The Homeschooler

Poetry Types

Mihai Negrean -

Poetry is one of the most popular types of writing, but many people don't know how to write it. These are some of the most popular types of poetry and how they are written.

  1. ABC Poem
    ABC poems are written so that each line starts with a different letter of the alphabet, usually starting with A and proceeding to Z.
  2. Acrostic Poem
    Acrostic poems are written so that the letters at the beginning of the lines form a word if you read them from top to bottom.
  3. Biography Poem
    A biography (or bio) poem is used to talk about the writer of the poem. Typically, these contain a few facts about the poet, like what he/she is afraid of, likes, dislikes, etc.
  4. Cinquain
    A Cinquain is a 5-line long poem that is based on word count or syllable count. A Cinquain always starts with one word (or syllable), then the next line contains 2 words, 3-4 contain as many words as the number of line. Finally, the fifth line contains one last word.
  5. Concrete
    Concrete poems are poems that are designed to look like the shape of the subject. Think of it as ASCII art, but with words.
  6. Diamanté Poems
    Diamanté poems are poems whose shapes look like a diamond. They don't have to rhyme.
  7. Emotion Poems
    Emotion poems are poems that describe a particular emotion.
  8. Free Verse
    Free Verse poems are poems that don't follow any rules, and can be written any way you like.
  9. Haiku
    Haiku is a type of Japanese poetry that has three lines, with five syllables in the first and last line and seven in the middle one. They are usually about nature.
  10. Limerick
    A limerick is a short, humorous poem that follows a rhyme scheme of AABBA.
  11. Narrative
    A narrative is a poem that tells a story of an event.
  12. Pantoum
    A pantoum is a poem that uses a lot of repetition, using stanzas of four lines each.
  13. Sonnet
    A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyming scheme. Each type of sonnet has a different rhyming scheme.
    English sonnets have a rhyming scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG;
    Italian sonnets have a scheme of ABBAABBA CDCCDC (or CDECDE);
    Spenserian sonnets have a scheme of ABAB BCBC CDCD EE;
  14. Tanka
    Tanka is another form of Japanese poetry that has five lines. Lines 1 and 3, have 5 syllables, and lines 2, 4, and 5 have 7 syllables.
  15. Villanelle Poems
    Villanelle poems have 5 three-line stanzas in the ABA rhyming scheme and one four-line stanza in the ABAA scheme.