POEMS WITH FIXED STRUCTURES

HAIKUThe old pond, aye! AndThe sound of a frog leapingInto the water.

3 lines

5 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

Often have nature as a topic

By abandoned roadsThis lonely poet marchesInto autumn dusk

LIMERICKAs a beauty I’m not a great star,There are others more handsome by far, But my face I don’t mind it, Because I’m behind it—‘Tis the folks in the front that I jar.

5 lines

AABBA

Often humorous or light-hearted There was a young lady from Niger,

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger. They came back from the ride With the lady inside,And the smile on the face of the tiger.

CINQUAINThese beThree silent things:The falling snow . . . the hourBefore the dawn . . . the mouth of oneJust dead.

5 lines

2 syllables4 syllables6 syllables8 syllables2 syllables

Just nowOut of the strangeStill dusk . . . As strange, as still . . .A white moth flew: why am I grownSo cold?

TRIOLETEasy is the Triolet, If you really learn to make it!Once a neat refrain you get,Easy is the Triolet.As you see!—I pay my debtWith another rhyme. Duece take it,Easy is the Triolet If you really learn to make it!

8 lines

lines 1, 4, and 7 are the same.

lines 2 and 8 are the same.

lines 1,3,4, 5 and 7 rhyme

lines 2, 6, and 8 rhyme

Rose kissed me today. Will she kiss me tomorrow?Let it be as it may,Rose kissed me today;But the pleasure gives way To a savor of sorrow;Rose kissed me today; Will she kiss me tomorrow?

"Birds At Winter“Around the house the flakes fly faster,And all the berries now are goneFrom holly and cotoneasterAround the house. The flakes fly! – fasterShutting indoors the crumb-outcasterWe used to see upon the lawnAround the house. The Flakes fly fasterAnd all the berries now are gone!

Thomas Hardy

I will survive.Although I feel still the pain,I may not smile and I may sigh--I will survive.I will stride with my head held high.In the midst of cloud and rain,I will survive.I may not smile and I may sigh.

SONNETThere is a singer everyone has heard, Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird, Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again. He says that leaves are old and that for flowers Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.He says the early petal-fall is past When pear and cherry bloom went down in the showers On sunny days a moment overcast; And comes that other fall we name the fall. He says the highway dust is over all.The bird would cease and be as other birds But that he knows in singing not to sing. The question that he frames in all but words Is what to make of a diminished thing.

AABCBDCDEEFGFG

14 lines10 syllables/line

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

No rhyme, but with a set rhythm (syllables/line) = BLANK

VERSE

No rhyme and no set rhythm = FREE VERSE