Types of Poems

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Types of Poems

• By Ms. Welty

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Ballad

• A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale
  or legend and often has a repeated refrain.
• Check it out!
• Edgar Allen Poes poem The Raven is an example
  of a Ballad. He uses, Quoth the raven
  Nevermore!

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Blank Verse

• (a.k.a. Free Verse)
• Poetry that doesnt rhyme but has a set meter and
  rhythm.
• Check it out!
• The major achievements in English blank verse
  were made by William Shakespeare, who wrote much
  of the content of his plays in unrhymed iambic
  pentameter.

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Epic

• A long, serious poem that tells the story of a
  heroic figure.
• Check it out!
• The ancient Greeks tended to write a lot of
  these, as exemplified by Homer, who wrote not
  one, but two epics The Odyssey and The Illiad.

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Haiku

• A Japanese poem composed of 3 unrhymed lines of
  first 5, then 7, and then 5 syllables, that often
  reflect on some aspect of nature.
• Check it out!
• This elaborate (5)
• example of haiku is (7)
• not exactly great (5)

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Limerick

• A light, humorous poem of 5 lines with the rhyme
  scheme of AABBA.
• Check it out!

A flea and a fly in a flue Were caught, so what
could they do? Said the fly, "Let us flee." "Let
us fly," said the flea. So they flew through a
flaw in the flue.
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Lyric

• A poem that expresses your thoughts and feelings
  and may resemble a song in form of style.
• Check it out!
• The first Lyric ever written was the Song of
  Solemn.

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Ode

• A lyric poem thats serious and thoughtful in
  tone and has a very precise, formal structure.
• Check it out!
• Of course, one can mock this style by doing a
  poem entitled, say An Ode to My Ice Cream
  Sandwich, detailing why the ice cream sandwich
  is seriously the best treat on a hot summers day.

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Quatrain

• A stanza or poem of exactly four lines
• Check it out!

The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The
lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman
homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the
world to darkness and to me. or The mountain
frames the sky As a shadow of an eagle flies by.
With clouds hanging at its edge A climber
proves his courage on its rocky ledge.
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Sonnet

• A lyric poem thats 14 lines long. Sonnet is
  Provencal word for Little song.
• Check it out!
• Once again Shakespeare was famous for these. Many
  of his works were done in this way.