Top 10 Types of Poems, Forms or Formats
Here is a list of what I feel are the Top 10 Types of Poems, Forms or Formats. I say forms or formats because we cross some lines of distinction here that are not always easy to explain. Basically these are types of poems where people use a certain form to create them, but some are forms in and of themselves. Anyway, I wanted to come up with a short list of the most popular poetry types. This is a basic guide. If someone throws these at you, at least you will know what they are. I hope you will try each type, and if you do feel free to share them in the comments.
1. Free Verse
Not to be mixed up with blank verse, free verse is poetic form/technique where the poet does not follow the conventions of any meter or rhyme.
2. Haiku
This is the only poem that rivals free verse these days. People love the Haiku. It’s a 3 line poem generally where first and last lines have 5 syllables, and the middle has seven syllables.
3. Sonnet
There are various forms of sonnets, but the most popular tends to be the English or Shakespearean sonnet. It is a 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. The poem will end in a rhyming couplet. There are much more to these of course, but this is the general definition. There is also the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. The English sonnet seems to be the most attempted.
4. Blank Verse
This is basiclly a poem written in Iambic pentameter but it does not rhyme. It can follow other meter, but Iambic pentameter is the most common by far.
5. Limerick
A Limerick is at it’s core (and there is more too them) a 5 line poem that follows a strict meter and always has a AABBA rhyme scheme.
6. Tanka
Related in a sense to the Haiku, the Tanka poem is basically a poem that has 5,7,5,7,7 for it’s lines. So it’s basically a Haiku with 2 seven syllable lines added on to the end.
7. Cinquain
At it’s very base this is simply a 5 line poem. So The Tanka above falls into this classification, but the most popular Cinquain that people want you to write when you say, Let’s write a cinquain is generally in English that follows a rhyme scheme of ababb, abaab or abccb.
8. Sestina
It’s probably easier to write a sestina than it is to explain how to write one. So its a six stanza of six lines each with a triplet at the end. Each stanza has the same 6 words at the end of each line of the poem. So basically the words that end the lines fo the first stanza are rotated over and over again at the end of the lines of the next stanza.
9. Villanelle
Here is another poetic, but it’s not easy to explain nor easy to write. The most famous one of these is Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas. The form is basically a 19 line poem that has five 3 line stanzas. The first line of the poem and the last line of the first stanza becomes a refrains (repeated) again and again until the last stanza. Basically, line 1, 3 become beginning and ending lines of all the other stanzas.
10. Acrostic
This is a simple poetry form, newer than the rest on this page. The Acrostic is basically a poem that uses the up and down letters of a poem to spell a word or phrase. So the first letter of each line could be pulled out to spell a word.
Jacqueline Casey says
What is a “cizoe’ poem?
jerry says
It’s when you don’t rhyme at all and say nothing but words
Jamescarr says
I used to love poems. These days I find it difficult to concentrate on them. I guess I have become too busy
Jenitha Rugaika says
i write poems but i wasnt sure where my type falls in,now i know it falls under free verse category. Thank you for sharing.
Jenitha
olayiwola eniola says
I write different categories of poems which i didnt knw before thank u very much
Justin Nnamezie says
I read poems a lot but I’m often confused about their types. I’m more familiar with sonnet, haiku and Limerick. Thank you for the enlightenment.
Mary jane says
Find mines on lulu or amazon (for amazon search NAKED 13-30 BOOK)
Nuhamin Ararso says
Poems are children of poet that is why they reveal their parents behaviour.I am poet for and an author, Wait and see And prepare to read my upcoming book
Nuhamin Ararso says
Poems are children of poet that is why they reveal their parents behaviour.I am poet and an author, Wait and see And prepare to read my upcoming book
Every Writer says
I agree with you. I’ll look for your books.
sydney says
i found this really helpful
Charlotte says
What is a limerick???
Lyric Schowalter says
AABBA is a pattern in which the words rhyme, so the A’s rhyme and the B’s rhyme.
Lebron James says
Half of these poems i didn’t even know were a thing 🙂
Stephen Curry says
Poetry is hard
Micheal Jordan says
no way Stephen curry writes poems
Jonathan Mack says
Dude, Awesomely crazy poetry, ya got there/
Izzy says
I love sestinas even tho they are so hard to write.
Mia Evans says
I love that you talked about how Free Verse poems would be a technique that would not follow any conventions of meter or rhyme. I can imagine how nice it would be to be exposed to such work, especially when I appreciate words being used in such a creative way. Hopefully, I can find a Puerto Rican poet this time because I feel curious on how they take this kind of technique.