Poetry Forms "O-Z"
"SUNKU"
Added as a new way of writing, this way has not been established as yet, but here is the layout for others to try.. Also there is an ongoing workshop here on Neopoet for us to have a go..

Beyond rhyme and rhythm, search for new structures in short form..
Constructed by IRiz

Description:

Short form appeals to a reader's imagination and goes across cultural barriers.
It disciplines the poet and requires the most precise choice of words in the same time leaving a good degree of pleasant ambiguity.
How to use a poetic toolbox – personification, extended metaphor, allusions, alliteration, repetition, rhyme, meter – in short form?
Without a doubt it is a difficult question, however, it is well recognized that structure and patterns make a short poem aesthetically pleasing.
I offer to your attention Sunku as a way to structure a short poem.
In Sunku there are three stanzas, each consists of three lines with 2-3-4 syllabi per line.
The level of connection between stanzas is up to a poet to decide.

Here are the stanzas linked in one thought, (I am trying to say that it is good sometimes to know what for the troubles I am facing)

Clouds
replaced
by freezing wind

Wind is
shielded by
a steeper hill

Not often
do I know
why my troubles come

Here is another example where stanzas do have more independent feel, but they are all combined by the image of freezing rain:-

Water
caresses
roofs in the fog

It drops
from the eaves
and black branches

Lost toys
dressed up in ice
raise their hopes

In the last example the stanzas are connected by the feeling of loneliness and contemplation on the subject, but each has a complete thought within.

Alone
it's easy
to shift the blame

Afraid
to lose friends
stopped seeing people

Afraid
to grow old
I stopped living

IRiz

Poetry Forms “O”

• Ode

John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is probably the most famous example of this type of poem which is long and serious in nature written to a set structure.

• Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds.
Examples of onomatopoeic words can be found in numerous Nursery Rhymes e.g. clippety-clop and cock-a-doodle-do.

Ottava Rima
Is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin.
Originally used for long poems on heroic themes,
It later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio.
The Ottava Rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines,
usually iambic pentameters.
Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme,
following the a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c pattern.
The form is similar to the older Sicilian octave,
but evolved separately and is unrelated.
The Sicilian octave is derived from the medieval strambotto
This was a crucial step in the development of the sonnet,
whereas the Ottava Rima is related to the canzone, a stanza form.

Poetry Forms “P”

Pantoum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
The pantoum is a poetic form derived from the pantun, a Malay verse form: specifically from the pantun berkait, a series of interwoven quatrains.
Structure
The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle in that there are repeating lines throughout the poem.
It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern.
The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final.
Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply decontextualizing.
A four-stanza pantoum is common, (although more may be used) and in the final stanza, you could simply repeat lines one and three from the first stanza, or write new lines.
The pantoum form is as follows:
Stanza 1 A B C D
Stanza 2 B E D F
Stanza 3 E G F H
Stanza 4 G I (or A or C) H J (or A or C)
• "I Am Going to Like It Here" by Oscar Hammerstein (and Richard Rodgers) (imperfect pantoum from the musical Flower Drum Song)
I'm going to like it here.
There is something about the place,
An encouraging atmosphere,
Like a smile on a friendly face.
There is something about the place,
So caressing and warm it is.
Like a smile on a friendly face,
Like a port in a storm it is.
So caressing and warm it is.
All the people are so sincere.
Like a port in a storm it is.
I am going to like here.
All the people are so sincere.
There's especially one I like.
I am going to like here.
It's the father's first son I like.
There's especially one I like.
There is something about his face.
It's the father's first son I like.
He's the reason I love the place.
There is something about his face.
I would follow him anywhere.
If he goes to another place,
I am going to like it there.
• Paradox
A paradox is a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements.

"Pastoral Poetry"

Viewed alternately as a genre, mode, or convention in poetry (as well as in literature generally, art, and music), the pastoral tradition refers to a lineage of creative works that idealize rural life and landscapes, while the term “pastoral” refers to individual poems or other works in the tradition.
The pastoral tradition can be traced back to Hesiod, a Greek oral poet active between 750 and 650 BCE, roughly the same time as Homer. His most famous poem, Works and Days, is part farmer’s almanac and part didactic exploration of the nature of human labor. Following Hesiod, the first written examples of pastoral literature are commonly attributed to the Hellenistic Greek poet Theocritus, who in the 3rd century BCE wrote Idylls, short poems describing rustic life. The term idyll means “little scenes” or “vignettes.”
In 38 BCE, the Roman poet Virgil famously published his Eclogues (also called the Bucolics) in Latin. His second great work, the Georgics, was modelled after Hesiod and praise the experiences of farm life.
In Virgil’s First Georgic, the speaker is instructive, describing how the work is done:
The time has come for my groaning ox to drag
My heavy plow across the fields, so that
The plow blade shines as the furrow rubs
against it.
Not till the earth has been twice plowed, so twice
Exposed to sun and twice to coolness will
It yield what the farmer prays for...
During the Italian Renaissance several poets imitated Virgil, including Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, followed by Bernardo Tasso, Luigi Tansillo, and Giambattista Marino. These later poets wrote examples of the pastoral lyric, shorter poems describing beautiful rural landscapes (or “locus amoenus, “Latin for “beautiful place”) and depicting the country as a setting of innocence.
Ironically, the conventions of the pastoral genre were established by sophisticated urban poets whose beautific portrayals of rural life perpetuated fantasies and misconceptions about the rural lifestyle. Descriptions of undemanding rustic chores, such as watching over sheep from atop a sunny hill, functioned for some poets as critiques of city or court life. The seemingly perfect leisure of outdoor solitude also embodies erotic fantasies, as shepherds are portrayed chasing after pretty young girls, abandoning their responsibilities.
The earliest examples of the pastoral style in English appeared in the late Renaissance period. A collection titled Eclogues by Alexander Barclay was published in the early 16th century, but the pastoral mode in English was established later, when Edmund Spenser published his debut work, The Shepherds Calendar. The collection inspired countless pastoral verse deep into the 17th century. Imitated by Michael Drayton (The Shepherd’s Garland), William Browne (Britannia’s Pastorals), and later by Alexander Pope (Pastorals), Spenser’s Calendar also proceeded the country house poems of Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, and others, which describe the landscapes on which estates and manors of wealthy families were founded.
One of the most well-known love poems in the English language, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe, is a pastoral. Throughout the poem, the speaker describes the beauty of the landscape as a means for wooing his love interest:
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
Published in 1599, six years after Marlowe’s death, the poem inspired popular “anti-pastoral” works, most famously "The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd" (1600) by Sir Walter Raleigh. Other poems countering the tradition include Sir Philip Sidney’s "The Twenty-Third Psalm" and "The Nightingale.”
Another sub-genre of pastoral poetry is the pastoral elegy, in which a poet, in the form of a shepherd, mourns the death of a friend. The most famous pastoral elegy is John Milton’s Lycidas, written on the death of Edward King, a respected colleague at Cambridge University. Other examples include Thomas Gray’s "Elegy on a Country Churchyard" (1750), Shelley’s Adonais, and Matthew Arnold’s Thyrsis.
*Pastoral Poetry is a literary work dealing with the lives of shepherds or rural life in general and typically drawing a contrast between the innocence and serenity of a simple life and the misery and corruption of city and especially court life
*The characters in pastoral poetry are often used as vehicles for the expression of the author's moral, social, or literary views
*Sometimes uses the device of "singing matches" between two or more shepherds
*Themes often include love and death.
Red Rose, Spinning
History of Pastoral Poetry:
*The devices of pastoral poetry were largely established by Theocritius.
*The tradition was passed from Greece to Rome, where Virgil alluded to contemporary problems in the rustic society he portrayed.
*Virgil's Eclogues had a powerful effect on poets of the Renaissance.
*The Greek writer Longus' Daphnius and Chloe, written in the 2nd and 3rd century AD, is considered the first prose romance
*Pastoral dramas first appeared in the 15th and 16th centuries.
*During the 16th and 17th centuries, pastoral romance novels appeared.
*In English poetry the appearance in 1579 of Edmund Spenser's Shepheardes Calender brought about a trend towards the pastoral mode.
*Sir Phillip Sidney, Robert Greene, Thomas Nash, Christopher Marlowe, Michael Drayton, Thomas, Dekker, John Donne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Robert Herrick, Andrew Narvell, Thomas Heywood, Thomas Campion, William Browne, William Drummond, and Phineas Fletcher all wrote pastoral poetry.
*Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge wrote prose romances in the pastoral mode.
*Playwrights who attempted pastoral drama incudes William Shakespeare, John Lyly, George Peele, John Fletcher, Ben Johnson, John Day, and James Shirley.
*In later centuries, a reaction against the artificialities of the genre, combined with new attitudes to the natural man and the natural scene, resulted in a sometimes bitter injection of reality into the rustic scenes of many poets and novelist.
*However the pastoral elegy survives through Percy Shelley and Mathew Arnold.

• Pentameter

A line of poetry that has five metrical feet.

• Persona

Persona refers to the narrator or speaker of the poem, not to be confused with the author.

• Personification

Personification means giving human traits to nonhuman or abstract things.

.Prose/Poetic Prose

Though the name of the form may appear to be a contradiction, the prose poem essentially appears as prose, but reads like poetry. In the first issue of
The Prose Poem:

An International Journal, editor Peter Johnson explained,
“Just as black humour straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels resting precariously on banana peels.”
While it lacks the line breaks associated with poetry, the prose poem maintains a poetic quality, often utilizing techniques common to poetry, such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, and rhyme. The prose poem can range in length from a few lines to several pages long, and it may explore a limitless array of styles and subjects. POETIC PROSE: Reference -http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5787

Poetry Forms “Q”

Qualitative vs. quantitative meter

The meter of much poetry of the Western world and elsewhere is based on particular patterns of syllables of particular types.
The familiar type of meter in English-language poetry is called qualitative meter, with stressed syllables coming at regular intervals (e.g. in iambic pentameter, typically every even-numbered syllable).
Many Romance languages use a scheme that is somewhat similar but where the position of only one particular stressed syllable (e.g. the last) needs to be fixed.
The meter of the old Germanic poetry of languages such as Old Norse and Old English was radically different, but still was based on stress patterns.
Many classical languages, however, use a different scheme known as quantitative meter, where patterns are based on syllable weight rather than stress. In dactylic hexameter, of Classical Latin and Classical Greek.
For example, each of the six feet making up the line was either a dactyl (long-short-short) or spondee (long-long), where a long syllable was literally one that took longer to pronounce than a short syllable: specifically, a syllable consisting of a long vowel or diphthong or followed by two consonants.
The stress pattern of the words made no difference to the meter.
A number of other ancient languages also used quantitative meter, such as Sanskrit and Classical Arabic (but not Biblical Hebrew

• Quatrain

A stanza or poem of four lines.
Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme.
Lines 1 and 3 may or may not rhyme.
Rhyming lines should have a similar number of syllables.

Poetry Forms “R”

"Rictameter"

A Rictameter is a nine-line syllabic structure typically used in poetry.
The lines start at two syllables, incrementing upward by two to ten in the fifth line and ending with the same two syllable word as the first line.

Because this form involves a fixed syllabic count, it is a natural accompaniment with haiku and other fixed-syllabic poetry forms.

Created in the early 1990s by two cousins, Jason D. Wilkins and Richard W. Lunsford, Jr., for a poetry contest that was held as a weekly practice of their self-invented order, The Brotherhood of the Amarantos Mystery. The order was inspired by the Robin Williams movie Dead Poets Society.

The first examples of the Rictameter form to be made public were submissions made by Jason Wilkins to the website www.shadowpoetry.com in 2000.
These are the first two poems created by both Jason D. Wilkins and his cousin, Richard Lunsford, Jr.

Satin
As your lips are
Pressed to mine as velvet
Soft and full with rounded sweetness
Two gentle petals alive with the night
Misted in the summer beauty
Of rains that shower love
'Pon your lips of
Satin

submitted by Jason D. Wilkins

Treasure
Placed in your view
So close but out of reach
Torturous to all your senses
For they each cry aloud to possess it
Their desires forever unquenched
For the things some want most
They cannot have
Treasure

submitted by Richard W. Lunsford, Jr.

"Rispetto"

A Rispetto, an Italian form of poetry, is a complete poem of two rhyme quatrains with strict meter.
The meter is usually iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abab ccdd.

A Heroic Rispetto

Is written in Iambic pentameter, usually featuring the same rhyme scheme.
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/rispetto.html

.Roundel (poetry)

A roundel (not to be confused with the rondel) is a form of verse used in English language poetry devised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909).
It is a variation of the French rondeau form. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern.
A roundel consists of nine lines each having the same number of syllables, plus a refrain after the third line and after the last line.
The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line: it may be a half-line, and rhymes with the second line. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows: A B A R ; B A B ; A B A R ; where R is the refrain.

• Romanticism

Nature and love were a major themes of Romanticism favoured by 18th and 19th century poets such as Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
Emphasis was placed on the personal experiences of the individual.

Rhythm:

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.
Meter: the number of feet in a line.
Rhythm is significant in poetry because poetry is so emotionally charged and intense.
Rhythm can be measured in terms of heavily stressed to less stressed syllables.
Rhythm is measured in feet, units usually consisting of one heavily accented syllable and one or more lightly accented syllable.

• Rhyme

A rhyme has the repetition of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words most often at the ends of lines.
There are several derivatives of this term which include double rhyme, Triple rhyme, rising rhyme, falling rhyme, Perfect and imperfect rhymes.

• Rhyme royal

The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c.
In practice, the stanza can be constructed either as a terza rima and two couplets (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) or a quatrain and a tercet (a-b-a-b, b-c-c).
This allows for a good deal of variety, especially when the form is used for longer narrative poems; and along with the couplet, it was the standard narrative metre in the late Middle Ages.

• Refrain

A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.

Rictameter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

A rictameter is a nine-line syllabic structure typically used in poetry. The lines start at two syllables, incrementing upward by two to ten in the fifth line and ending with the same two syllable word as the first line.[1]

Because this form involves a fixed syllabic count, it is a natural accompaniment with haiku and other fixed-syllabic poetry forms.

Created in the early 1990s by two cousins, Jason D. Wilkins and Richard W. Lunsford, Jr., for a poetry contest that was held as a weekly practice of their self-invented order, The Brotherhood of the Amarantos Mystery. The order was inspired by the Robin Williams movie Dead Poets Society.

The first examples of the rictameter form to be made public were submissions made by Jason Wilkins to the website www.shadowpoetry.com in 2000.[2] These are the first two poems created by both Jason D. Wilkins and his cousin, Richard Lunsford, Jr.

Satin
As your lips are
Pressed to mine as velvet
Soft and full with rounded sweetness
Two gentle petals alive with the night
Misted in the summer beauty
Of rains that shower love
'Pon your lips of
Satin

submitted by Jason D. Wilkins

Treasure
Placed in your view
So close but out of reach
Torturous to all your senses
For they each cry aloud to possess it
Their desires forever unquenched
For the things some want most
They cannot have
Treasure

submitted by Richard W. Lunsford, Jr.

."Rispetto"

A form of Italian poetry that is set into very strict stanzas of eight hendecasyllabic lines (or eight lines with eleven syllables).
This form of poetry was also known as ottava rima. These stanzas were set to music by composers of the frottola and 16th-century madrigal and later, the Strambotto.
The name rispetto was taken from the purpose of the poetry with the poet paying his respects to his lady love and was typically one stanza, but it was not uncommon to have more.

• Rising Meter

Anapaestic and iambic meters are called rising meters because they move from an unstressed syllable to a stressed syllable.

Rubáiyát.

These are some of the favourite quatrains from the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald:
Wake! For the Sun who scattered into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heaven and Strikes
The Sultan’s Turret with a Shaft of Light.
[Stanza 1]
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
The Winter garment of Repentance fling;
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly – and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
[Stanza 7, 1st edition]
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness –
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
[Stanza 12]
The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
[Stanza 71]
Some poems that have been written in English have the form of the Rubáiyát, or a close approximation.
An example is Robert’s Frost Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, which begins:-
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Ezra Pound composed a Rubáiyát that he included on the last page of his Canto LXXX (p. 516 in the New Directions edition of The Cantos); it begins:
Tudor indeed is gone and every rose,
Blood-red, blanch-white that in the sunset glows
Cries: “Blood, Blood, Blood!” against the gothic stone
Of England, as the Howard or Boleyn knows.
Here are some steps to take in creating a Rubáiyát:
Read Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát a dozen times.
For your first Rubáiyát, begin with a short story that you know, perhaps a traditional tale from your family or your culture.
List at least a dozen words that are key to the story.
For each of these words, list half a dozen or more words that rhyme.
Now construct one stanza using a set of these rhymed words.
The pattern possibilities of the rhyming will give you ideas for lines that you would never have thought of otherwise.
Continue till done.
Be patient.
You are weaving an interesting tapestry.
A Last Word.
Just because you start with the intention of writing a Rubáiyát, you do not have to keep your poem in that form if it does not work for you and your collaborators. Your attempt to write a formal poem may help you find words that you would not have found otherwise.
And you may decide that you choose to end up with a poem in a different form.

Rubáiyát Interlocking

An “Interlocking Rubáiyát” is a Rubáiyát where the subsequent stanza rhymes its 1st, 2nd, and 4th lines with the sound at the end of the 3rd line in the stanza (Rubá’íyah) before it.
In this form, the 3rd line of the final stanza is also rhymed with the 3 rhymed lines in the first stanza.
This leads to a form like this example with three stanzas; note that the Rubáiyát” is allowed an unlimited number of stanzas, so extend the pattern as needed:
a
a – 2nd line rhymes with the first.
b
a – 4th line rhymes with the first and second.
b – 1st line rhymes with the third in the previous stanza.
b – 2nd line rhymes with the first.
c
b – 4th line rhymes with the first and second.
c – 1st line rhymes with the third in the previous stanza.
c – 2nd line rhymes with the first.
a – 3rd line rhymes with the first in the opening stanza.
c – 4th line rhymes with the first and second.
Reference:http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/rubaiyat.htm

Rhyku

By Stan
A new, I think, form similar to Haiku in which brevity in form is used but in which at Least 2 lines contain rhyme.
Does not matter, which 2.
Limitation in number of lines is 3 minimum and 4 maximum and length of each line to not exceed 7 words.
Give it a try and see if you like it lol……………stan

Poetry forms “S”

Scansion:

(This is advanced reading not really for the beginner)
Describing the rhythms of poetry by dividing the lines into feet, marking the locations of stressed and unstressed syllables, and counting the syllables.
Thus, when we describe the rhythm of a poem, we “scan” the poem and mark the stresses (/) and absences of stress (^) and count the number of feet.
In English, the major feet are:
iamb (^/)
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
The falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of love
trochee (/^)
/ ^ / ^ / ^ / ^
Double, double toil and trouble
anapest (^^/)
^ ^ / ^ ^ / ^ ^ /
I am monarch of all I survey
dactyl (/^^)
/ ^ ^ / ^^
Take her up tenderly
spondee (//)
pyrrhic (^^)
Iambic and anapestic meters are called rising meters because their movement rises from unstressed syllable to stressed; trochaic and dactylic meters are called falling.
In the twentieth century, the bouncing meters–anapestic and dactylic–have been used more often for comic verse than for serious poetry.
Spondee and pyrrhic are called feet, even though they contain only one kind of stressed syllable.
They are never used as the sole meter of a poem; if they were, it would be like the steady impact of nails being hammered into a board–no pleasure to hear or dance to.
But inserted now and then, they can lend emphasis and variety to a meter, as Yeats well knew when he broke up the predominantly iambic rhythm of “Who Goes With Fergus?” with the line,
^ ^ / / ^ ^ / /
And the white breast of the dim sea,
A frequently heard metrical description is iambic pentameter: a line of five iambs.
This is a meter especially familiar because it occurs in all blank verse (such as Shakespeare’s plays), heroic couplets, and sonnets.
Pentameter is one name for the number of feet in a line.
The commonly used names for line lengths are:
monometer one foot pentameter five feet
dimeter two feet hexameter six feet
trimeter three feet heptameter seven feet
tetrameter four feet octameter eight feet
The scansion of this quatrain from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 shows the following accents and divisions into feet (note the following words were split: behold, yellow, upon, against, ruin’d):
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | be hold |
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
When yel | low leaves, | or none, | or few, | do hang |
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
Up on | those boughs | which shake | a gainst | the cold, |
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
Bare ru | in’d choirs | where late | the sweet birds sang |
From this, we see the rhythm of this quatrain is made up of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable, called an iambic foot.
We also see there are five feet per line, making the meter of the line pentameter.
So, the rhythm and meter are iambic pentameter.
Yes, that’s all very lovely, but why do we study rhythm?
People have a basic need for rhythm, or for the effect produced by it, as laboratory experiments in psychology have demonstrated, and as you can see by watching a crew of workers digging or hammering, or by listening to chants and work songs.
Rhythm gives pleasure and a more emotional response to the listener or reader because it establishes a pattern of expectations, and rewards the listener or reader with the pleasure that comes from having those expectations fulfilled, or the noted change in a rhythm.
As in the Yeats example.
An argument might be raised against scanning: isn’t it too simple to expect that all language can be divided into neat stressed and unstressed syllables?
Of course it is.
There are infinite levels of stress, from the loudest scream to the faintest whisper.
But, the idea in scanning a poem is not to reproduce the sound of a human voice.
A tape recorder can do that.
To scan a poem is to make a diagram of the stresses and absence of stress we find in it.
Studying rhythms, “scanning,” is not just a way of pointing to syllables; it is also a matter of listening to a poem and making sense of it.
To scan a poem is one way to indicate how to read it aloud; in order to see where stresses fall, you have to see the places where the poet wishes to put emphasis. That is why when scanning a poem you may find yourself suddenly understanding it.
In everyday life, nobody speaks or writes in perfect iambic rhythm, except at moments:
“a HAM on RYE and HIT the MUStard HARD!”
Poets don’t even write in iambic very long, although when they do, they have chosen iambic because it is the rhythm that most closely resemble everyday speech.
And even after this lengthy discussion of rhythm, it must be stated that most poems do not employ the same rhythm throughout.
Variety in rhythm is not merely desirable, it is a necessity. If the beat of its words slips into a mechanical pattern, the poem marches robot-like right into its grave. Very few poets favour rhythms that go “a TROT a TROT a TROT a TROT” for very long.
Robert Frost told an audience one time that if when writing a poem he found its rhythm becoming monotonous, he knew that the poem was going wrong and that he himself didn’t believe what it was saying.
Sources:
Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986.
Kennedy, X.J. Literature. Scott, Foresman, and Company, 1987.
Can you scan these poem excerpts?
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
–Emily Dickinson
Bats have webby wings that fold up;
Bats from ceilings hang down rolled up;
Bats when flying undismayed are;
Bats are careful; bats use radar;
–Frank Jacobs, “The Bat”
You know that it would be untrue,
You know that I would be a liar,
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher.
Come on, baby, light my fire.
Try to set the night on fire.
–Jim Morrison, “Light My Fire”
Submitted by scribbler
The screen’s fading glow
is like memories dissipating
as I rise and finally go
to my warm bed awaiting
Sapphic Ode (Pope Style)
Three line iambic tetrameter
fourth line iambic bi meter
or
three line 8 syllables
fourth line 4 syllables
Rhymed abab, as many stanzas as you like.
An example is “Ode on Solitude” by Alexander Pope.
As Opposed to:

Sapphic Ode

The Sapphic Ode consists of quatrains, three 11-syllable lines, and a final 5-syllable line, un rhyming but with a strict meter.
Horatian ode
–noun Prosody .
an ode consisting of several stanzas all of the same form.
Also called Lesbian ode, Sapphic ode.
Compare Pindaric ode.
Sapphic stanza
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form spanning four lines (more properly three, in the poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus, where there is no word-end before the final Adonean).
The form is two hendecasyllabic verses, and a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five additional syllables (given as the stanza’s fourth verse in ancient and modern editions, and known as the Adonic or Adonean line).
Using “-” for a long syllable, “u” for a short and “x” for an “anceps” (or free syllable):
- u – x – u u – u – -
- u – x – u u – u – -
- u – x – u u – u – -
- u u – u
While Sappho used several metrical forms for her poetry, she is most famous for the Sapphic stanza.
Her poems in this meter (collected in Book I of the ancient edition) ran to 330 stanzas, a significant part of her complete works (and of her surviving poetry: fragments 1-42).
It is not clear if she created it or if it was already part of the Aeolic tradition; according to Marius Victorinus (Ars grammatica 6.161 Keil), it was invented by Alcaeus but then used more frequently by, and so more strongly associated with, Sappho.

• Scansion

The analysis of a poem’s meter. This is usually done by marking the stressed and unstressed syllables in each line and then, based on the pattern of the stresses, dividing the line into feet.

• Senryu

A short Japanese poem that is similar to a haiku in structure but treats human beings rather than nature, often in a humorous or satiric way.

"Sijo"

A Basic Guide to Writing Sijo
Further reading:
Sijo Primer (an introduction for those new to sijo) by Larry Gross (.pdf)
Structure of the Korean Sijo by David McCann (.pdf)
Sijo lectures by David McCann
Part 1 (form and structure)
Part 2 (history)
Part 3 (sample analysis of sijo)
The Sijo (Korean 시조, pronounced SHEE-jo) is a traditional three-line Korean poetic form typically exploring cosmological, metaphysical, or pastoral themes. Organized both technically and thematically by line and syllable count, Sijo are expected to be phrasal and lyrical, as they are first and foremost meant to be songs.
Sijo are written in three lines, each averaging 14-16 syllables for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line is written in four groups of syllables that should be clearly differentiated from the other groups, yet still flow together as a single line. When written in English, Sijo may be written in six lines, with each line containing two syllable groupings instead of four. Additionally, as shown in the example below, liberties may be taken (within reason) with the number of syllables per group as long as the total syllable count for the line remains the same.
The first line is usually written in a 3-4-4-4 grouping pattern and states the theme of the poem, where a situation generally introduced.
The second line is usually written in a 3-4-4-4 pattern (similar to the first) and is an elaboration of the first line's theme or situation (development).
The third line is divided into two sections. The first section, the counter-theme, is grouped as 3-5, while the second part, considered the conclusion of the poem, is written as 4-3. The counter-theme is called the 'twist,' which is usually a surprise in meaning, sound, or other device.
Example: excerpt from "Song of my five friends"
Yun Seondo (1587-1671)
You ask how many friends I have? Water and stone, bamboo and pine. (2-6-4-4)
The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful comrade. (2-4-4-6)
Besides these five companions, what other pleasure should I ask? (2-5, 5-3)

• Simile

A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word “like” or “as” to draw attention to similarities about two things that are seemingly dissimilar
.
• Slang

Slang refers to highly informal and sub-standard vocabulary which may exist for some time and then vanish.
Some slang remains in usage long enough to become permanent, but slang never becomes a part of formal diction.

• SONNET.

English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are lyric poems that are 14 lines long falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line sextet.
Critics of the sonnet have recognized varying classifications, but to all essential purposes two types only need be discussed.
The student will understand that each of these two, in turn, has undergone various modifications by experimenters.
The two characteristic sonnet types are the Italian (Petrarchan) and the English (Shakespearean).
The first, the Italian form, is distinguished by its bipartite division into the octave and the sestet: the octave consisting of a first division of eight lines rhyming abbaabba
and the sestet, or second division, consisting of six lines rhyming
cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce.
On this twofold division of the Italian sonnet Charles Gayley notes: “The octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a cry of indignation or desire, a Vision of the ideal
The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision.”
Again it might be said that the octave presents the narrative, states the proposition or raises a question; the sestet drives home the narrative by making an abstract comment, applies the proposition, or solves the problem.
So much for the strict interpretation of the Italian form; as a matter of fact English poets have varied these items greatly.
The octave and sestet division is not always kept; the rhyme-scheme is often varied, but within limits–no Italian sonnet properly allowing more than five rhymes. Iambic pentameter is essentially the meter, but here again certain poets have experimented with hexameter and other meters.
The English (Shakespearean) sonnet, on the other hand, is so different from the Italian (though it grew from that form) as to permit of a separate classification. Instead of the octave and sestet divisions, this sonnet characteristically embodies four divisions: three quatrains (each with a rhyme-scheme of its own) and a rhymed couplet. Thus the typical rhyme-scheme for the English sonnet is
abab cdcd efef gg.
The couplet at the end is usually a commentary on the foregoing, an epigrammatic close.
The Spenserian sonnet combines the Italian and the Shakespearean forms, using three quatrains and a couplet but employing linking rhymes between the quatrains, thus
abab bcbc cdcd ee.
Certain qualities common to the sonnet as a form should be noted. Its definite restrictions make it a challenge to the artistry of the poet and call for all the technical skill at the poet’s command.
The more or less set rhyme patterns occurring regularly within the short space of fourteen lines afford a pleasant effect on the ear of the reader, and can Create truly musical effects.
The rigidity of the form precludes a too great economy or too great prodigality of words.
Emphasis is placed on exactness and perfection of expression.
The sonnet as a form developed in Italy probably in the thirteenth century.

.Spoken word Poetry

Spoken-Word – Performance Poetry Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during performance before an audience.
During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.
Check this link for Spoken word from Wikipedia spoken-word Dictionary: spo•ken-word (spō’kən-wûrd’) adj. Spoken aloud, especially in performance: spoken-word poetry.
Performing or involving a performance of the spoken word:
“Whenever the media covers the poetry world, you can bet you will find spoken-word and street poets railing against the prudishness of the ‘academic poets’” (Maureen McLane).
The noun has one meaning: Meaning #1: a word that is spoken aloudhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoken_word:

• Spondee

A metrical foot of two syllables, both of which are long (or stressed).

• Stanza

Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem.
The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.

• Stress

Stress refers to the accent or emphasis, either strong or weak, given to each syllable in a piece of writing, as determined by conventional pronunciation.

Stressed and unstressed Words…

Suffixes and Stressed Syllables
Here is another group of words which cause many people to make mistakes. Once again, the problem is to decide whether or not to double the final consonant of the base word when adding a suffix. And, once again, there’s a pattern to help you out.
Read the following words aloud and try to decide where you place the stress or emphasis:
profit target enter order
begin equip regret commit
You should notice that in the top line you stressed the first syllable. And in the bottom line you stressed the second syllable. Like this:
profit target enter order
begin equip regret commit
Here is the pattern which is so helpful:
If the stress is on the first syllable the base word doesn’t change:
profit + able = profitable; and enter + ed = entered
If the stress is on the last syllable, double the final consonant before adding a vowel suffix:
begin + ing = beginning; and equip + ed = equipped
(No change if a consonant suffix is added so:
equip + ment = equipment )
This pattern is so valuable that it’s worth memorizing it.
Use the pattern to add suffixes to the following:
1st syllable stressed 2nd syllable stressed
garden + er
forget + able
limit + ed
begin + ing
order + ing
occur + ing
alter + ation
omit + ed
market + ing
regret + ful

Stress (linguistics)

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence.
The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables.
The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.
Contents [hide]
1 Phonetic realization
2 Placement, rhythm, and metrical feet
3 Stress and vowel reduction
4 Historical effects of stress
5 Timing
6 Notation
7 See also
8 Notes
9 External links
[edit]Phonetic realization
The ways stress manifests itself in the speech stream are highly language-dependent.
In some languages, stressed syllables have a higher or lower pitch than non-stressed syllables – so-called pitch accent (or musical accent).
In other languages, they may bear either higher or lower pitch than surrounding syllables (a pitch excursion), depending on the sentence type.
There are also dynamic accent (loudness), qualitative accent (Place or manner of articulation, e.g. reduction), and quantitative accent (length, known in music theory as agogic accent).
Stress may be characterized by more than one of these characteristics.
Further, stress may be realized to varying degrees on different words in a sentence; sometimes the difference between the acoustic signals of stressed and unstressed syllables may be minimal.
In English, stress is most dramatically realized on focussed or accented words.
For instance, consider the dialogue
“Is it brunch tomorrow?”
“No, it’s dinner tomorrow.”
In it, the stress-related acoustic differences between the syllables of “tomorrow” would be small compared to the differences between the syllables of “dinner”, the emphasized word.
In these emphasized words, stressed syllables such as “din” in “dinner” are louder and longer.
They may also have a different fundamental frequency, or other properties.
Unstressed syllables typically have a vowel which is closer to a neutral position (the schwa), while stressed vowels are more fully realized.
In contrast, stressed and unstressed vowels in Spanish share the same quality—unlike English, the language has no reduced vowels.
(Much literature emphasizes the importance of pitch changes and pitch motions on stressed syllables, but experimental support for this idea is weak. Nevertheless, most experiments do not directly address the pitch of speech, which is a subjective perceived quantity.
Experiments typically measure the speech fundamental frequency, which is objectively measurable, and strongly correlated with pitch, but not quite the same thing.)
Stress can also be put on any word in a sentence to make a possible several sentences:
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I took a different one.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I took something else.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I took it some other day.)
The possibilities for stress in tone languages is an area of ongoing research, but stress-like patterns have been observed in Mandarin Chinese.
They are realized as alternations between syllables where the tones are carefully realised with a relatively large swing in fundamental frequency, and syllables where they are realized “sloppily” with typically a small swing.
Stressed syllables are often perceived as being more forceful than non-stressed syllables.
Research has shown, however, that although dynamic stress is accompanied by greater respiratory force, it does not mean a more forceful articulation in the vocal tract.

• Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole.

• Syntax

Syntax refers to word order and sentence structure. Normal word order in English sentences is firmly fixed in subject-verb-object sequence or subject-verb-complement. In poetry, word order may be shifted around to meet emphasis, to heighten the connection between two words, or to pick up on specific implications or traditions.
“SYNTAX” This is it
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.”
(Linguist Noam Chomsky created this sentence–which is grammatically correct but incomprehensible–to demonstrate that the rules governing syntax are distinct from the meanings words convey.)
• “It is a mistake to believe that some English speakers follow rules in their speech and others do not.
Instead, it now appears that all English speakers are successful language learners: they all follow unconscious rules derived from their early language development, and the small differences in the sentences that they prefer are best understood as coming from small differences in these rules. . . .
Pronunciation: SIN-taks
A type of poetry introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer consisting of stanzas of seven lines in iambic pentameter.

Poetry Forms “T”

• Tanka

A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the rest of seven.

• Terza rima

A type of poetry consisting of 10 or 11 syllable lines arranged in three-line “tercets”.
The poet Dante is credited with inventing terza rima and it has been used by many English poets including Chaucer, Milton, Shelley, and Auden.

"What is a Terza Rima Poem?"

A terza rima is an Italian form of poetry first used by Dante Alighieri.

A terza rima consists of stanzas of three lines (or tercets) usually in iambic pentameter. It follows an interlocking rhyming scheme, or chain rhyme. This is where the middle of each stanza rhymes with the first and last line of the following stanza. There is no set length to this form, as long as it follows the pattern as follows:

ABA
BCB
CDC
DED

With the last stanza as a couplet rhyming with the middle line of the previous stanza. In this case, EE.

An example of a Terza Rima Poem

Spring

(A) New life begins to spring to life in spring
(B) Green shoots appear in the April showers
(A) Birds migrate back home and rest tired wings

(B) Summer brings green fields full of bright flowers
(C) Paddling pools and ice creams all around
(B) The sun shines fiercely with all its powers

(C) Autumn sends leaves tumbling to the ground
(D) The sun sinks lower leaving longer nights
(C) Conkers and acorns waiting to be found

(D) Winter is a time for Halloween frights
(E) Snow on the ground and Jack Frost's ache
(D) Celebrations filled with festive delights

(E) As winter ends the new year starts to make
(E) New life begins to spring to life and awake.

"Tetractys"

What is a Tetractys?

The poetic form of the tetractys is a poem with only five lines. Each line adds another syllable until the last line which has ten.

What is the Stucture of a Tetractys?

A tetractys consists of 5 lines, each line has a set number of syllables see below:

Line 1 – 1 syllable
Line 2 – 2 syllables
Line 3 – 3 syllables
Line 4 – 4 syllables
Line 5 – 10 syllables

An Example of a Tetractys Poem

(1 syllable) I
(2 syllables) Am four
(3 syllables) And I go
(4 syllables) To big school where
(10 syllables) I learn to read and write and spell my name.

Double Tetractys Poem

For a more complex form there is the double tetractys, which is similar but has ten lines and is structured as shown below:

Line 1 – 1 syllable
Line 2 – 2 syllables
Line 3 – 3 syllables
Line 4 – 4 syllables
Line 5 – 10 syllables
Line 6 – 10 syllables
Line 7 – 4 syllables
Line 8 – 3 syllables
Line 9 – 2 syllables
Line 10 – 1 syllable

An Example of a Double Tetractys Poem

(1 syllable) I
(2 syllables) Am four
(3 syllables) And I go
(4 syllables) To big school where
(10 syllables) I learn to read and write and spell my name. (10 syllables) It is fun and I play games with my friends (4 syllables) My best friend is (3 syllables) Called Rosie (2 syllables) She is (1 syllable) Nice.

• Tetrameter

A line of poetry that has four metrical feet.

"Tetractys"

What is a Tetractys?

The poetic form of the tetractys is a poem with only five lines. Each line adds another syllable until the last line which has ten.

What is the Stucture of a Tetractys?

A tetractys consists of 5 lines, each line has a set number of syllables see below:

Line 1 – 1 syllable
Line 2 – 2 syllables
Line 3 – 3 syllables
Line 4 – 4 syllables
Line 5 – 10 syllables

An Example of a Tetractys Poem

(1 syllable) I
(2 syllables) Am four
(3 syllables) And I go
(4 syllables) To big school where
(10 syllables) I learn to read and write and spell my name.

Double Tetractys Poem

For a more complex form there is the double tetractys, which is similar but has ten lines and is structured as shown below:

Line 1 – 1 syllable
Line 2 – 2 syllables
Line 3 – 3 syllables
Line 4 – 4 syllables
Line 5 – 10 syllables
Line 6 – 10 syllables
Line 7 – 4 syllables
Line 8 – 3 syllables
Line 9 – 2 syllables
Line 10 – 1 syllable

An Example of a Double Tetractys Poem

(1 syllable) I
(2 syllables) Am four
(3 syllables) And I go
(4 syllables) To big school where
(10 syllables) I learn to read and write and spell my name. (10 syllables) It is fun and I play games with my friends (4 syllables) My best friend is (3 syllables) Called Rosie (2 syllables) She is (1 syllable) Nice.

Triolet

A triolet is a stanza poem of eight lines.
Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and often all lines are in iambic tetrameter
The first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines,
Thereby making the initial and final couplets identical as well.

• Trochee

A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or unstressed).

• Trope

Trope is the use of a word or phrase in a sense different from its ordinary meaning.

A Tyburn Poem.

A Tyburn Poem is a six line poetic form where the first four lines consist of just a single two syllabled word each that all rhyme. The last two lines are nine syllables where the fifth to eighth syllables are the words from the first four lines.

Example of a Tyburn Poem

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/tyburn.html
This seems a good site for various forms..

Poetry Forms “V”

• Verse

A single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose).

• Versification

The system of rhyme and meter in poetry.

“Vignette”

How to Write a Vignette
• 1 Use the clustering technique to write your vignette. Begin with a word that has meaning for you, like “mother,” and write it at the centre of the page and circle it. Then brainstorm other words, writing them in circles and connecting them with lines to the centre word.
• 2
Decide on one idea to write about. It could be a single word from your cluster exercise or a group of words related to one idea.
• 3
Pick an image that represents the idea you want to explore in your vignette. For example, write about the bravest person you’ve ever known if you want to explore courage.
• 4
Find a quiet, comfortable place to lie down for 10 minutes. Set an alarm so you don’t fall asleep. Close your eyes and visualize the image.
• 5
Choose the form of your vignette. It can be a poem, description, monologue or a dialogue between characters.
• 6
Write the first draft without thinking too much about words, structure or quality. Just as a camera takes a picture of what’s there, your vignette should photograph what’s in your mind.
• 7
Set the vignette aside at least overnight. Read it out loud to feel the rhythm of the language. Pay attention first to how well it expresses your idea, then to how well it’s written.
Read more: | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/how_2060077_write-vignette.html#ixzz1Ht9wUOzX

"Villanelle"

How to write a villanelle and its composition.
Comprehend the form of this poetry. The villanelle has 19 lines, 5 stanzas of three lines and 1 stanza of four lines with two rhymes and two refrains. The 1st, then the 3rd lines alternate as the last lines of stanzas 2, 3, and 4, and then stanza 5 (the end) as a couplet. It is usually written in tetrameter (4 feet) or pentameter..

"Volta"

Volta ( Italian: “turn”) the turn in thought in a sonnet that is often indicated by such initial words as But, Yet, or And yet.

The Volta occurs between the octet and sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet and sometimes between the 8th and 9th or between the 12th and 13th lines of a Shakespearean sonnet, as in William Shakespeare’s sonnet number 130:

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 damask’d, 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.

Zzzzz If you have any thing I can use to make this better please pm or just comment I shall incorporate it, Yours Ian.T