140 Types of Poetry with Examples That You Must Know

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From the time immemorial poetry has been continuing her task of healing and entertaining human psyche. It is the very reflection of our inner soul and the very instinct of our inner heart. There are quite a few who hardly love poetry. A few of us like reading poetry, a few of us listening, while a few writing. Till now poetry has been written in different forms and style. But its journey has not yet been ended but updated every now. In this article I choose to write on various types of poetry, with their characteristics with examples. I do believe it surely manifests your poetic hearts.

 

1) ABC Poem
A poem having 5 lines begins with a successive letter of the alphabet. The first word begins with A, the second with B and so on.
Example:
Although things are not perfect
Because of trial or pain
Continue in thanksgiving
Do not begin to blame
Even when the times are hard
Fierce winds are bound to blow.
2) Abecedarian/Abecedarius
This type of poem is known as “Alphabet Poem” where each line or verse begins with a successive letter of the alphabet (a, b, c, d…and so forth) until the end of the alphabet is reached, thus using the whole alphabet.
Examples: AN A.B.C.by Geoffrey Chaucer
3) Acrostic
A poem, usually in verse, in which the first or the last letters of the lines, or certain other letters, taken in order, form a name, word, phrase, or motto.
Examples:
S ummer is fun
U nder the sun
M y family away to
M y caravan to stay
E vening brings the sun set
R ight infront of me
4) Alexandrine
Alexandrine poetry consists of a line of 12 syllables with major stresses on the 6th syllable and on the last syllable, and one secondary accent in each half line. 
Example: Testament of Beauty by Robert Bridges
It is a poem that repeats the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals.
Example:
Dogs Destroy Dinosaurs
Athena and Apollo
Nate never knows
People who pen poetry
6) Ballad
A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story or incidents.Each stanza usually comprises of four lines with 1st and 3rd lines having eight syllables each, while the 2nd and 4th lines having six syllables.
Example: S.T. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariners
7) Ballade
It has three stanzas of seven, eight or ten lines and a shorter final stanza of four or five. All stanzas end with the same one line refrain.
Example: A Ballade of Theatricals by G.K. Chesterton
8) Bhajan
This is a form of devotional verse that is set to music. They are poems praising the Hindu Gods in their various forms.
9) Bio
A poem written about one self’s life, personality traits, and ambitions, likes and dislikes etc.
Example: Jean Ingelow’s “One Morning, Oh! So Early”.
10) Blank Verse
A poem or verse having regular metre (mainly iambic pentameter) without any rimes.
Examples: Milton’s Paradise Lost, Thomson’s The Season, Tennyson’s Ulysses
11) Blitz
This form of poetry is a stream of short phrases and images with repetition and rapid flow. The last word of the every second lines comes first of the successive line. This form is invented by Robert Keim in 2008.
Example:
Bucket of
Poetry
Kick the
can
Kick the
bucket
Bucket of
chum
Bucket of
worms
Worms in
dirt
Worms in
my brain
Brain in
my head
Brain in
my book…..
12) Burlesque
A Poetry that treats a serious subject as trivially and ridiculously.
Example: Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock
13) Canto
This is a section or division in a long poem, like an epic or mock epic.
Example: Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” has five cantos.
14) Canzone
Medieval Italian lyric style poetry with five or six stanzas and a shorter ending stanza.
Example: His Lament for Selvaggia by Cino da Pistoia
15) Carpe-diem
This poem generally serves “seize the day” motto. Live for today and make the best use of it are the main themes of the poem.
Example: Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress
16) Chant Royal
The chant royal is a poetic form that consists of five eleven-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d-e-d-E and a five-line envoi rhyming d-d-e-d-E or a seven-line envoi c-c-d-d-e-d-E.

Example: The Dance of Death by Austin Dobson
17) Chastushka
A type of traditional Russian poetry is a single quatrain in trochaic tetrameter with an abab or abcb rhyme scheme. Usually humorous, satirical, or ironic in nature, the poem is put to music.
Example:
Mother, spare me, don’t scold me
For the baby in my skirt.
Just think, like me, Virgin Mary
Without husband’s help gave birth.
18) Choka
The most intricate Japanese Poetry form is the Choka, or Long Poem.
Example:
The Moththere is no freedom
escaping from my cocoon
I must seek you once again
I am drawn to you
like a moth to a candle
circling nearer and nearer
the deadly flame calls
now my wings are scorched
why must my nature be so?
19) Cinqku
Cinqku follows a strict 17 syllable count arranged in five successive lines of 2-3-4-6-2 syllables. No title is used for single verse cinqku poems which are written in haiku- style free diction and syntax with no metrical requirement; a turn is used that may be similar to kireji in haiku or cinquain. Sequence, crown, and mirror, cinqku may be titled. Invented by Denis Garrison.
Example:  Goodbye by Kim Hilliker
20) Cinquain
The word cinquain is a Latin term for “five”. A cinquain is an example of shape poetry. Because of the exact number of words required for each is unique, symmetrical shape is created from interesting descriptive words. The traditional cinquain is based on a syllable count. line 1 – 2 syllables line 2 – 4 syllables line 3 – 6 syllables line 4 – 8 syllables line 5 – 2 syllables
Example:
Insect
Hidden, Hungry
Preening, searching, stalking
Waits as if praying
Mantis
21) Classicism
Poetry which holds the principles and ideals of beauty that is characteristic of Greek and Roman art, architecture, and literature.
Example: Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope
23) Clerihew
A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of short humorous verse, typically with the following properties: It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it is hardly ever satirical, abusive or obscene; It has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect); The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known person’s name.
Example:
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
24) Concrete
Sometimes called as “shape poetry”- concrete poetry is poetry whose visual appearance matches the topic of the poem. The words from shape which illustrate the poem’s subject as a picture, as well as through their literal meaning.
Example: “The Mouse’s tale” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland.
I
am
a very
special
shape I have
three points and
three lines straight.
Look through my words
and you will see, the shape
that I am meant to be. I’m just
not words caught in a tangle. Look
close to see a small triangle. My angles
add to one hundred and eighty degrees, you
learn this at school with your abc’s. Practice your
maths and you will see, some other fine examples of me.
25) Consonance
This comprises the repetition of the same consonant sound (not ‘letters’) before and after different vowels.
Example:
It seemedthat out of battle I escaped scooped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Repetitions are evident in ‘escaped’ and ‘scooped’.
26) Couplet
This type of poem is two lines which may be rhymed or unrhymed.
Example: Walt Whitman’s “To You”, Pope’s “Eloisa to Abelard”
27) Cowboy
Cowboy poetry is rhymed, metered verse written by someone who has lived a significant portion of his or her life in Western North American cattle culture. After a day’s of work, cowboys would gather around a campfire and entertain one another with folk songs.
Example: “Compadre” by Jim Fish
28) Crown of Sonnet or Sonnet Corona
A crown of sonnets or sonnet corona is a sequence of sonnets, usually addressed to some one person, and/or concerned with a single theme. It is a 7-sonnet sequence in which the last line of each sonnet is repeated in the first line of the next. The first and last lines of the sequence are also strict repetends; this gives the sequence its crown-like circularity.
Example: “A Wreath of Sonnets” by Frances Preserene
29) Crystalline
A two line image poem, often with a title, in which euphony is the key factor. Each line may have 8 or 9 syllables to make a total of seventeen.
Example:
Brian Strand
My fingers reach to touch the sky
where swallows circle,then southwards fly.
30) Curtal Sonnet
Curtal sonnet,a curtailed or contractedsonnet. It refers specifically to a sonnet of 11 lines rhyming ‘abcabc dbcdc’or ‘abcabc dcbdc’ with the last line a tail, or half a line. The term used by Geral Manley Hopkins.
Example: Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty”
31) Diamante
The purpose is to go from the subject at the top of the diamond to another totally different (and sometimes opposite) subject at the bottom. A seven line poem, shaped like a diamond.
Example:
Dreams
delightful, wonderful
exciting, daring, fascinating
kings, queens, monsters, giant skittels
raging, horrifying, terrifying
vicious, horrible
nightmares
by
Jessica H.
32) Didactic
A form of verse, the aim of which is to instruct the mind and improve morals.
Example: John Bunyan’ “Pilgrim’s Progress”
33) Diminished Hexaverse
A poem containing stanzas of 5 lines, then 4 lines, then 3 lines, then 2 lines ending with one word.
Example:
Love, At Last…If the ground should quake,
If the sky should fall,
If the rain lets up,
If the plants all die,
There is one thing left.If we lose sight,
If we can’t speak,
If the bow breaks,
on the last tree,

we won’t cry
or resign,
for we know

there’s one
thing left:

love.

34) Dirge
“Dirge” actually stands for funeral song. Its origin was in Greek epicedium.
35) Dizain
This is originally a French form. Ten lines rhymed a b a b b c c d c d; usually (though not by definition) iambic pentameter. This is a Dizain chain.
Example: “Simple Heaven” by Jan Allison
36) Dodoitsu
The Dodoitsu is a fixed folk song form of Japanese origin and is often about love or humour.
Example: “Buried Treasure” by Suzanne Honour
37) Doggerel
The term refers to rough or poorly written verse. Such verses are basically of low humour and often betray the versifier’s deficiency or ineptitude.
Example:
Besides, he was a shrewd philosopher
And had read every text and gloss over.
38) Double Dactyl
A verse form, also known as “higgledy piggledy,” invented by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal. Like a limerick, it has a rigid structure and is usually humorous, but the double dactyl is considerably more rigid and difficult to write. There must be two stanzas, each comprising three lines of dactylic dimeter followed by a line with a dactyl and a single accent. The two stanzas have to rhyme on their last line. The first line of the first stanza is repetitive nonsense. The second line of the first stanza is the subject of the poem, a proper noun (usually someone’s name).
Example: “A Recent One” by Gene Weingarten and Dan Weingarten
39) Dramatic Monologue
A type of lyric poetry also known as persona poem, is a type of poetry written in the form of speech by which a character expressing his own emotion with the audience. Robert Browning is the person who used this technique in the Victorian Era.
Example: Browning’s“My Last Duchess”, “The Last Ride Together”
40) Dramatic Verse
Any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama.
Example: Macbeth
41) Ekphrasis
Ekphrasis, alternately spelled ecphrasis, is a term used to denote poetry or poetic writing concerning itself with the visual arts, artistic objects, and/or highly visual scenes.
Example: John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
42) Elegy
An elegy is a sad poetry, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead.
Example: Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” written in the memory of Arthur Henry Hallam, his friend.
43) Englyn
Englyn (plural englynion) is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme.
Example: “The Old Journalist” by Robertson Davies

44) Epic
An epic is along narrative poetry that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet.
Example: Iliad and Odyssey (Greek), Ramayana and Mahabharata (Indian)
A very  short, ironic and witty poetry usually written as a brief couplet or quatrain.
Example:
Here lies
my wife: here let her lie!
Now she’s at rest — and so am I.
— John Dryden
46) Epitaph
An epitaph poem is a short, memorable poetry written on a deceased person’s tombstone
Example: Ben Jonson’s “On My First Sunne”
47) Epithalamium
A poem written in honor of the bride and groom.
Example: Written by Edmund Spenser
48) Epulaerya
The “Epulaeryu” poem is about delicious food.
Example:
Eggs Rolls (Epulaeryu)
Egg rolls wrapped
with soft thin dough
Chopped spiced shrimp cooked slow
Sliced carrots and cabbage mixed
Ginger sauce affixed
Veggies and less meat
My Chinese—
Treat!

49) Epyllion
Example: William Shakespeare’s “The rape of Lucrace”, And Mathew Arnold’s “Sohrab and Rustum”
50) Etheree
Created about twenty years ago by an Arkansas poet named Etheree Taylor Armstrong, this titled form, the Etheree, consists of ten lines of unmetered and unrhymed verse, the first line having one syllable, each succeeding line adding a syllable, with the total syllable count being fifty-five.
Example:
PainPain,
My friend,
You give me
Many lessons
Built on many truths.
You shout with sharpened tongue ~
I must listen to your words.
Bedfellows screaming in the night,
But eternal hope will spring with dawn
To lift us from this tomb of woe, once more.
Found
Poetry created by taking words, phrases, and passages from other sources and re-framing them by adding spaces, lines, or by altering the text with additions or subtractions.
51) Free Verse
It is a kind of poetry that is free from limitations of regular metre or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed form.
Example: “After the Sea-Ship” by Walt Whitman
52) Ghazal
A poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain.
Example: Written by Rumi and Hafiz in Persia and Kazi Nazrul Islam in West Bengal
53) Grook
A form of short aphoristic poetry characterized by irony, paradox, brevity, precise use of language, sophisticated rhythms and rhymes and often satiric nature.
Example:
EDIAMATIC
Know it all cold?
Or lank with acedia?
Share and be bold;
Come build Wikipedia.
— Anon.
54) Haibun
Japanese form, pioneered by the poet Basho, and comprising a section of prose followed by haiku. They are mainly travelogues.
Example: The Importance of Goldfish by Michael McClintock
55) Haiku
Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables.
Example:
the first cold shower;
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw.– By Basho
56) Hamd
Hamd is a poetry in praise of Allah.
57) Heroic Couplet
A pair of rhyming iambic penta-metre line commonly used in epic and narrative poetry.
Example: Last two lines of Shall I compare Thee (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare
So long as man can breathe, or eyes can see
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
58) Horatian Ode
Short lyric poetry written in two or four-line stanzas, each with its the same metrical pattern, often addressed to a friend and deal with friendship, love and the practice of poetry. It is named after its creator, Horace.
59) Hybronnet
The form name is derived from hybrid and sonnet.
60) Iambic Pentameter
One short syllable followed by one long one five sets in a row. Used extensively in sonnets
Example:
la-LAH la-LAH la-LAH la-LAH la-LAH..
61) Idyll
Poetry that either depicts a peaceful, idealized country scene or a long poem telling a story about heroes of a bye gone age.
Example  Tennyson’s “Ulysses”
62) Imagism
Name given to a movement in poetry aimed at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.
Example: “Autumn” by T.E. Hulme
63) Irregular (Pseudo-Pindaric or Cowleyan) Ode
Neither the three part form of the pindaric ode nor the two or four-line stanza of the Horatian ode. It is characterized by irregularity of verse and structure and lack of correspondence between the parts.

Italian sonnet
A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba followed by six lines with a rhyme pattern of cdecde or cdcdcd. Petrarch is chief exponent of this style.
64) Juiju
These poems are always quatrains or more specifically a matched pair of couplets.
65) Kakuhb

Kakuhb is a stanzaic Sanskrit form.The defining features of the Kahuhb are: stanzaic, written in any number of tercets, 3 lines or padas. syllabic,8-12-7 syllables, unrhymed.
Example:
The beast sleeps awhile, undisturbed,
a rumble of discontent murmurs from within
as familiar lips explore.
Lampoon
Scurrilous, satirical poem.
Example: John Wilmot’ famous epitaph for Charles II
Here live a great and mighty king
Whose promise none relies on
He never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.
66) Lanterne
A type of poetry that has one syllable in the first line, two syllables in the second line, three syllables in the third line, four syllables in the fourth line, and one syllable in the fifth line that related to the first word of the poem.
Example:
boys
tackling
running fast
scoring touchdowns
lads
67) Lay
A long narrative poetry, especially one that was sung by medieval minstrels.
Example:
“The Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Walter Scott
68) Lento 
This poetic form is created by Lencio Dominic Rodrigues. A Lento consists of two quatrains with a fixed rhyme scheme of abcb, defe as the second and forth lines of each stanza must rhyme. To take it a step further, but not required, try rhyming the first and third lines as well as the second and forth lines of each stanza in this rhyming pattern: abab, cdcd. The fun part of this poem is thrown in here as all the FIRST words of each verse should rhyme.
69) Light Poetry
Light poetry, also called light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered “light” are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature wordplay, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration.
Example: “Light” by Rabindranath Tagore
70) Limerick
A limerick is a humorous poetry consisting of five lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of have seven to ten syllables (three metrical feet) and rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven (two metrical feet) syllables and also rhyme with each other. The rhyme scheme is usually “A-A-B-B-A”.
Example:
There once was a very sad daddy
Whose golf game was going quite badly.
He looked left and right
No ball was in sight
I think that he needed a caddy
71) List
A poetry that is made up of a list of items or events. It can be any length and rhymed or unrhymed.
Example:
Hello
Fall!
Apples
Jack
o’lanterns
Apple
cider
Apple pie
Brown
Yellow
Red
Leaves
Costumes
72) Lyric Poetry
The term lyric poetry actually comes from the term ‘lyre’, a musical instrument. Lyric poetry expresses personal emotion or thoughts of the speaker just like the song.
Example: P.B. Shelley’ s “ode to the West Wind”
73) Madah
Poem written in praise of royalty, patrons, etc.
74) Mandakranta
This sanskrit term means ‘a lady slowly approaching’. Hence it refers to ‘a slow stepper’ and is said to employ erotic mysticism.  Stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains. metric, all lines strictly carry the same heavy and light metric pattern which is established by the first line (this is language specific). In English, it is easier to simply consider the verse syllabic, 17 syllables per line. One source suggested a syllable count of 17-16-17-17 unrhymed which seems to to be the most popular consensus.
Example:
‘O God, the lord of this world, the shining one.
I recall with my mind the feet of Ramachandra.
like the crescent of the risen moon.
You (clouds) are filled with water;
they (buildings) have bejeweled floors.
You are at lofty heights; they kiss the skies.
composed with caesura, which appears twice, once after the 4th syllable and again after the 9th or 10th syllable.
75) Manqabat
A poetry written in praise of members of the family of the holy Prophet .
76) Marsiya
In Urdu language an elegy written to mourn the death of a great man or a dearly loved person.
77) Masnavi
Masnavi, in the majority of cases a poetic romance. Mir and Sauda wrote some of this kind.
78) McWhirtle
A light verse form similar to a double dactyl, invented in 1989 by American poet Bruce Newling.
79) Monoku
A haiku in a single horizontal line.
80) Mono-rhyme
An identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and Arabic. “aaaaa…”
Example:
Night Storm
It came in a winter night
A fierce cold with quite a bite
Frosted wind with all its bite
Sent ice and snow an invite
To layer earth in pure white
And glisten with morning light.
81) Munaajaat
A lyrical poetry written as a prayer to God.
82) Musaddas
A poetry in which each unit consists of 6 lines. The most well known poet of this style of writing was Maulana Altaf Husain Hali.
83) Naat
Naat is a poetry that specifically praises the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
84) Name
Poetry that tells about the word. It uses the letters of the word for the first letter of each line.
Example:
Nurturing, you bring out the good in people
Illuminating, brightening lives
Clownish, your antics spread laughter around
Kind generous to people
85) Narrative
A poetry that tells a story. Epic poem.
Example “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
86) Ninette
Nine lines, each increasing in one syllable, then at the midpoint, decreasing again. The form, when centred, appears like a paper lantern. The first and last word may be the same, antonyms, or synonyms.
Example:
green
are the
pine needles
hanging on the
branches way up
over our heads
but they fall
to earth
brown
87) Nonet
A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line eight syllables, the third line seven syllables and so on…
Example:
School
I wish we didn’t have to stay here.
The only good part is lunchtime,
eating and playing handball
instead of doing maths.
I don’t like history
or geography.
I can’t wait
for the
bell.
88) Ode
An ode is lyrical poetry devoted to the praise of a person animal or thing.
Example: “Ode to a Nightingale” by Keats
89) Nursery Rhyme
A short poetry or a single verse recited or sung by the nurse, attending the babies in the nursery, a room assigned to those very babies in order to delight them or make them sleep.
Example: Men can make a nation great Not the glittering gold Men whose hearts are pure and true And both strong and bold.
90) Ottava Rima
Ottava rima is an eight line stanza developed in Italy, usually associated in English wit Byron and other romanticists. The standard rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-a-bc-c and in English the lines are usually iambic penta-metre.
Example: “Don Juan” by Lord Byron
91) Pantoum
A rare form of poetry similar to a villanelle. 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.
92) Parallelismus Membrorum
Parallelismus Membrorum is of traditional Hebrew origin. It has lines of parallel construction and presents antitheses and complementary extensions. The lines are usually short and contain three or four words.
93) Pastoral
A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, romanticized way.
Example: “Shepherd’s Calendar” by Spenser
94) Payar
The Payar is the most common form from the Bengali Region. The Payar is: stanzaic, written in any number of couplets. rhymed. aa bb cc etc. syllabic, 14 syllables lines which are normally broken into 4 units.
Example: Words in color, writ in anger, meant to provoke, to prod, rude distraction, wrong direction, lead me away from God.
A style of poetry in which human attribute is invested into the inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
96) Prose Poetry
Prose
poetry is usually considered a form of poetry written in prose that breaks some
of the normal rules associated with prose discourse, for heightened imagery or
emotional effect, among other purposes.
97) Petrarchan
A 14-line sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abbaabba followed by a sestet of cddcee or cdecde
98) Pindaric ode
This ode is named after an ancient Greek poet, Pindar, who began writing choral poems that were meant to be sung at public events. It contains three triads: strophe, anti-strophe, and final stanza as epode, wit irregular rhyme patterns and length of lines.
Example: “Ode on Intimation of Immortality” by Wordsworth
99) Qasida
Qasida, a kind of ode, often panegyric on a benefactor, sometimes a satire, sometimes a poem dealing with an important event.
100) Qawwali
Qawwali, is a form of urdu poetry read along with devotional music, A Qawwali is almost always dedicated to particular Sufi.
101) Quatrain
A stanza or poetry consisting of four lines. In the basic form, Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme while having a similar number of syllables.
102) Questionku
3 lines poem ending with a question.
Example:
Single planet Billions of people What’s the meaning of life?

103) Quintain
This is much more popular form of Quintet having no set measure or foot and has a rhyming scheme of a. b. a. b. b.
104) Quintella
This is a Spanish form of eight syllable (Iambic Tetrameter) lines. The rhyming scheme can vary in presentation ie a.a.b.b.a, a.b.b.a.a. etc but only two consecutive lines may have the same rhyme scheme.
105) Rengay
Rengay was developed in 1992 by Garry Gay, co-founder of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, and the organization’s first president from 1989-1990. In 1991, he was elected president of the Haiku Society of America.
Rengay is a contemporary six-verse form of linked haiku based on a unifying theme. Written by 2-3 partners, each link should be able to stand on its own.
106) Refrain
This is a specific style in versification, particularly in ancient ballads and songs. It means a specific phrase, expressions, line repeated at a regular interval in a poem and often at the end of a stanza.
Example:
“Deor’s Lament”
“That passed away, this also may.”
107) Rhyme
A rhyming poetry has the repetition of the same or similar sounds of two or more words, often at the end of the line.
Example:
I’ve hunted near, I’ve hunted far
I even looked inside my car
I’ve lost my glasses, I’m in need
To have them now so I can read
108) Rhyme Royal
A type of poetry consisting of stanzas having seven lines in iambic pentameter.
Example: Opening stanza of Troilus and Criseyde
109) Rictameter
A rictameter is a nine line poetry form. The 1st and last lines are the same with the syllable count as follows: • line 1 – 2 syllables – same as line 9 • line 2 – 4 syllables • line 3 – 6 syllables • line 4 – 8 syllables • line 5 – 10 syllables • line 6 – 8 syllables • line 7 – 6 syllables • line 8 – 4 syllables • line 9 – 2 syllables – same as line 1
110) Rispetto
Rispetto, (Italian:: “respect,” )plural rispetti, a Tuscan folk verse form, a version of strambotto. The rispetto lyric is generally composed of eight hendecasyllabic (11-syllable) lines.
111) Romanticism
A poem about nature and love while having emphasis on the personal experience.
Example: “Tintern Abbey”by William Shakespeare
112) Rondeau
A lyrical poetry of French origin having 10 or 13 lines with two rhymes and with the opening phrase repeated twice as the refrain.
Example: In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae
113) Rubaiyat
The Rubaiyat is a Persian form of several quatrains. Its name derives from the Arabic plural of the word for “quatrain”. This, in turn, comes from the Arabic Rubá, meaning “four.”
Example: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald
114) Salaam
A salutory poem written in praise of the holy Prophet. It can also be a poem describing the incidents of Karbala. It is recited standing up.
115) Sapphic Stanza
The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is a poetic form spanning four lines. The form is three hendecasyllabic lines of trochee, trochee, dactyl, trochee, trochee and a concluding line of dactyl, trochee, known as the Adonic or adonean line. Using “-” for a long syllable, “u” for a short and “x” for an “anceps” (or free syllable):
Example
The Sapphic stanza was imitated in English by
Algernon Charles Swinburne in a poem he simply called Sapphics
116) Sedoka
Sedoka is a Japanese verse form that evolved from ancient songs. They can be mood poems, similar to tanka, or they can tell stories in the manner of a song.
117) Sehra
Sehra or prothalamion is a poem sung at a nikah (Muslim wedding) in praise of the groom, praying to God for his future wedded life. Mirza Galib composed these songs.
118) Senrya
A short Japanese style poem, similar to haiku in structure, however, senryû tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryû are often cynical or darkly humorous and satiric while haiku are serious.
119) Sestina
A highly structured form of poetry consisting of six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy (thirty-nine lines).
120) Shape
Poetry written in the shape or form of an object. Shape poems do not have to take the form of the object it describes. This form is different than a concrete poem, in that a concrete poem takes the shape of the object it describes.
Example: CHAMPAGNE by Dawn Drickman
CHAMPAGNE, CORKED BOTTLES OF
EFFERVESCENT FUN
SWEET AND FRUITY TO THE TASTE, OR MAYBE EXTRA DRY
A TINY GLASS OF BUBBLING, POPPING, SPLASHING FUN
MAKE A CHOICE, BRUT, SPARKLING, OR SIMPLE ROSE
WHEN ON A FRUGAL BUDGET, ANDRE’S PINK
DOM PERIGNON FOR THE WEALTHY
KORBEL FOR UNDER TWENTY
PRICED JUST RIGHT
FOR YOU
“C”
“O”
“L”
“D”
“C”
“H”
“A”
“M”
“P”
“A”
“G”
“N”
“E”
IS SO
DELICIOUS
“HAVE A GLASS TONIGHT”
121) Sijo
Sijo is
the classic form of unrhymed poetry in Korea. Sijo have three long lines. Each
line varies between 14 and 16 syllables, with the middle line often the
longest.
122) Sloka
Sloka means “songs” although metric is not considered poetic. Sloka is the most common Sanskrit metre and is a descendant of the older Vedic Gayatri and could be considered one of the cross over forms during 700 to 200 B.C.
Example: “Born of the Earth” by Judi van Gorder
123) Sonnet
A lyric poem of 14 lines with conventional rhyme scheme.
Example: “One Day I Wrote Her Name” by Spenser
124) Suzette Prime
Syllable count: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, etc PLUS a philosophical statement.
125) Tail-Rhyme
( rime couée ) This is a French form consisting of two rhymes. First there is a rhyming couplet of normally of eight syllables then a third and shorter line. There is another couplet that rhymes with the first one and the sixth, shorter line that rhymes with the third line. This gives us a suggested pattern : aabccb
126) Tanka
A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the other seven.
127) Tazkira
It is almost a kind of biological anthology.
128) Terza Rima
This refers to a verse, composed of three lines (tercet) stanzas with an interlocking rhyme scheme. The final word of the second line of each tercet rhymes with the final word of each of the first line and the third of the succeeding tercet. The rhyme scheme of the stanza is like this: ‘aba, bcb, cde, ded…’
Example: Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”
129) Terzanelle
A terzanelle (pronounced tur-zuh-nell) is a poetry form which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima. It is nineteen lines total, with five triplets and a concluding quatrain. It uses the interlocked rhyme pattern of a terza rima but in the villanelle’s form of five triplets and a quatrain.
Example: Lewis Turco’s “Terzanelle in Thunderweather”
130) Tetractys
Tetractys, a poetic form consisting of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). Tetractys can also be reversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Example:
Snowflakes
by Peggy Bertrand
White
snowflakes
crystal clear
sparkling loftily
daybreaks light shines forth the brillianceAs daybreaks light dusks the hillcrest ledge edge
sunshine melts around
clear glitter
snowflakes
white
131) Than-Bauk
A Than-Bauk, conventionally a witty saying or epigram, is a three line “climbing rhyme” poem of Burmese origin. Each line has four syllables. The rhyme is on the fourth syllable of the first line, the third syllable of the second line, and the second syllable of the third line.
Example: Cold The night was cold so I’m told when the old man died.
132) Triolet
A French verse form. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and 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.
Example: “Birds at Winter” by Thomas Hardy
133) Tyburn
A tyburn is a six line poem consisting of 2,2,2,2,9,9 syllables. The first four lines rhyme and are all descriptive words. The last two lines rhyme and incorporate the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines as the 5th to 8th syllables.
Example: Ugly, hairy, filthy, dirty, scavenging beast, ugly, hairy, fat, spreader of plague, filthy, dirty rat.
134) Vaasokht
A poem describing the displeasure and carelessness of a lover.
135) Verse
Verse denotes a single metrical line in a poetic composition.
136) Villanelle
Villanelle is derived from an Italian term ‘villano’ that means peasant. A 19-line poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain on two rhymes. The first and third lines of the first tercet repeat alternately as a refrain closing the succeeding stanzas and joined as the final couplet of the quatrain.
Example: “Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath
137) Vogon
Vogon Poetry is poetry by Vogons, who are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It is REALLY BAD poetry. “Vogon poetry is of course the third worst in the Universe.”

138) Visual
The visual arrangement of text, images, and symbols to help convey the meaning of the work. Visual poetry is sometimes referred to as a type of concrete poetry.

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4 thoughts on “140 Types of Poetry with Examples That You Must Know”

  1. June 21, 2016 by Somnath Sarkar
    this is your article’s date of entry- I read it on 12-6- 2021
    i was looking for a poetry type like anthadhi where the last word of a stanza becomes the first word of the next – in Tamil many works are available –
    in English a poem titled ‘ the snare’ is almost similar – the last line repeats in the next stanza

    i am not an English prof or do I have any knowledge of Sanskrit – just curiosity

    Reply

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