Poetic Forms

[ysabetwordsmith]

Poetry comes in many forms. Some are simple, others complex. A form lends structure to the ideas in the poem. Certain forms relate to specific cultures, moods, or other things that may influence what kinds of subject matter they suit best. It's a good idea to explore reading and writing different types of poetry.


Basic Forms
These are very easy to write, and they suit any subject.

Free verse poetry has no consistent rules. It is usually left-justified and has meaningful line breaks. Read my post on how to write a free-verse poem.

A ballad is a rhymed, metered poem written in quatrains. The ballad rhyme pattern is ABCB; a double-ballad rhymes ABAB.

A couplet is a pair of lines that rhyme. This verse form can make poems of any length, and the pairs may be separate stanzas or stuck together into longer stanzas.  Heroic couplets are written in iambic pentameter.


Ethnic Forms
These forms retain a strong connection with their source culture. It suits them to writing about the place, period, and/or people from which they came.

African and Afro-American forms come from a strong oral tradition. They often have a driving rhythm, sometimes use call-and-response, and are typically declaimed rather than sung or spoken.

Asian and Middle Eastern forms have a softer focus than most European ones. There are also some interlocking forms in this group.

Celtic forms often employ intricate patterns of rhyme, alliteration, and other features. These are optimized for Irish or Welsh, and don't fit as well with English, although a determined poet can use these forms outside their original source.


Miscellaneous Forms
There are hundreds of forms of poetry. These are some that show the different kinds of things you can do with a poem.

The cinquain is a five-line syllabic form. It's short and fairly easy to write. There is often a twist near the end.

Ekphrastic poetry creates a poem inspired by a painting, sculpture, or some other piece of art. It's ideal for cultural commentary, or for poets who have trouble getting started when faced with a blank page and no idea what to write about.

Found poetry is not written from scratch, but rather captured from text or audio sources not originally intended as poetry. The source may be a single cohesive block turned into a whole poem, or different excerpts spliced together as poetic lines. This is another good form for people who have a hard time coming up with ideas, but have an ear for language.

The hexaduad is an old English form, written in rhymed couplets with lines of varying length. The syllabic aspect of the short and long lines gives it more variety than many other rhymed, syllabic forms.

The nonet is a syllabic form in which each line has one syllable fewer. It's short and fairly simple, good for talking about things that diminish or recede.

The quatern is a French form based on a repeating line which appears at the beginning of the first quatrain and then moves down in position for each subsequent verse. It's ideal for carrying one concept through different iterations.

The sestina is a long, elaborate poem based on six words which repeat at the ends of the lines. Choose words that can be used in different ways and that relate closely to the topic.

Poem: "A Turning Point in the Clockwork War"

[jjhunter]

Posted on behalf of ysabetwordsmith for formatting reasons.

This poem is military science fiction. It's the first in the Clockwork War series, which deals with an alien invasion. The storyline grew out of a discussion about handicapped characters in comic books. Here, soldiers find ways of continuing the fight despite crippling injuries. There are four poems in this series, of which two have been posted. You can find the series on my Serial poetry page.


A Turning Point in the Clockwork War

A war of attrition
depends on supply and drawdown,
how much you have and how much you use up.
With personnel, the balance concerns
the influx of recruitment versus
the outflow of casualties, deserters, invalids.
There is only so much loss
that a fighting force can sustain
and still fight.

Pilot Claude Archer was the first
to challenge his invalid discharge.
"I don't need legs to fly," he said,
patting the healed stumps of his thighs.
"My Osprey runs on elbow grease."

The members of the discharge board
paused and looked at each other.
What he said was true.
The Osprey-class fighter jets
relied on hand controls,
and a sharp eye and iron nerve.

Fingers flicked through the stack
of discharge papers -- so many, many pages.
So many soldiers lost, never to fight again.
They could not afford to let slip even one
who might be retained, somehow,
to face the front line once more.
Far less could the war effort spare
one of its best pilots.

( Read more... )

Torn World Muse Fusion This Weekend

[ysabetwordsmith]

Visit the Torn World Muse Fusion this weekend. Give us some science fantasy prompts.  Then watch the poetry, fiction, artwork, and other goodies appear.  Some material usually gets posted free, while other items will be available for people to sponsor.

You don't have to be a Torn World member to leave prompts. Not sure what to request? Try browsing characters or nonfiction articles for ideas.  Remember that crowdfunding also lets you request more of what you want but usually don't get enough of -- feel free to request a favorite poetic form or social issue.  There are even some poetic forms unique to Torn World, such as the tile poem (see an example in "Steam Power").

Torn World is a shared-world setting with many contributors.  The main site has a poetry section with dozens of poems. Some are visible to the public, while others are for subscribers only.  If you're new to Torn World, start here for an introduction to the project.