Verse

            How to classify a poem:

Poems in English are classified generally by their rhyming pattern and by their meter. In order to classify a poem, you should be familiar with the way to notate rhymes and also with the names for meter types such as monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, iambic, spondaic, trochaic, etc. . . In many cases you will not need these terms to name the actual verse type, but will need to be able to recognize them in order to name the poem.

The first step in the poem is to identify the rhyme.  Check the ends of the lines for true or slant rhymes, because either one can be used for most verse types.  Denote the first rhyme with A, the second with B, and so on.  Here is an example.

The first four lines from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" are as follows:

    `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
     Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
     All mimsy were the borogoves,
     And the mome raths outgrabe.

It is not necessary for the words to make sense, but they definitely rhyme.  The rhyming pattern in this instance would be written like this:

        A
        B
        A
        B

Once you have identified the rhyme you may count the syllables, beats, or feet and identify the meter.  In some instances you will also need to check the see how lines are paired up in groups or stanzas. The following terms describe different group numbers.

    couplet - This is a set of two lines.  They may be separated from the rest of the poem by a space, or be within a poem but rhyme directly.  They will always be immediately next to one another.

    sestet - A sestet is a group of six lines.  

    octave - An octave is a group of eight lines.

                Types:

 Now that you have the tools to identify meter, rhyme, and other structural elements, you should be able to classify most poems into one of the following forms.

     sonnet - A sonnet is a popular, old, and very strict form for poetry.  The lines must always be iambic pentameter and they follow a very specific rhyming pattern. There are two main styles of sonnets. 

        Shakespearean sonnet- Guess who made this sonnet form famous? A Shakespearean sonnet is always 14 lines long and follows a specific pattern.  It has three quatrains and then a couplet which is called the "heroic couplet." There is generally a change in tone from the quatrains to the couplet. The rhyme pattern and an example are listed below.

    A
    B   quatrain
    A
    B
    -----
    C
    D   quatrain
    C
    D
    -----
    E
    F   quatrain
    E
    F
    -----
    G   couplet
    G

        Example:

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime:
So thou through windows of thine age shall see
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember'd not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee. (Sonnet 3, Shakespeare)
 

        Petrarchan sonnet - A Petrarchan sonnet is always 14 lines long and follows a specific pattern although many poets make variations upon this form (note three common sestet variations below).  It has an octave and then a sestet, between them there is generally a turning point in the poem.  This form is frequently used for romantic poetry. The rhyme pattern and an example are listed below.

A
B
B
A   octave
A
B
B
A
-----
C                 C                C
D                 D                D
E  sestet       C                E
C                 D                D
D                 C                C
E                 D                 E

Example:

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Task-master's eye. ("On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three", Milton)

 

    villanelle -  A villanelle is another form that uses iambic pentameter.  In rare cases it may use iambic tetrameter.  The pattern uses a series of repetition. It uses five triplets and a quatrain.  Two lines will be used over and over again.  They are marked here with * and  #.

A *
B
A #

A
B
A *

A
B
A #

A
B
A *

A
B
A #

A
B
A *
A #

        Example:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ("Do Not Go Gentle," Dylan Thomas)

    ballad - A ballad is a very old form of poetry.   Originating from folk songs, ballads were often used to pass on news or stories of war or catastrophe when literacy was a rare thing.  The ballads are seldom personalized or say anything about the poet.  Most often ballads are made from simple quatrains and can be any length.  They are frequently long and use an alternating rhyme line by line.  The quatrains are often alternating tetrameter and trimeter.

A TETRAMETER
B TRIMETER
A TETRAMETER
B TRIMETER

C
D
C
D

E
F
E
F

        Example:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot : O Christ !
That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night ;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white. ("The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Coleridge)

    lyric - Lyric poetry refers to emotional, romantic, and personal poetry.  It generally contains a lament or expression of emotion from the poet. This was a very popular form for romantic poets such as Keats, Wordsworth and Byron. You may have lyrics in any number of forms. A sonnet for example, can be considered a lyric poem.

    haiku - A haiku is a Japanese form or poetry. The lines are divided by syllable rather than foot.  No rhyme is necessary.  Frequently they are written about nature. The form is a single triplet of lines where the first and last line are 5 syllables long, and the middle line is 7 syllables long. There are variations on this format and translations from Japanese haiku often use slightly different in length.

        Example:

The first soft snow!
Enough to bend the leaves
Of the jonquil low. (Untitled, Basho)
 

    apostrophe - An apostrophe (often called an ode) is a poem that is dedicated to an object or person.  An apostrophe can be written to concrete or abstract images.  Romantic or love poems are generally apostrophes to lovers.

        Example:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. ("Shall I Compare Thee," Shakespeare)

    heroic simile - A heroic simile is a simile blown up on a grand scale. In this case something is likened so something else, but the comparison turns into a story or narrative.  A simple simile might be the snow fell like a swan.  A heroic simile would say the snow was like a spring day where I went fishing with my father and the ...etc...

        Example:

When the swordsman fell in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai
in the gray rain,
in Cinemascope and the Tokugawa dynasty,
he fell straight as a pine, he fell
as Ajax fell in Homer
in chanted dactyls and the tree was so huge
the woodsman returned for two days
to that lucky place before he was done with the sawing
and on the third day he brought his uncle.

They stacked logs in the resinous air,
hacking the small limbs off,
tying those bundles separately.
The slabs near the root
were quartered and still they were awkwardly large;
the logs from midtree they halved:
ten bundles and four great piles of fragrant wood,
moons and quarter moons and half moons
ridged by the saw's tooth.

The woodsman and the old man his uncle
are standing in midforest
on a floor of pine silt and spring mud.
They have stopped working
because they are tired and because
I have imagined no pack animal
or primitive wagon. They are too canny
to call in neighbors and come home
with a few logs after three days' work.
They are waiting for me to do something
or for the overseer of the Great Lord
to come and arrest them.

How patient they are!
The old man smokes a pipe and spits.
The young man is thinking he would be rich
if he were already rich and had a mule.
Ten days of hauling
and on the seventh day they'll probably
be caught, go home empty-handed
or worse. I don't know
whether they're Japanese or Mycenaean
and there's nothing I can do. The path from here to that village
is not translated. A hero, dying,
gives off stillness to the air.
A man and a woman walk from the movies
to the house in the silence of separate fidelities.
There are limits to imagination. ("Heroic Simile," Robert Hass)
 

    free verse -  Free verse and blank verse are often mistaken.  Free verse refers to a wide variety of poetry that takes on any number of forms.  Most good free verse resembles a specific structure.  While it may not be iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, or another obvious form, it should have moments of obvious metrical quality.  Poetry need not be strictly confined to any form, but it helps if the poet is aware of these elements.

    blank verse - Blank verse is an iambic pentameter form that need not rhyme or have any specific length.  It is frequently used for epic poetry such as Milton's "Paradise Lost."