," with two parts: (1)Head, and (2)Tail, stanza length 7 to 20 lines. "Lyric and obsessive," subjects like beauty, valor, love, virtue.
  97. Canzone 1 - Dantian
  98. 1: ABAACAADDAEE
  99. 2: EAEEBEECCEDD
  100. 3: DEDDADDBBDCC
  101. 4: CDCCECCAACBB
  102. 5: BCBBDBBEEBAA
  103. Tornada: AEDCB
  104. Canzone 2 - Danielian
  105. 1: ABCDEFG
  106. 2: ABCDEFG
  107. 3: ABCDEFG
  108. 4: ABCDEFG
  109. 5: ABCDEFG
  110. 6: ABCDEFG
  111. Tornada: EFG (2)
  112. Capitulo
  113. Carmen: A lyric poem or song in Latin. (2)
  114. Carol: "Choral dance," a 4 line stanza rhymed aaab, cccb, dddb, etc, where "b" can be a couplet refrain. (2)
  115. Carpe Diem: Poetical motif for "seize the day," experiencing pleasure with immediacy. (3)
  116. Catalan Poetry
  117. Catalog Verse: Poem listing persons, places, things, and ideas that share a commonality. (3)
  118. Caudate Sonnet
  119. Cavalier Poetry
  120. Celtic Poetry
  121. Cento: Poem created from passages of poems by one or more authors; a patchwork of quotations; a mixture of poetic excerpts (pastiche). (2)
  122. Chain Verse: Words, phrases, or lines are repeated in successive stanzas, used for variation. (3)
  123. Chance Poetry: Poetry written by chance methods, written on cards drawn at random, experimentory and mad-libian composition. (2)
  124. Chanson de Geste: Epic song of heroic deeds. (3)
  125. Chant
  126. Chant-Fable
  127. Chant Royal: Five eleven-line stanzas rhymged ababccddedE, the last five lines as envoi and the last line "E" a refrain. 1)No rhymed word can appear twice. 2)Subject has to be heroic. 3)Language has to be suitable for regal ears. (2)
  128. Chapbook: Small book or pamphlet containing ballads, poems, tales, and songs. (3)
  129. Character Sketch: Poem or story about a person. (2)
  130. Charm
  131. Chastushka
  132. Chicago School
  133. Chicano Poetry
  134. Chinese Poetry
  135. Childhood Poem: Poem about a child or memories of being a child - a description, narration, dramatic monologue, or meditation set in youth. (2)
  136. Children Poetry: Nursery rhymes or poetry written for children; poetry written by children. (2)
  137. Chinese Poetry: (1)Four syllable verse, with four characters per line rhymed aaXa bbcc cdcd. (2)Ancient verse, five or seven syllable lines, where even numbered lines rhyme. (3)Regulated verse, eight lines, five or seven syllables, rhymed even lines, four lines in middle form two couplets, each pair antithetical. (4)Lyric meters, poems written to existing music in lines of unequal length. (2)
  138. Choliambus
  139. Chorus: Stanza of a song that is repeated after the verse, or a comment on the action of a performance before the performance begins. (1)Turn (strophe), (2)counter-turn (antistrophe), (3)and stand (epode). (2)
  140. Cinquain: "Group of five," (1)Five-line stanza, otherwise the "quintain," (2)syllabic arrangement of 2-4-6-8-2. (2)
  141. City Poem: Poem about life in the city about the city itself; an "urban pastoral" or "urbanic." (2)
  142. Classical Poetry
  143. Clerihew: Light verse form rhymed aabb, the first line is the name of a famous person, the second forms a comic predicate, third and fourth comment on a biogarphical fact or absurd fancy. (2)
  144. Climax
  145. Closet Drama
  146. Cobla: A poem one stanza long. (2)
  147. Cockney School
  148. Collections
  149. Comedia de Capa y Espada
  150. Comedy
  151. Comedy of Humors
  152. Companion Poem: A complementing poem to another poem. (3)
  153. Complaint
  154. Computer Poetry
  155. Conceit: An elaborate metaphor within a poem, usually the subject matter. (3)
  156. Concrete Poetry: Words and phrases forming a visual shape on the page, where subject and literary sensability are not accounted, but rather perception of the extreme graphic impact of the words. (3)
  157. Concrete Universal
  158. Confessional Poetry: Poetry using personal and private details from poet's life, material once considered "embarrasing;" explores previously forbidden subjects with an honesty and directness that electrifies language. (2)
  159. Constructivism
  160. Conte Devot
  161. Contextualism
  162. Coq-a-lane
  163. Cornish Poetry
  164. Coronach
  165. Correlative Verse
  166. Corrupted Form: Intentional flouting, breaking, disregard, or sabotage of poetical form. (2)
  167. Country-House Poem
  168. Courtly Love
  169. Creationism
  170. Cuaderna Via
  171. Cubism
  172. Cueca Chilena
  173. Culteranismo
  174. Curse: Imprecation or damnation in verse, the "left hand" of poetry. (2)
  175. Curtal Sonnet: Abridged sonnet, eleven lines in two stanzas rhymed abcabc and dbcdc/dcbda, and the last line indented and shorter than the others.
  176. Cynghanedd
  177. Cywydd
  178. Czech Poetry
  179. Dactylic Meter: - UU - UU - UU - UU - UU - -
  180. Hexameter, "This meter, in our usage, tends to gallop if not run away, Buckety, Buckety, Buckety, Buckety, Buckety, Bump down." (2)
  181. Dada
  182. Danish Poetry
  183. Dansa
  184. Decima
  185. Decir
  186. Deep Image Poetry: Free verse poetry, mysterious images, rural and pastoral. Imagery draws reader into depths of consciousness. "Talismans strange in their simplicity, links that connect the physical world to the unconscious or to the spiritual." (2)
  187. Descort
  188. Descriptive Poetry
  189. Dialect Poetry
  190. Dialogue: Poem in which different voices alternate conversing, a verbal sparring on the same or different subject. (2)
  191. Didactic Poetry: Poetry that teaches something, whose primary purpose is to instruct. "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom." A fresh way to consider human nature. (2)
  192. Dinggedicht
  193. Dipodic Verse: Poetry which the lines are accentual with emphasis to every other accent. (2)
  194. Dirge: A memorial poem of grief or lamentation. (3)
  195. Dit
  196. Ditty
  197. Dithyramb: Wild and rhapsodic poetry, originally a Greek choral hymn for Dionysus, god of wine. (2)
  198. Dizain
  199. Doggerel: Crudely written poetry, lacking artistic sensability or meaning. (3)
  200. Dolce Stil Nuovo
  201. Double Dactyl: Eight line verse form, with two quatrains of dactylic dimeter. ` UU `UU (2)
  202. Dozens
  203. Dramatic Monologue: Poem spoken by a character through a persona, rather than the poet or unknown speaker. 1)Speaker must be identified. 2)Anyone except the poet or neutral voice. 3)Action contained in the monologue, spoken by the character. (2)
  204. Dramatic Poetry: Poetry written for performance as a play. (2)
  205. Drapa
  206. Dream Vision
  207. Drott-Kvaett: Eight lines with six syllables, three accented, each two lines linked by alliteration, occuring in the first syllable of the second line and twice in the line before it, full rhyme appears in even lines, half rhyme in odd lines, internal rhyme within lines. Kennings (multi-nouns) substituted nouns. An Old Norse stanzaic form. (2)
  208. Dutch Poetry
  209. Dyfalu
  210. Echo Verse: Poem which last syllable or two of main line is repeated, with different spelling or meaning, as if an echo, indented below the line, functioning as an independent line. Dialogue, play of question and answer, or another kind of rhyme often used. Sometimes the word Echo appears before the echo. (2)
  211. Ecologue: A pastoral poem dealing with rural life. Often a dialogue or a singing contest between two people. (2)
  212. Edda: Mythological, heroic, and aphoristic poetry from the work of the Skalds. (3)
  213. Egyptian Poetry
  214. Ekphrasis: Stark description of a work of art, such as a painting, sculpture, tapestry, etc. (3)
  215. Elegiac Distich: A couplet with a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter. Used for elegies or threnodies (laments for the dead). (2)
  216. Elegy: Poem for someone who has died. Can be for a friend, family member, or public figure. Love poes, tributes, and offerings to loss. (2)
  217. Emblematic Verse: Poem which words or letters form a typographical picture, also known as calligramme, carmen figuratum, concrete poem, figured poem, pattern poem, shaped poem, and visual poem. "Word imagery, which encompasses the two major genres of the form - imaged words and worded images." (2)
  218. English Poetry
  219. Englyn
  220. Ensalada
  221. Ensenhamen
  222. Envoi
  223. Epic: A long, narrative poem telling a story central to myth and belief of people. "A poem containing history" of a society, nation, or people. (2)
  224. Epicedium
  225. Epigram: A short comic or satirical poem. Contains an aphorism (memorable remark encapsulating an insight into human nature or world at large). (2)
  226. Epigraph: Note or quotation preceding body of a poem, to acknowledge source of material, present poem's response to something, or convey background information. (2)
  227. Epinicion: A triumph song of celebration, usually for a Greek victory. (3)
  228. Epitaph: Verses that commemorate a person or group of people who have died. Very short, ofted insribed on tombs or gravestones. (2)
  229. Epithalamion: Wedding poem to celebrate marriage or an ode to a bride or groom. (2)
  230. Epode: Section of a lyric poem where a long verse is followed by a short verse. Also, the third section of a Greek Pindaric verse. (3)
  231. Epos: An epic poem, or poems based on an epic theme.
  232. Epyllion: Narrative poem written in dactylic hexameter, dealing with mythology, romance, doubled with vivid description, allusion, and tone. (3)
  233. Esperanto Poetry
  234. Espinela
  235. Estonian Poetry
  236. Estribillo
  237. Etheopian Poetry
  238. Eugene Onegin Stanza: 14 line stanza rhymed ababccddeffegg written in iambic tetrameter (4), used for narrative poetry and comic verse. (2)
  239. Euphuism: Excessive use of alliteration, antithesis, and mythic similes in a poetical work. (3)
  240. Exemplum
  241. Exoticism
  242. Expressionism
  243. Fable: Story in verse or prose, where characters are creatures, ending in a moral. (2)
  244. Fabliau: A cynical story in verse, like the fable but ribald and comic. (3)
  245. Facetiae: Witty writings or remarks. (3)
  246. Fairy Tale: A story in a dreamworld, where marvelous things, both terrifying and glorifying, create a "symbolic source of most true poetry, the dream state of clear but mysterious images and actions." (2)
  247. Fancy
  248. Farce
  249. Fatras
  250. Feet: U = unstressed, - = stressed
  251. two syllable three syllable four syllable
  252. U - iamb UU - anapest UUUU proceleusmatic
  253. - U trochee - UU dactyl - - - - dispondee
  254. UU pyrrhic U - U amphibrach U - - U antipast
  255. - U - cretic - UU - choriamb(us)
  256. UUU tribach - UUU 1st paeon
  257. - - - molossus U - UU 2nd paeon
  258. U - - bacchic UU - U 3rd paeon
  259. UUU - 4th paeon
  260. U - - - 1st epitrite
  261. - U - - 2nd epitrite
  262. - - U - 3rd epitrite
  263. - - - U 4th epitrite
  264. - U - U ditrochee
  265. U - U - di-iamb
  266. - - UU major ionic
  267. UU - - minor ionic (2)
  268. Felibrige
  269. Feminist Poetry
  270. Fescennine Verse: Personal poetry lacking moral or sexual constraints. (3)
  271. Fiction Poetry
  272. Finida
  273. Finnish Poetry
  274. Flemish Poetry
  275. Flyting
  276. Folia
  277. Fornyrdislas
  278. Found Poem: Text discovered in non-poetic setting, removed from context and presented as a poem. (2)
  279. Fourteener: Line consisting of seven iambic feet, in iambic heptameter. (2)
  280. Fragment: Piece of a larger form either lost or unfinished for intentional purposes of brokenness, shards expressing wholes in themselves. (2)
  281. Frankfurt School
  282. Free Verse: Unmetrical verse, not measured with accents, syllables, free of meters, "vers libre."
  283. 1) Short-lined free verse - Lines with one syllable up to several words, phrase units distinct lines, sometimes enjambed.
  284. 2) Long-lined free verse - Lines stretch from margin to margin, sometimes "tumble" to the next line in a short phrase, end-stopped.
  285. 3) Variable length free verse - Medium length and long lines.
  286. 4) Spatial arrangement free verse - Words, phrases, lines are spatially scored across a page to form mental clauses. (2)
  287. Freie Rhythmen
  288. Freie Verse
  289. French Poetry
  290. Frisian Poetry
  291. Frottola
  292. Fugitives: Formalist, ironic, southern regional. A movement away from Victorian sentimentality. Uses biographical facts and poetic intentions. (2)
  293. Futurism
  294. Fyrtiotalisterna
  295. Gai Saber
  296. Galican Poetry
  297. Galliambus: Lyric meter consisting of four iambic dipodies, the last being catalectic, dropping the final accent. (3)
  298. Gaucho Poetry
  299. Geneva School
  300. Georgic: Poem about country life, the work of farmers, didactic and instructive. (2)
  301. German Poetry
  302. Gesellschaftslied
  303. Ghazal: Five to fifteen couplets, independent couplets. First couplet rhymes (aa), preceding couplets rhyme (Xa). In the last line, the poet inserts his or her name/pseudonym. Subjects commonly include erotic and mystical love. (2)
  304. Glosa: "Gloss," a short stanza that introduces the theme of the poem, and succeeding stanzas explain or "gloss" each line of the first stanza, repeating the lines as refrains. (2)
  305. Gnome: Short statement of proverbial truth, an aphorism. (3)
  306. Golliardic Poetry: Satiric verse, four 13 syllable lines in feminine rhyme, with concluding hexameter. Commonly a defiance of authority against the church. (3)
  307. Gongorism: A style of stilted obscurity and the use of affected devices of embellishment.
  308. Graveyard Poetry
  309. Greek Poetry
  310. Gulsar
  311. Gypsy Poetry
  312. Haibun: Prose and verse, interspersed with haiku as part of the text, when the prose breaks off and becomes haiku. (2)
  313. Haiku: Three lines, 17 syllables, usually arranged 5-7-5, although the arrangment can vary. Haiku commonly makes reference to a season, an image of the natural world, the juxtaposition of surprising images, a flash of awareness and recognition. (2)
  314. Haitian Poetry
  315. Hamartia: The error of the literary tragic hero, the defect of character, the "fatal flaw," which, combined with chance and outside forces brings catastrophe. Common haramartia are pride, overconfidence, greed, probity, and anger. (3)
  316. Harlem Renaissance: Celebration of the negro-american culture, the contemplated movement from the rural south to urban north, attacking opposing forces. (2)
  317. Hausa Poetry
  318. Hebrew Poetry
  319. Hen Benillion
  320. Heroic Couplet: Two adjacent lines of rhymed iambic pentameter, a complete sentence in two phrases of parallel antithetical balanced verse. (2)
  321. Hispano-Arabic Poetry
  322. Hittite Poetry
  323. Horatian Ode: An ode in a series of uniform stanzas, using complex metrics and rhyme. (3)
  324. How-To-Poem: Set of instructions in the imperative, like an instruction manual however poetic, a "didactic enlightenment." (2)
  325. Hyrnhent
  326. Hudibrastics: Comic, narrative verse, outrageous far-fetched rhymes. Written in octosyllabic couplets. (2)
  327. Huitain
  328. Hungarian Poetry
  329. Hyporchema
  330. Hypallage: A hyperbaton involving the interchange of elements in a phrase or sentence, so that a displaced word in a grammatical structure does not follow the rules of logic. (3)
  331. Idealism: An artistic practice affirming the values of the idea and the imagination. (3)
  332. Identical Rhyme
  333. Ideogram
  334. Idyll: "Short descriptive poem," "little picture."
  335. 1)Short poem depicting rural/country life.
  336. 2) Pastoral dealing with life of shepherds and the love of shepherds, idealized into an imaginative place named Arcadia, also called bucolic, "cowboy song." "Regarding the Greek derivation, I spelt my Idylls with two l's mainly to divide them from the ordinary pastoral idyls usually spelt with one l. These idylls group themselves around one central figure." (2)
  337. Imagery: Concrete representation of something, a likeness the senses can perceive. "An intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time." (2)
  338. Imitation: "Copy."
  339. 1) Translation, loose, free of original poems.
  340. 2) A copy of perception of the world, "like a camera that reacts chemically to light." (2)
  341. Impressionism
  342. Improvisatore: A poet of improvised verse, that is, spontaneous verse. (3)
  343. In Medias Res
  344. In Memoriam Stanza: Iambic tetrameter quatrain rhymed abba, used in elegies. (2)
  345. Incantation
  346. Incremental Repetition
  347. Indian Poetry
  348. Indonesian Poetry
  349. Interior Monologue: Action and external events conveyed indirectly through a fictional character's personal monologue. (3)
  350. Inuit Poetry
  351. Invective
  352. Inversion: The reversal of a metrical foot, ie: a trochee substituted for one or more of the feet in am iambic line (a trochaic inversion). (2)
  353. Irish Poetry
  354. Italian Poetry
  355. Japanese Poetry
  356. Javanese Poetry
  357. Je Ne Sais Quoi
  358. Jingle: A short poem of catchy repetition. (3)
  359. Judeo-Spanish Poetry
  360. Jugenstil
  361. Kenning: Multi-word substitute for a noun, such as "whale-road" for "sea." (2)
  362. King's English: The proper and standard use of correct English, also known as the Queen's English. (3)
  363. Knittelvers
  364. Korean Poetry
  365. Kyrielle: 4 line stanza form, each line has 8 syllables, 4th line is a refrain.
  366. aabB ccbB
  367. abaB cbcB
  368. aaaR bbbR (refrain form) (2)
  369. Lai: 9 line stanza rhymed aabaabaab: a lines have 5 syllables, b lines have 2 syllables, and in every suceeding stanza rhyme sounds change c,d, to e,f, etc. (2)
  370. Laisse
  371. Lake School
  372. Lament
  373. Lampoon: A malicious, bitter, and abusive verse satire intended to attack an individual. (3)
  374. Language Poetry: Detachment of words from "conventional mooring," so a new "life" emerges rather than just an imitation of life. (2)
  375. Latin Poetry
  376. Latvian Poetry
  377. Lauda
  378. Leonine Poetry
  379. Letrilla
  380. Letter Poem: Poem written in the form of a letter. (2)
  381. Lettrisme
  382. Light Verse: Rhymed humorous verse, usually not weighty, dark, or serious. (2)
  383. Limerick: Light verse, bawdy, 5 line stanza rhymed aabba in anapestic (UU`) or amphibrachic (U`U). (2)
  384. Lira
  385. List Poem: Poem that lists a series of things, images, names, catalogs, rosters, etc. (2)
  386. Lithuanian Poetry
  387. Ljodahattr
  388. Long Poem: Poems exceeding a short lyric or narrative poem in length. (2)
  389. Love Poem: Poem addressed to lover, about lover, about speaker's love, or about love itself. (2)
  390. Love Poetry
  391. Luc-Bat: Alternating lines of 6 and 8 syllables, with internal rhymes at the 6th syllable and the 8th syllable, when the new rhyme begins at the 6th syllable of the 8th syllable line, continuing through the next line until the rhyme ends at the 8th syllable. (2)
  392. Lyric Poetry: Poetry expressing personal emotion, commonly musical and sung with musical accompaniment. (2)
  393. Lyric Sequence
  394. Macaronic Verse
  395. Madrigal: Brief song performed in parts, usually 8 to 10 lines, sung by multiple voices. (2)
  396. Mad-Song Stanza: 5 line stanza rhymed Xabba, with feet 3-3-2-2-3. Used for songs in the voice of a madman, visionary, nonsense, loose iambic pentameter. (2)
  397. Mal Mariee
  398. Malay Poetry
  399. Mannerism
  400. Marinism
  401. Ma Snavi
  402. Masque
  403. Medieval Poetry
  404. Medieval Romance
  405. Melic Poetry
  406. Metaphysical Poets: Elaborate form and rhyme scheme, extensive use of metaphor and conceit, wit, intellectual risk, wide vocabularly, and subjects such as science, religion, and erotic love. (2)
  407. Mock Epic
  408. Modern Long Poem
  409. Modernismo
  410. Mongolian Poetry
  411. Monk's Tale Stanza
  412. Monody
  413. Monologue
  414. Monorhyme
  415. Monostitch: 1 line stanza or poem. (2)
  416. Mosaic Rhyme
  417. Mote
  418. the Movement: Anti-romantic, rejection of fragmentation and lyric intensity, but rather an intelligent, compressed narrative style. (2)
  419. Music Poem: Poem that deals with music, imitative of a form, narrating life of a musician, or examining a musical instrument. (2)
  420. Myth: Fantastic tale explaining a puzzle of human or cosmic nature. (2)
  421. Narrative Poetry: Poetry that tells a story, using characters, plot, and narrative devices. (2)
  422. Nashers: Light verse in rhymed couplets of wrenched rhyme, when a word is altered in spelling to match the first or second line of couplet. (2)
  423. Naturalism
  424. Near Rhyme
  425. Neogongorism
  426. Neo-Humanism
  427. Neoterics
  428. New Formalism: Rejection of free verse form and the academy in effort to revive formal verse. (2)
  429. New York School: Free verse, "who flung and dribbled paint at canvases laid out flat on the floor," urban, funny, emotional, and knowing, "I do this, I do that," poetry. (2)
  430. New Zealand Poetry
  431. Nibelungenstrophe
  432. Nil Volentibus Arduum
  433. Nonce Form: Poetic form invented for a specific poem. (2)
  434. Nonsense Verse: Poem whose words resist normal knowledge and understanding. (2)
  435. Norske Selskab
  436. Norwegian Poetry
  437. Novas
  438. Nursery Rhyme: Rhythmic and nonsensical, stories of kingdoms, farms, and families, using sprung rhythm and written for children. (2)
  439. Object Poem: Poem about an inanimate object. (2)
  440. Objectivism
  441. Occasional Verse: Poem written to celebrate or mark an occasion or happening. (2)
  442. Occitan Poetry
  443. Octave: 8 line stanza rhymed abbacddc, ababcdcd, or XaXaXbXb. (2)
  444. Octonarius
  445. Ode:
  446. 1) Pindaric Ode - strophe, antistrophe, epode.
  447. 2) Horatian Ode - normal matching stanzas.
  448. 3) Cowleyan Ode - lines of irregular length, irregular rhyme, irregular meter.
  449. 4) Elemental Ode - short-lined free verse about ordinary things, expounding and rhapsodic and lavish. (2)
  450. Odl
  451. Old Norse Poetry
  452. Omar Khayyam Stanza: Quatrain rhymed aaXa. (2)
  453. Onegin Stanza
  454. Organicism
  455. Ottava Rima: 8 line stanza rhymed iambically abababcc in pentameter, with added rhyme on first of each couplet at the end of line. (2)
  456. Oulipo:
  457. 1) Holorhyming verse - line which every syllable rhymes.
  458. 2) Lipogram - poem not using certain chosen letters.
  459. 3) Tautogram - each word begins with same letter.
  460. 4) Antonymic Translation - antonyms substituted for words of text.
  461. 5) Boolean Poem - poem uses common words to two other poems.
  462. 6) Haikuzation - Dividing the rhyming parts of a poem into further, shorter rhyme.
  463. 7) Perverb - Mixing first half of a proverb with second half of another.
  464. 8) S+7 - Replacing each noun in poem with 7th noun after it in the dictionary. (2)
  465. Paen
  466. Painting Poem: Imitates, describes, critiques, dramatizse, reflects upon a painting, drawing, sculpture, print, architecture, or photograph. (2)
  467. Palindrome
  468. Palinode:
  469. 1) Refutes a previous subject of a poem.
  470. 2) Variant of Greek ode arranged as
  471. stanza 1 ode strophe A
  472. 2 ode strophe B
  473. 3 palinode antistrophe B
  474. 4 palinode antistrophe A (2)
  475. Panegyric
  476. Pantoum: Repeating form, in quatrains in which 2nd and 4th lines of each stanza become 1st and 3rd lines of next one; last stanza 2nd and 4th lines are of the first stanza 1st and 3rd line rhymes. (2)
  477. Pantun
  478. Parabasis
  479. Parallelism
  480. Parnassians
  481. Parody: Satirizes or ridicules another poem or poet. (2)
  482. Paroemiac
  483. Partimen
  484. Pastoral: Describes an idealized country life.
  485. 1) Complaint - shepherd love song praising beloved and complaining her cruelty.
  486. 2) Ecologue - dialogue between shepherds.
  487. 3) Pastoral Elegy - shepherd's lament for fallen shepherd.
  488. 4) Bucolic - involves shepherds and herders, farm and fields, a modernized country life. (2)
  489. Pastourelle
  490. Pattern Poetry
  491. Payada
  492. Persian Poetry
  493. Petrarchism
  494. Phalaecean
  495. Philippine Poetry
  496. Plant Poem: Focuses on flowers, trees, fruits, vegetables, fields, forests, gardens, or anything regarding a plant. (2)
  497. Planh
  498. Pleiade
  499. Poete Maudit
  500. Poetic License
  501. Poetic Madness
  502. Polish Poetry
  503. Political Verse
  504. Polynesian Poetry
  505. Polyphonic Prose
  506. Portrugeuse Poetry
  507. Poulter's Measure: Alternating lines of iambic hexameter (6) and iambic heptameter (7), stressed 3-3 and 4-3. (2)
  508. Preciosite
  509. Pregunta
  510. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
  511. Priamel
  512. Priapea
  513. Primitivism
  514. Proem: Prefatory poem introducing a larger work. (2)
  515. Projective Verse
  516. Prose Poem: Brief prose with intense, condensed language. (2)
  517. Prosimetrum
  518. Proverb
  519. Pryddest
  520. Psalm: Sacred song or hymn. (2)
  521. Pseudo-Statement
  522. Puerto Rican Poetry
  523. Pure Poetry
  524. Qasida
  525. Quatorzain
  526. Quatrain
  527. Querelle Des Anciens et Des Modernes
  528. Quintain
  529. Quintilla: 5 line stanza with 8 syllables per line rhyming ababa, abbab, abaab, aabab, or aabba. (2)
  530. Rap: Outpouring of rhymed lines declaimed to either a said or unsaid beat, lyrics being flashy, furious, angry, and comic. (2)
  531. Realism
  532. Recusatio
  533. Rederijkers
  534. Redondilla: Quatrain of four 8 syllable lines, rhymed abba. (2)
  535. Refran
  536. Refrein
  537. Regional Poetry: Poetry written and set in a specific locale and saturated with the local culture. (2)
  538. Remate
  539. Renga: Dialogue between two poets in a form poem of stanza-syllable 5-7-5-7-7, which one poet claims 5-7-5 and another poet claims 7-7, and this continues through a circle of poets, each responding to the previous poet or previous poets. (2)
  540. Response: Poem in reaction to another poem, idea, subject, or point of view. (2)
  541. Reverdie
  542. Rhapsode
  543. Rhetoriquers
  544. Rhopalic Verse: Game form which each word in a line is 1 syllable longer than word before it. (2)
  545. Rhyme Royal: 7 line stanza rhyming ababbcc in iambic pentameter. (2)
  546. Rhymer's Club
  547. Riddle: Poem that hides it subject, describing but not naming to form a puzzle for reader. (2)
  548. Rimur
  549. Ring Composition
  550. Rispetto: 2 quatrains rhymed abab ccdd in iambic tetrameter, subject of paying respect to a woman. (2)
  551. Ritornello
  552. Rococo
  553. Romanian Poetry
  554. Rondeau: 15 lines arranged in 3 parts, aabba, aabR, aabbaR, where R is a refrain of the first word or phrase of the poem. (2)
  555. Rondeau Redouble: 25 lines arranged in pattern ABA'B babA abaB babA' abaB' babR, where capital letters are refrains, each line of opening quatrain is a refrain to succeeding quatrains, and R is the rentrement, making up the first word or phrase of the first line. (2)
  556. Rondel: 13 lines arranged ABba abAB abbaA, capitals being refrain lines, where whole lines are repeated and not just the end word of the line (like a Rondeau). (2)
  557. Rondel Double: 4 quatrains rhymed ABBA abBA abba ABBA. (2)
  558. Rondelet: 7 lines patterned AbAabbA, where refrain lines contain 4 syllables and other lines contain 8 syllables. (2)
  559. Rotrouenge
  560. Roundel: 11 lines consisting of 3 stanzas rhymed abaB bab abaB, where B is a short phrase from the opening line. (2)
  561. Rubai: 4 line stanza rhymed aaXa or aaaa. (2)
  562. Rubaiyat: 3 stanzas of rubai. (2)
  563. Runic Verse: Chant associated with magic. (2)
  564. Russian Formalism
  565. Russian Poetry
  566. Sapphic
  567. Satanic School
  568. Saturnian
  569. School of Spenser
  570. Schuttelreim
  571. Scottish Gaelic Poetry
  572. Scottish Poetry
  573. Senhal
  574. Septet
  575. Serranilla
  576. Sicialian Octave
  577. Sicilian School
  578. Silloi
  579. Silva
  580. Sirventes
  581. Skeltonic
  582. Skolion
  583. Slovak Poetry
  584. Smithy Poets
  585. Somali Poetry
  586. Song
  587. Sonnet
  588. Sonnet Sequence
  589. Sotadean
  590. South African Poetry
  591. Spanish American Poetry
  592. Spanish Poetry
  593. Spasmodic School
  594. Spenserian Stanza
  595. Spirituals
  596. Spruchdichtung
  597. Sri Lankan Poetry
  598. Stasimon
  599. Stornello
  600. Sumerian Poetry
  601. Swahili Poetry
  602. Swedish Poetry
  603. Swiss Poetry
  604. Tachtigers
  605. Tagolied
  606. Tail Rhyme
  607. Tanka
  608. Tenso
  609. Tercet
  610. Terza Rima
  611. Terza Rima Sonnet
  612. Thai Poetry
  613. Tibetan Poetry
  614. Touchstones
  615. Triolet
  616. Trobar Clus
  617. Tumbling Verse
  618. Turkish Verse
  619. Ukranian Poetry
  620. Ultraism
  621. Venus and Adonis Stanza
  622. Vers
  623. Vers Impair
  624. Vers Libere
  625. Vers Libre
  626. Vers Libres Classiques
  627. Vers Mesures
  628. Verse Epistle
  629. Verse Paragraph
  630. Verset
  631. Versi Sciolti
  632. Vidas
  633. Vietnamese Poetry
  634. Villancico
  635. Villanelle
  636. Virelai
  637. Visual Poetry
  638. Vorticism
  639. Welsh Poetry
  640. West Indian Poetry
  641. Yiddish Poetry
  642. Yugoslav Poetry
  643. Zejel
Author Comments: 

A long list I did as a final college project for an independent study in poetry.

Some of these definitions I've come up with myself, and some I've taken from other sources. If that is the case, I've listed the number of the source.

1) Alex Preminger, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993)

2) John Drury, The Poetry Dictionary (Story Press, Cincinnati, 1995)

3) Robert G. Shubinski, Glossary of Poetic Terms (Bob's Byway, http://shoga.wwa.com/~rgs/glossary.html, 2001)

diaskeaus11/13/2006

Yeh... over 1,000 reads! Rock on...